Music for a while

Question 1

What instruments are used in this piece?

Answer 1

Harpsichord
Bass violin- similar to a cello but with 6 strings.
Soprano voice

Question 2

What are some features of the ground bass?

Answer 2

Falling phrases
Minor key
Slow tempo
Ends of a perfect cadence
Melismatic
Quaver rhythms
Intervals of semitones.

Question 3

What key does this piece start in ?

Answer 3

A minor

Question 4

What type of piece is this?

Answer 4

A lement– slow and sad

Question 5

How is the piece structured?

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

What is a key melodic feature of this piece?

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

In the ground bass from bars 1-10 what happens?

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

How does the right hand of the harpsichord become interesting?

Answer 8

embelished with dotted
rhythms
mordents
grace notes
appogiatura
lots of baroque ornamentation

Question 9

when does section A1 start?

Answer 9

Bars 28-38
It starts with some repetition of previous text.
The ground bass returns to the repeating pattern from the start.

Question 10

What is the tonality of the piece?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Who is this piece written by?

Answer 11

Henry Purcell
Born in 1659
Leading English composer

Question 12

When was this piece written?

Answer 12

1692
during the Baroque period.