The Indian Queen was originally a play written by Sir Robert Howard in collaboration with his brother-in-law Sir John Dryden, first performed in 1664. It wasn't until 1694 that Thomas Betterton, the impresario of United Company decided to turn it into a musical. The Indian Queen has much less music than Purcell's other operas, and it is thought that perhaps he wrote less music because all the actors and singers had walked out of the company prior to its first performance. Purcell composed 16 vocal numbers to the play, and 22 instrumental pieces.

The opening poem is about the imminent takeover of Mexico by the Spanish; a dialogue between an Indian boy and girl, it becomes a statement of protest to the coming war.

The masque of "Fame and Envy" makes up most of the music for Act Two. "Fame" begins by proclaiming the greatness of Zempoalla, saying her wonders cannot be matched. "Envy" rises up scornfully singing "What flatt'ring noise is this...?" In a jauntily evil piece, all the snakes of "Envy" hiss dramatically at "Fame," whose music is all innocence and lyricism. "Fame" eventually wins the argument and sends "the fiends of hell" back whence they came. In Act Three, music is introduced in an incantation scene. Queen Zempoalla's soothsayer Ismeron opens with the recitative "Ye twice ten hundred deities," and then has an extended solo while he calls forth the God of Dreams. On the words "Pants for breath," slight panting pauses occur in the solo line, as Ismeron tries to get his breath and move on. When he asks the God of Dreams to rise, the music slowly and gradually rises chromatically to a grand climax. Then it falls gently back on the words "lull thee in thy sleep." The God of Dreams eventually rises accompanied by an obbligato for solo oboe. Act Three also includes an overture and canzona in free fugato style, featuring a solo trumpet matched and in harmony with the violins. The work is expansive and brilliant and full of imitative invention. The spirits, to a rather sad melody over a moving bass, sing about how happy they are that they do not suffer from human passions. "I attempt from love's sickness to fly" is one of Purcell's most beautiful and famous arias, capturing the Queen's despair and longing.

The final scene to which Purcell added music is when Zempoalla is about to sacrifice all her prisoners to the gods. There are three numbers: a chorus for the crowd of people at the ritual sacrifice; a priest has a recitative, to which the chorus responds; and a solemn and sad procession follows. All lend importance to the dramatic content of the moment.

Henry Purcell died before he had a chance to finish the opera. There was another masque composed for the play by Daniel Purcell, celebrating the wedding of Orazia and Montezuma. It is very often omitted, as it isn't as musically fine as the rest of the opera.

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Aside from the eight Suites, (Z. 660-63; 666-9), Purcell wrote about 30 works for harpsichord. Among these are three Trumpet Tunes, all in C major. One of these, ZT. 697, is a transcription of a piece from Purcell's semi-opera, The Prophetess, or the History of Dioclesia (1690), and the second, ZT. 698, is from the semi-opera, The Indian Queen (1695). The third, ZT. 678, is apparently an autonomous piece with the nickname "Cibell" and which became very popular.

The Trumpet Tune in C major, ZT. 678, is one of six transcriptions for keyboard in A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet, approved by Purcell's widow, Frances, and printed by Henry Playford in 1696. At the time, it was only the sixth volume of keyboard music printed in England and the first such book dedicated to the works of a single composer. The original composition is probably a piece for trumpet and strings in C major entitled "Cibell."

Purcell begins the "Cibell" Trumpet Tune with a repeated four-measure phrase that focuses on the tonic triad and creates a magisterial air. The long, central part of the piece opens with the left hand alone, playing a rising line that could become a ground bass. Once the melody begins, however, this is clearly not the case, and the unfolding bass part refers to parts of the introductory measures and snatches of the melody. Leaps in the first measures of the melody evoke the sound of typical trumpet music, but as the melody continues it becomes stepwise and incorporates chromatic alterations that are foreign to brass parts of the period. The piece ends as it begins, with a repeated cadential phrases, this time over a very active bass line. The texture throughout is two-part, with a few double notes at the end.

This and other such works are best performed on the virginal or spinet of Purcell's time and not on later, larger harpsichords, on which the pieces sound very thin.

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