Transcript Opera - Dyatmika Music - Home

Henry Purcell
• Born in London 1659
• Died: 1695
• Music was the Purcell family business - and Henry
followed in the footsteps of his father, uncle and brother
as a court musician centered around Westminster in
London.
• Purcell worked as Organist at Westminster Abbey, and in
the Chapel Royal and Whitehall Palace, as organist and
court composer for the violins.
• Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell, is England's oldest
opera.
• As an opera composer, Purcell is considered one of the
great “might-have-beens”.
Purcell & Opera
• Henry Purcell had a reputation as “having a particular
genius to express the energy of English words”.
• However, his career coincided with a period in which
opera repeatedly failed to establish itself as an art form
in England in the late 1600s.
• Fifteen years after Purcell’s death, an
opera-mania (since unrivalled) swept
through London, and the young baroque
composer HANDEL enjoyed huge success
with his succession of Operas in England.
As far as we know it was
first performed in 1689, at
a girl's school in Chelsea,
London, run by a Mr Josias
Priest, who was a dancing
master.
Maybe it's because the show has a little something for
everyone (especially everyone on the high school drama team):
a passionate love story, wild dance numbers, special effects,
even a chorus of witches. Most importantly, the moving music
that Henry Purcell created for this mythological love story
creates a tale that anyone can relate to: whether you're
suffering your first heartbreak in 7th grade, or you're a
professional singer performing before an audience of
thousands.
Who was Henry Purcell?
Create a short bio of the
composer
Background of Dido and
Aeneas. When was it
composed, first
performed, orchestration,
what impact did it have?
Why is like high school
musical?
Outline the characters
and synopsis of Dido and
Aeneas
https://www.emaze.com/
https://www.canva.com
www.prezi.com
Composer.
• Dido and Aeneas is a tragic opera in three acts.
• Written by Henry Purcell based on Book IV ‘The Aeneid
by Roman poet Vergil.
Background story.
• Aeneas is the Trojan prince who was the mythological
founder of rome.
• He was one of the few Trojans that survived the fall of
Troy.
• He flees his home to find a new one with a fleet of men
named the ‘Aeneads.’
• They go on a journey.
Story.
• Eventually After wandering for six years Aeneas and his
•
•
•
•
•
•
set foot on land in Carthage.
Dido the queen of Carthage meets Aeneas.
They fall in love… And eventually married.
Evil witches plot Dido’s destruction.
Aeneas gets deceived by an evil spirit(s).
He continues on his journey to found new troy.
Aeneas commits suicide.
Information.
• This opera was composed in 1689, 17th century.
• First performed at Josias Priest's school in Chelsea,
London, 1689.
• Orchestration: 1st Violin, 2nd Violin, Viola, Cello, Basso
Continuo/ Harpsichord.
Context
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas lasts for an hour and was performed in 1689
written to celebrate the joint coronation of William and Mary in the same
year.
It is a mythical tale about the love between Dido (Queen of Catage) and
Aeneas (Prince of Troy)
Evil tricks Aeneas into leaving Dido in order to fulfill a duty to free his
homeland
This piece is taken nearer the end when Dido is preparing for her suicide
Orchestration
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Basso Continuo/ Harpsichord
THE STRUCTURE OF THE OPERA
Each scene or section has its own key, and the choice of key Purcell
makes for each section is significant to the plot of that particular scene.
ACT 1
SCENE 1
DIDO’S PALACE
Introduction of Dido
C MINOR
(Dido reluctant to show her feelings)
SCENE 2
DIDO’S PALACE
Arrival of Aeneas
C MAJOR
(Belinda is optimistic and encouraging. Emotion triumphs over reason
and destiny.)
ACT 2
(The one you kind of don’t need to know but kind of do…..)
SCENE 3
A CAVE
Witches Evil Plot
F MAJOR
SCENE 4
DIDO’S PALACE
The Hunt
D MINOR/MAJOR
(The witches plan to destroy the happiness of Dido & Aeneas)
(Thunder ends the hunt early. As other characters leave for shelter, the
Witches’ “Mercury” appears and tells Aeneas to leave.)
ACT 3
SCENE 5
Harbour
Sailors Depart Carthage
Bb MAJOR
(The witches also revel in the success of their plan.)
SCENE 6
DIDO’S PALACE
Dido’s Death
G Minor
Dido dies.
Recitative vs Aria
Comparison of Musical Elements
• ‘Thy hand, Belinda’ and ‘When I am laid in earth’ portray
the desperate state of mind
• that results in Dido’s suicide.
• Together they make up the kind of recitative-aria pair
characteristic of Baroque opera.
• Listen to both and decide where each statement fits
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Act III, Dido’s
Lament and Chorus
● ‘Thy hand, Belinda’ and ‘When I am laid in earth’ portray the desperate
state of mind that results in Dido’s suicide
● Together they make up the kind of recitative-aria pair characteristic of
Baroque opera
● The former, which is relatively short, moves the action forward, with a
brief text set without repetition in something approaching speech rhythm.
● In the latter, Dido reflects at length on her plight. She begs that her
‘wrongs [may] create no trouble in [Belinda’s] breast’ and that she will be
remembered but her dreadful fate (betrayal and death) forgotten.
Dido’s Lament - is considered the masterpiece of the opera
‘Thy hand, Belinda’
• Like many Baroque recitatives, this is for one singer
(Dido, a soprano) with continuo accompaniment.
• The continuo accompaniment is shown just as a figured
bass – that is, as a single bass part, played by a single
string instrument, with figures underneath to indicate the
type of chord required at each point
Word Painting
Justin Timberlake's song "What goes around" is another popular example of
text painting. The lyrics descend an octave and then return to the upper octave,
as though it was going in around in a circle. 1.37
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
In the chorus of Up Where We Belong, the melody rises during the words "Love
lift us up where we belong.”
In Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah, the lyrics exemplify word painting. The
lyrics and chord structure fall in sync with one another
"It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift."
Word Painting and Melodic Shape
• A composer’s most direct tool for word painting is melodic shape
• Words are set to melody in two ways, syllabic and melismatic.
• Syllabic is the most common. With one note per syllable of text, it
•
•
•
•
emphasizes clarity and flow.
A melisma is more than one note sung on a single syllable. This
expressive device highlights certain words and enhances their
emotional impact.
Melismatic text setting is a special expressive choice. When a
composer writes a melisma on a word, the clarity of that word can be
partly or even greatly obscured as the shape of the melody takes
prominence over the natural flow of the text. A fine composer will use
melismas in important moments
Melismas offer performers great opportunity for personal expression.
Purcell writes exquisitely complex melismas to color key words such
as “darkness,” “pity,” and “sorrows.”
Word Painting
Melisma - an ornamental phrase of several
notes sung to one syllable of text) – Think
Whitney Houston – I will always love you! Or Christina
Aguilera
What Musical Features does Purcell use
to express the text?
• Grief
• Inevitable fate
• Despair
• Anguish
• Desolation
• Misery
WORD PAINTING
Thy Hand Belinda
Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me.
On thy bosom let me rest;
More I would, but Death invades me;
Death is now a welcome guest.
WORD PAINTING
Thy Hand Belinda
• ‘Darkness’ and ‘Death’ which is presented with a descending
•
•
•
•
chromatic line symbolic of death and half-step movement (sigh
motive) (Up to ‘Death is now’ (bar 7) the vocal melody falls from C to
D (a minor 7th),
Largely syllabic recitation, but still with some melismas (“darkness”
extended like a miasma “bad air” around her)
The closing notes – slightly higher and now with a prominent F sharp
– match the grimly positive words ‘a welcome guest’.
Short detached phrases and silences suggesting sighing
Jagged rhythms and the melodic line slowly descending to a 7th to
reach 'death'
WORD PAINTING
When I am laid in earth – Dido’s Lament
When I am laid, am laid in earth,
May my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, remember me, but ah!
forget my fate.
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
WORD PAINTING ctd
When I am laid in earth – Dido’s Lament
• Emotional, slow-moving aria
• ‘Laid’ – also given a descending chromatic line portraying
death and agony
• ‘Remember me’ – presented in syllabic text setting and
repeated with it’s last presentation leaping in register with
sudden crescendo displaying her desperate cry with
urgency as she prepares for her fate: death
• Rising vocal line pushes away and cadences overlap
(elide) until Dido “meets” her fate at the joint vocal and
ground bass cadence (“forget my fate”)
Tonality
‘Thy hand Belinda’
• Minor Key as befits the text - G minor –key of grief
• Ambiguous tonality
• Unusual key changes and chromaticism
• Dissonances-Bar 12 tritone
‘When I am laid in earth’
• Again tonality is minor.
• G minor throughout - Such insistence on one minor key is
immensely effective in underlining the tragic dramatic situation.
• Variety and colour are provided by the chromatic (semitonal)
descents in the ground bass these intensify the mood still
further.
• string parts are very dissonant, helping to illustrate Dido's
extreme anguish.
Tonality
• Opening of aria, with 2 statements of the ground bass.
•
•
•
•
Descending chromatic scale also adds to the desperate mood
Fate motive?
Underlies her final words to Belinda
As Dido completes her requests her vocal line coincides with the
bass chromaticism-she dies.
Only then is the full chromatic scale heard.
Harmony
• Purcell’s harmony is highly expressive of grief and pain, with
striking dissonances and chromaticism superimposed on a
mostly simple harmonic vocabulary, with many triads in root
position and first inversion
• Grinding dissonances between bass and vocal line
Rhythm
‘Thy Hand Belinda’
• Note the more complex rhythm on ‘dark-(ness)’
• Short rests separate a series of short phrases (bars 37), presumably to suggest Dido’s sobbing as she
decides to take her own life.
Dynamics
Remember me! Repetition and louder dynamics for emphasis
Chorus – ‘With drooping wings’
With drooping wings you Cupids come,
To scatter roses on her tomb.
Soft and Gentle as her Heart
Keep here your watch, and never part.
Chorus – ‘With drooping wings’
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR:
• Polyphonic texture in imitation between the voices.
• Falling melisma on “drooping wings.” (an ornamental
phrase of several notes sung to one syllable of text) –
Think Whitney Houston – I will always love you! Or Christina Aguilera
Chorus – ‘With drooping wings’
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR:
• Repeated melodic “sigh” on word “soft.”
• Rhetorical pauses in last line, with repeated words for
emphasis.
• Stay Prince and hear
• https://books.google.co.id/books?id=yvXPe3bjuwoC&pg=
PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=dido+and+aeneas+belinda+openi
ng+solo&source=bl&ots=4AWy0YgNDp&sig=uRCVIHBIx_
ltShpCBNVulLnPZg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUnMOFgd
DJAhVGjo4KHcmrArI4ChDoAQhCMAk#v=onepage&q&f=
false
RECAP
Write your own definition of ‘Word
Painting’
RECAP
What musical features does
Purcell use to express the text in
Dido’s Lament?
RECAP
Tempo
Tonality
Melody
Dynamics
Melody
• ‘Remember me’ – presented in syllabic text setting and repeated with it’s last
•
•
•
•
presentation leaping in register with sudden crescendo displaying her desperate
cry with urgency as she prepares for her fate: death
High note on ‘remember me’ then falling melodic shape. The second section
begins with outbursts on d’’; the line continues to hover around this note until on
the third and last ‘remember me’ it leaps to the high g’’, then to descend
diatonically through the octave to the song’s starting point
The ground bass falls chromatically from the tonic to the lower dominant in a
minor key- a device portraying sadness
The melody is in fragments to suggest that Dido is struggling to continue because
of her despair. Short, detached phrases with silences to suggest sighs
Dissonances can be heard between the bass and vocal melody, as well as
between the bass and string parts. The purpose of the dissonance is deliberate in
helping to illustrate Dido’s extreme anguish at this tragic part of the opera.
Tonality
• Key of G minor - Grief
Harmony
• Purcell’s harmony is highly expressive of grief and pain,
with striking dissonances and chromaticism superimposed
on a mostly simple harmony and chords
• Dissonances between bass and vocal line
Tempo
• Slow moving – Slow moving strings
Rhythm
The melody is in fragments to suggest that Dido is struggling to continue because
of her despair. Short, detached phrases with silences to suggest sighs
Dynamics
Remember me! Repetition and louder dynamics for emphasis
Other
At the end she breaks off before instruments do.
WORD PAINTING
‘Laid’ – also given a descending chromatic line portraying
death and agony
Rising vocal line pushes away and cadences overlap (elide) until Dido
“meets” her fate at the joint vocal and ground bass cadence (“forget my
fate”)
text painting on the world “trouble” with a tritone, an interval carefully
avoided in the Renaissance, but now part of the forward-striving energy
that drives tonality
ELTON’S LAMENT or Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji_4M1fLdLA
• Apart from the hair, what musical links can you find
between Dido’s Lament and Elton’s Lament
ELTON’S LAMENT or Sorry Seems to Be
the Hardest Word
• Key of G minor
• Repeated Ostinato pattern played several times under the
text
• Ostinato Pattern Begins on G
• Chromatic Descending Bass Line – A way of setting a
very sad text
Elton John and Basso Ostinato
Aria- "Ah, Belinda” – Ground Bass
• Based on four bar ground bass (providing a structural link
to "When I am laid in earth")
• The ground bass lasts 4 bars, throughout the song the
bass is played 21 times
Ah! Belinda, I am prest
With torment not to be Confest,
Peace and I are strangers grown.
I languish till my grief is known,
Yet would not have it guest.
Listen to the vocal phrases
and how they
relate/coincide with the
Ground bass line
Aria- "Ah, Belinda” – Ground Bass
• Key – Mostly C minor – suitable for ‘complaints and all
subjects of lamentation’ – depicts anguish and tragedy of
Dido’s situation
• What makes it interesting is it’s relation with the phrases
of the melody line which change in length
• Because of the varying phrase length the vocal phrases
overlap ground bass. This makes it more interesting/ less
repetitive.
Aria- "Ah, Belinda” - Purcell’s treatment of Phrase Structure
• The 1st phrase, like the ground, is 4 bars long but begins after the
ground, remains out of sync.
Ah! Belinda, I am prest
With torment not to be Confest,
WP - "Ah!"- sigh effect,
suspension, not on the
main beat.
Aria- "Ah, Belinda” - Purcell’s treatment of Phrase Structure
• The 2nd phrase, longer in text, begins also on 2nd bar of ground but
is squeezed (‘prest’) into only 3 bars (just one way of how Purcell
choose to portray the word), and cadences with the bass.
• The shortening of the second phrase to 3 bars lends weight to the
word ‘prest’ as the notes are literally pressed into a smaller space
WP
"torment" descending, melismatic, negative
Low range eg Torment "I am press'd"
Melismatic, rhythmically unstable- state of
Ah! Belinda, I am prest
With torment not to be Confest,
Aria- "Ah, Belinda” – Peace and I
• 2:00
• Note: the pitch of the first 4 notes in the vocal line are the
same as the bass
• The bass and vocal line imitate each other ending out of
syncronization thus heightening the meaning of the word
‘peace’
• As Dido and Peace become strangers, so the melody line
and the ground bass grow apart, which were together in
the previous phrase
Peace and I are strangers grown.
Aria- "Ah, Belinda” – Word Painting
• 2:39
• During its repeat Dido’s ‘languishing’ is accentuated
through a long melisma which descends down with
semitone sighs and serves to emphasise the meaning of
the word
Ah! Belinda, I am prest
With torment not to be Confest,
Peace and I are strangers grown.
I languish till my grief is known,
Yet would not have it guest.
Aria- "Ah, Belinda”
• Find examples in Ah Belinda, where the dissonance of the
melodic line against the ground bass bass illustrates the
meaning of the text (ie. is a good example of word
painting)
• ‘Peace and I’ - Look at the relationship between the
melodic line and the bass line. How does it illustrate
musically Dido’s estrangement with peace?
• Find an example of chromaticism in the melodic line
which is used for dramatic effect to convey melancholic
feelings (another example of word painting)
Other Examples of Word Painting
SCENE 1 – Shake the Cloud – Sung by Belinda to cheer
Dido up
Shake the cloud from off your brow,
Fate your wishes doth allow,
Empire growing, pleasures flowing,
Fortune smiles and so should you
From the very first word of the opera Purcell sets the word
to music by word painting using a dotted rhythm lending a
‘shakiness’ to the word ‘shake’ Also notice the melisma on
‘flowing’
Other Examples of Word Painting
ACT 1 – Dido in Denial
Recitative- "Grief Increases”
• Begins as a duet between Dido and Belinda.
• Short, 1 bar phrases suggest Dido is struggling with her conscience.
• Sense of an argument created, especially by the lyrics "then let me
speak".
• At this point, the words are not focusing on Dido's emotion but on the
"secure" state of Carthage, so the music moves to G major
Chorus- "monarchs unite"
• Returns to C minor
• This is an example of musical irony, as the words are positive.
Perhaps it foreshadows the tragic events to come.
• Uses homophonic (voices moving together in harmony) texture to
create a sense of agreement between the characters.
• Talking about the importance of united monarchs/ nation.
BELINDA
Grief increases by concealing,
DIDO
Mine admits of no revealing.
BELINDA
Then let me speak; the Trojan guest
Into your tender thoughts has prest;
The greatest blessing Fate can give
Our Carthage to secure and Troy revive.
CHORUS
When monarchs unite, how happy their state,
They triumph at once o'er their foes and their fate.
Other Examples of Word Painting
SCENE 1 – No. 5 Whence could so much virtue spring –
Recitative – Dido reveals she has feelings for Aeneas and
paints a picture of a brave yet sensitive, hero
Whence could so much virtue spring?
What storms, what battles did he sing?
Anchises' valour mixt with Venus' charms
How soft in peace, and yet how fierce in arms!
Anchises –
Father of
Aeneas
And lover of
Venus in
Roman
Mythology
Purcell colours words such as ‘Storm’ and ‘Fierce’ with forte
melisamas. These contrast with ‘soft’ with it’s p marking
and descending semitone. Sudden contrast
PAST EXAM QUESTIONS
How successful is the music of
Dido’s two songs (Act I and Act
III) in expressing her feelings?
PAST EXAM QUESTIONS
How does Purcell’s music for the soloists in
Dido and Aeneas express the meaning of their
words? llustrate your answer by close
discussion of examples.
PAST EXAM QUESTIONS
Many operas and musicals end with the death
of one or both lovers. Discuss a range of
examples (from any period or tradition) to show
how music can contribute to the emotional
impact of such scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc4wN
VoZsaU
PAST EXAM QUESTIONS
What is meant by ‘word-painting’? Illustrate your
answer by reference to examples from more
than one period or tradition.
Useful Links
•
• http://paulwest.weebly.com/dido-and-aeneas.html
• https://prezi.com/xl05103a86cd/purcell-thy-hand-belinda-when•
•
•
•
•
i-am-laid-in-earth/
http://paulwest.weebly.com/dummies-guide-to-opera.html
http://www.ibmidatlantic.org/Music_Net/Dido%20and%20Aenea
s%20analysis.pdf
http://musicbcs.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/1/5/25157303/unit_6__36__purcell__thy_hand_belinda_and_when_i_am_laid_in_ear
th_from_dido_and_aeneas.pdf
https://ist-music.wikispaces.com/Ah,+Belinda
https://quizlet.com/83431893/dido-and-aeneas-flash-cards/