Music for a While Flashcards
Composer
Henry Purcell
Time period
1692 (baroque)
Type of music
Incidental music
Instruments
Voice (solo)
Harpsichord
Bass Viol
Structure
Ternary
Bass feature
Ground bass (ostinato in the bass)
Tonality
A minor with ambiguity in the bass part (chromatic writing)
Dissonance
Suspensions
Modulations in the B section
E minor
Harmonic features
Perfect cadences
Suspensions
Texture
Homophonic (melody dominated)
Some contrapuntal parts
Time signature
4/4
Tempo
Adagio (slow)
Rhythmic features
Rests in bar 7
Weak beat accents in bar 24
Organisation of Pitch (word painting)
Word painting on “drop” (represents snakes dropping from Alecto’s head)
Word painting on “pains” (dissonance, relates to pain)
Word painting on “eas’d” (resolves dissonance)
Scalic
Descending shape
How is the returned section A different to the first A section?
Added ornamentation, melody is slightly changed to allow it to end in A minor
Vocal melody
Conjunct with some leaps
Syllabic
Passing notes and sequences
Ornaments used
Mordents Apoggiaturas Slides Grace notes Trills
Rhythm of ground bass
Semiquavers
Rhythm of vocals
Quavers and semiquavers
Rhythmic features on harpsichord
Tied notes
Dotted rhythms
Dynamics and expressions
None written in the score
Type of chords
Root position and first inversion, Augmented and diminshed triads
Example of false relation
Bar 1, F# and F natural
Bar 9, G# and G natural
Where is there use of a tierce de picardie
Bar 23
The harpsichord plays a C# for the first time changing it from A minor to A major
