In the grand tradition of melancholic music, there may not be a more gloriously bummed-out sound than the work of this English master. An early genius of ostinati and the low end, his propulsive music has been an influence not just on his Baroque contemporaries, but also on Benjamin Britten and the American post-minimalist Nico Muhly (who arranged “Let the Night Perish” and incorporated Purcell's Psalm 102 into a symphonic work). Not surprisingly, Purcell's acrobatic, graceful writing for the voice has long enchanted top singers like Alfred Deller and Kathleen Battle.