Purcell - Music For A While

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  • Created by: Alice58
  • Created on: 28-02-18 17:31

Purcell Facts

Born: 10th September 1659

Died: 21st November 1695

He was an English organist

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About the set work

Song telling a story about Eodapus

Song for the change 

Talks about the furies (Alecto)

Written in 1692

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Baroque Features

  • Lots of ornamentation 
  • Not many dynamics
  • Independent lines of music (more than one) (polyphony)
  • Basso continuo
  • Harpsichord
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Texture

Melody dominated homophony 

Counterpoint at times - polyphony

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Structure

Ground bass repeated in 3 bar phrases

Ternary structure

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Time Signature

4/4

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Time Signature

4/4

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Tempo

Lento/Slow

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Rhythm

Dotted notes 

Small note values 

Syncopation

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Instrumentation

Voice - soprano 

Harpsichord and bass viol

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Ornamentation

  • Appogiatura
  • Acciacatura
  • Trills
  • Mordents
  • Inverse mordents
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Melody

  • Slow 
  • High pitched 
  • Mostly syllabic
  • Ornamentation 
  • Soprano and Harpsichord
  • Mostly conjunct
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Harmony

  • Faster than the melody
  • Arpeggiated 
  • Perfect V-I cadences
  • Tierce de Picarde - Sudden major chord at the end
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Tonality

  • A Minor 
  • E Minor - 14
  • G (relative major) - 16 
  • C major - 21
  • A Minor - 23 
  • E Minor - 27 
  • A Minor - 28
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Word Painting

  • Drop - repeated and note descends/drops 
  • Eternal - held on for a long time - sequence 
  • Pains - clashing note (dissonance)
  • Eas'd - clash resolved 
  • Wond'ring - free descending scale 
  • Free the dead - major 
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About the ground bass

  • Repetitive 
  • Changes key 
  • Played by harpsichord and bass viol 
  • Play arpeggiated chords 
  • 3 bars long - repeated (changes a key change)
  • All quavers 
  • Ends with 8ve leap 
  • Rising 5th semitone, falling 6th x4 
  • Sequence 
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