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Music For A While by Henry Purcell (Melody (Features strongly the use of…
Music For A While by Henry Purcell
Structure
Simple Ternary Form
A
B
A1
Perfect Cadences used to round off each section
Instrumentation
This piece features a harpsichord and a bass viol along with the soprano voice
Purcell actually only wrote a melody, a bass line and the chords that should accompany them
The right hand of the harpsichord part, has been 'realised' or improvised by the harpsichordist to fit the chords in the left hand
In fact this accompaniment part could be performed by any instrument capable of playing chords ie a lute, or organ
Genre
This piece was written as a song for a play called Oedipus
Very bloodthirsty play and was a huge success
Melody
Features strongly the use of ornaments in order to decorate the melody
Use of mordants and trills
Upper and lower mordants
Irregular phrase lengths featuring some very short phrases
Purcell's use of word painting and word setting is especially powerful
This is where the music itself reflects the lyrics
Ie the phrase shape of 'drop' 'drop' 'drop' being that of a short rhythmed falling motion akin to falling
Features the use of melisma
Which is where there are multiple notes of melody per syllable of lyrics
Use of rising and falling sequences
Harmony
The harmonic language of this piece is simple as it feaures a ground bass
This is where there are 3 bar sections of bass line that are repeated exactly
In most baroque music they were 2, 4 or 8 bars. This is 3
The ground bass does change in the B section of the piece to add interest
Although does use the feature of chromaticism a lot to make the harmony more rich and full
Use of suspensions
Specific dissonances used in Baroque and Classical music that is resolved to relieve tension
Use of Tierce de Picadies to end sections (BUT NOT THE WHOLE PIECE)
Modulation from A minor to E minor for the B section