Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was the leading light of the early English Baroque period. In his short life he contributed to all the major compositional genres of the day and left behind a considerable corpus of music for the Church after the Restoration of the British monarchy. His Service in B flat (Z230) contains all the movements for Matins and Evensong, and includes two additional canticles ‘Cantate Domino’ and ‘Deus misereatur’. The earliest mention of this work is a record from 1682, where payment was made for copying it for use at Westminster Abbey. In light of its contrapuntal artifice, particularly at the Gloria of each movement, it may date from a few years earlier when Purcell was writing his instrumental fantasias.