Music for a While

By
Henry Purcell 1659-1695
Henry Purcell 1659-1695
 Henry Purcell
English Baroque Composer
Chorister of the Chapel Royal from about
1668 till 1673.
Organist at Westminster Abbey from 1679
and at the Chapel Royal from 1682.
He was the most original and most gifted
English composer of his time.
He wrote theatre music, church music, court
odes, secular and sacred songs, odes for
various occasions and instrumental music.
Purcell wrote Six Operas
1. Dido and Aneas (1689) is set to continuous music, the others all
contain a substantial amount of dialogue.
2. Dioclesian (1690)
3. King Arthur (1691)
4. The Fairy Queen (1692)
5. The Indian Queen (1695)
6. The Tempest (1695)
He also wrote music for more than forty plays

His church style includes both full anthems in traditional style and up to
date verse anthems with solos for counter tenor, tenor and bass.

His odes are rich in contrast between solo voices, chorus and
orchestra.

As a writer of solo songs he has never been surpassed, either for

imagination, technical adroitness of skill in catching the accents of
English words. Collins Encyclopedia of Music.
 Music for A While
Music for a While is the second of four movements from
his incidental music composed in 1692 to John Dryden
and Nathaniel Lees play Oedipus.

Music for a while

Shall all your cares beguile.
Wond'ring how your pains were eas'd
And disdaining to be pleas'd
Till Alecto free the dead
From their eternal bands,
Till the snakes drop from her head,
And the whip from out her hands.
In Oedipus, the character Tiresias is a blind seer. He, along with two priests
summons the ghost of King Laius to discover the identity of his murderer. After
several failed attempts, the first priest tries to conjure King Laius by singing
Music for a while.

The original key is c minor, but it is transposed down to a minor in todays

version for soprano voice. It would have originally been sung by a countertenor
(high male) and accompanied by a harpsichord with a bass instrument such as
a cello doubling the bass line. This is known as a continuo part.

When the narration describes snakes dropping from Alectos head, Purcell
places a rest between each of the numerous statements of drop, which occur
on the second half of the beat.
In Greek mythology, Alecto was one of the three-winged goddesses whose job
was to punish doers of moral crimes. She has snakes for hair, dogs heads,
bats wings, and blood dripping from her eyes.

The overall stucture of the piece is ABA

 Ground Bass
A bass line, whether simple or complex, long
or short, which is constantly repeated
throughout a vocal or instrumental
composition and forms the foundation for
varied melodic, harmonic or contrapuntal
treatment. E.g. Pachelbels Canon
The ground bass in Music for a While is three
bars long, is repeated four times but is then
altered in the middle section of the song,
returning to the original format in bar 29
Ground Bass
 Word Painting
Word painting is the musical technique of
writing music that reflects the literal
meaning of a song. For example,
ascending scales would accompany lyrics
about going up; slow, dark music would
accompany lyrics about death. This is a
very important feature in Music for a
While.
Bar 11
Bar 13
Bar 20
Bar 24
 Authentic performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trOXaDe
FeD4
 Soprano and Piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ukyYJxF
Dew
 Essay Plan
1. Information about Purcell
2. Explain that this song is from a play called
Oedipus and that it is about the power of
music.
3. Write about the piece including the key, the
instruments, the type of voice singing, the
structure of the song ABA and that it is built
on a ground bass.
4. Explain the four examples of word painting
that are used in the piece.
 Baroque Period 1600 -1750
Bach
Handel
Purcell
Corelli
Vivaldi
 Features of Baroque Music
Major/Minor Keys
Use of the harpsichord.
Lots of ornaments in the melody: trills
and mordents.
Small orchestra often mostly strings
Contrapuntal texture (busy!)