music for a while Flashcards
who composed it?
henry purcell
which musical period was this composed in?
baroque period
why was this piece composed?
to accompany a play on the story of oedipus, in a scene where the fury alecto is being summoned - people are trying to calm her down
what is the instrumentation (3)
- voice
- harpsichord
- bass viol
what is the tessitura of the vocal part?
- written for male countertenor but in the recording it is performed by a soprano female singer
range of vocal part
E4 to F5 (9th)
what does the RH harpsichord play
a realisation over a figured bass (baroque feature)
what does left hand harpsichord play?
ground bass
what does the bass viol play?
ground bass
what is the structure?
ternary form (ABA). but can also be called “da capo aria”
how many bars is the ground bass pattern?
3 bars, which is unusual since it is usually 2, 4, or 8 bars
what is the text setting?
both melismatic and syllabic
what ornamentation is used to decorate the melody? (3)
- mordents
- appogiaturas
- trills
melodic features of ground bass (4)
- ascending sequence
- outlines first 5 notes of A minor scale
- fall of an octave at the end
- chromaticism
is there wordpainting?
yeah on ‘eternal’ and ‘wondering’ and ‘pains were eased’
what is the metre
4 4
what is the tempo?
not stated but it’s pretty slow
is there use of syncopation
not really, most of it is on the beat
overall texture
MDH
texture of bars 19-22
imitation/dialogue/contrapuntal/counterpoint between voice and RH harpsichord
home key
A minor
tonality of section a (2)
A minor from start
E minor for the last half of the last bar
tonality of section B (3)
G major at start
C major in middle
A minor at end
tonality of second section A
A minor
in which section is there a tierce de picardie
section b
is the harmony functional or adventurous
functional
in which chord progression does the piece end?
cadential 6 4
