Purcell: 'Music for a While'

Period:

Baroque

Composer:

Henri Purcell, british composer

Genre & Context:

• Solo song, with continuo accompaniment

• composed for a countertenor (male singer with voice
  range equivalent to a female mezzo-soprano voice = high)

• in the recordings, it’s often sung by sopranos

• incidental music (music intended to be played as part of a play)

• composed for the play 'Oedipus'

• has a calming & bewitching effect (used to make Alecto sleep), plays a dramatic role in the play rather than just being nice bgm for the play

• lament (sad, sorrowful song)

Features of lament:

• falling phrases

• minor key

• slow tempo

Structure:

• Ternary ABA form :

  (Intro + A section in A minor, ending in modulation to dominant     key E minor + B section with modulations in related keys,     shortened and lengthened versions of the ground bass +     shortened A’ section with more ornaments)

• (can also be considered as a rounded binary form since section A is shortened and with more ornaments added when repeated)

• Ground bass/ basso ostinato → melody written above a constantly repeating bass pattern

→commonly used in the Baroque era

• ground bass played by

Features of ground bass:

• minor key

• straightforward rhythm made up of quavers, crotchets and minims

• slow and stately tempo

• ending with a perfect cadence

• a fairly solemn(庄严)mood

• the use of chromatic notes to give the bass part melodic interest

Features of ground bass in this piece:

• 3 bars long

• all equal quavers

• slow tempo

• based on a four note sequence formed from rising 5th alternating with falling 6th

• climbs from the tonic A to the dominant E of A minor

• heard 12 times in succession(连续), but modulated to related keys in the middle/B section