MFAW word setting and painting

Question 1

how does Purcell set the majority of his words to music

Answer 1

the words setting is mainly syllabic

Question 2

an example of melismatic word painting

Answer 2

wondering and eternal

Question 3

Purcell frequently repeats words eg

Answer 3

music at the start, all bars 7-9, drop (sung 9 times in succession) bars 23-25

Question 4

word painting: the rising chromatism and eerily angular outline of the ground bass

Answer 4

suggests the spirit of Laius rising from his bones

Question 5

six repetitions of all separated by rests

Answer 5

suggest multitudes (bars 7-9)

Question 6

melisma

Answer 6

Wondering bar 10-11

Question 7

discordant suspensions on pain

Answer 7

(E in the voice clashes with d minor In bass bar 12)

Question 8

pain’s discordance is then resolved

Answer 8

on word eased bars 13-14

Question 9

free the dead

Answer 9

set to an ascending phrase in the more cheerful key of G major

Question 10

eternal

Answer 10

bar 19-21 melisma around the same set of notes- everlasting nature of death