As the penultimate stage in the reordering of the Society’s edition of Purcell’s anthems, the fourteen items in the new Volume 28, which were originally scattered among Volumes 28, 29 and 32, constitute the earlier part of the composer’s output of continuo verse anthems; the volume thus complements Volume 29, which assembles all the later ones.

Nine of the works in the new volume span the years between about 1675, well before the composition of any of Purcell’s court odes or most of his inst...