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Edexcel Music GCSE - Area of Study 2: Vocal Music: One Page Notes: Henry…
Edexcel Music GCSE - Area of Study 2: Vocal Music: One Page Notes: Henry Purcell - Music for a While
Texture
If you learn just 1 thing:
- The texture is melody and accompaniment.
If you can learn 3 more things:
- The right hand of the harpsichord is more elaborate and provides some polyphony (counterpoint) with the vocal line.
Harmony
If you learn just 1 thing:
- Chords are diatonic and functional.
If you can learn 3 more things:
- Perfect cadences from chord V at the end of the ground to chord I at the start of the next playing of the ground bass.
- Dissonances on the word 'pains' in bar 12 with a D in the bass against an E in the voice and on the word 'eas'd'
If you can learn a few more things:
- Suspensions are used very occasionally. For example, bar 3 beat 4 1/2 in the harpsichord part.
Tonality
If you learn just 1 thing:
If you can learn 3 more things:
- The piece modulates to closely related keys. These include E minor (bar 14), G major (bar 16), C major (bar 21), A major (bar 23), E minor (bar 27).
- The music returns to the tonic key of A minor in bar 28 at the end.
If you can learn a few more things:
- Modulations are confirmed by perfect cadences (V-I e.g. G-C).
- The tonality, is sometimes ambiguous due to the chromatic and non-diatonic nature of the ground bass, (look for accidentals in the continuo).
Tempo, Rhythm and Metre
If you learn just 1 thing:
- The metre is 4/4 (simple quadruple time).
If you can learn 3 more things:
- There is no tempo indication but a slow tempo would be appropriate for this piece.
- The ground bass is played entirely in quavers.
There is only occasional syncopation (e.g. bar 20), off-beat rhythms (e.g. bar 24) and dotted rhythms (e.g. bar 10).
If you can learn a few more things:
- Dotted rhythms are sometimes used in the vocal part (e.g. bar 10) but used more extensively in the right hand part of the harpsichord.
Melody
If you learn just 1 thing:
- The melody mainly moves in step (conjunct).
If you can learn 3 more things:
- The use of word painting for example: Appropriately the word 'pains' in bar 12 features a dissonance of E in the melodic line against D in the bass part.
- The vocal line is mainly syllabic following speech rhythms.
There is use of ornamentation (trills - bar 13).
- There are some descending sequences (e.g. bar 20).
If you can learn a few more things:
- There are melismatic moments (e.g. bar 10 on the word 'wond'ring').
- Use of ornamentation (mordents -bar 22 / inverted mordents bar 25 / appoggiatura bar 2).
- Any leaps are small and generally no greater than a perfect fourth (e.g. bar 7).
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Structure and Form
If you learn just 1 thing:
- Follows a ground bass structure.
If you can learn 3 more things:
- The Ground bass is also known as a basso continuo.
If you can learn a few more things:
- There is a sense of forward looking by Purcell with signs of what was to become the popular ternary form, da capo aria structure used in operatic arias later in the Baroque period.