Music for a while Flashcards
henry purcell
What instruments are used in this piece?
Harpsichord
Bass violin- similar to a cello but with 6 strings.
Soprano voice
What are some features of the ground bass?
Falling phrases
Minor key
Slow tempo
Ends of a perfect cadence
Melismatic
Quaver rhythms
Intervals of semitones.
3 bar loops-unusual and provides no opportunity for it to stop.
What key does this piece start in ?
A minor
What type of piece is this?
A lement– slow and sad
How is the piece structured?
The piece is structured as a ground bass in ternary(ABA) form.
The piece is in da capo aria form, which is a type of ternary form.
A ground bass is used throughout- contributes to the calming and hypnotic atmosphere of the music.
What is a key melodic feature of this piece?
Word painting- ‘wondring’ captures the mood of the word and shows a descending legato melismatic melody.
Word painting on a descending sequence- creates a dissonance and resolution.
In bar 19, word painting on eternal- lengthy melisma- shows an everlasting atmosphere.
In bars 24 to 25, the lyric ‘drop’ is falling, which is sung an uneven nine number of times and is detached.
This is an example of word painting- to represent snakes dropping from Alecto’s head.
In the ground bass from bars 1-10 what happens?
Intervals of semitones.
Ascending sequences
Falls of an octave- bar 6.
Acts as the accompniment.
The ground bass is heard 4 and a half times in tonic key before modulating in bar 14.
How does the right hand of the harpsichord become interesting?
embelished with dotted
rhythms
mordents
grace notes
appogiatura
lots of baroque ornamentation
when does section A1 start?
Bars 28-38
It starts with some repetition of previous text.
The ground bass returns to the repeating pattern from the start.
What is the tonality of the piece?
The overall tonality is A minor, modulating through E minor, G major and C major in the middle section before returning to A minor. There is use of chromaticism in the ground bass- the F# in bar 1 and the G# and C# in bar 2.
The tonic minor key helps to create the mood of sorrow and calmness.
Who is this piece written by?
Henry Purcell
Born in 1659
Leading English composer
When was this piece written?
1692
during the Baroque period.
MELODY key features to write about
Soprano singer
Mostly syllabic with some melismatic sections like (‘eternal’)
WORD PAINTING
Most of the melody is conjunct so moves in steps.
There are lots of uses of ornaments in the right hand of the harpsichord and the soprano line, such as trills, appoggiaturas, grace notes and mordents.
Some text is repeated.
There are descending sequences.
Mostly minor key-A minor, modulating through E minor, G major and C major in the middle section before returning to A minor. Reflects the sombre nature of the piece and the sadness of the lyrics.
HARMONY key features to write about.
The accompaniment is the ground bass- played by the bass viol and the left hand of the harpsichord.
The chords are diatonic- notes that belong in that key.
There are perfect cadence throughout.
There are some dissonances used through word painting such as ‘pain’d’.
Suspensions are used very occasionally. For example, there
is a 4–3 suspension in bar 3 beat 4 1⁄2 in the harpsichord
part.
There is an elaborate figured bass played by the harpsichord.
RHYTHM AND METRE key features to write about.
4/4 metre
The ground bass uses repeated quaver rhythms.
There are some dotted rhythms in the vocal line.
There is occasional syncopation.
Many quavers and semiquavers.
THE GROUND BASS key features to write about.
The ground bass is a 3 bar loop.
It consists entirely of quaver rhythms.
It has a rising pattern.
There are ascending sequences with intervals of semitones.
It modulates into different keys- includes repeating patterns.
INSTRUMENTS key features to write about.
The piece uses harpsichord, bass viol and a soprano singer.
The harpsichord and bass viol act as the basso continuo,
providing accompaniment for the singer.
Harmonic device
Suspension-prepared dissonance bar 20
Perfect cadence-bar 3
