Get it right!
Post categories: Rick Jones
| 17:04 UK time, Monday, 12 January 2009
Donald MacLeod invited the Chairman of the Purcell Society, Bruce Wood, to be his resident expert on Composer of the Week last week. Both pronounced his name with a stress on the first syllable, as in Persil. The current head of Jazz at Trinity School of Music, Simon Purcell, always stresses the second syllable of his name. He does not know whether his family is related to Henry Purcell's. He tells me there are a lot of Purcells in Ireland, however, and they invariably pronounce the name as he does.
Personally, I find myself switching between the two depending on context. I pronounce the full name 'Henry Purcell' as a quaver triplet plus crotchet, but a phrase like 'Purcell's music' or 'Purcell's anthems' is two pairs of quavers with the stress on the first of each. This may seem trivial but, it is important to insist that there is no right or wrong way, lest those who accent the first syllable think ill of those who do not and vice versa. People who live in Cadogan Square soon spot the outsider who does not know to stress the middle and say ker-dugg-an.
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