Page 79 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

BAROQUE 1600–1750 77

descriptions of “valor,” “torment,” Compositional devices in
and Dido “languishing” in grief in Dido’s Lament
her recitative “Whence could so
much virtue spring.” Purcell also
intentionally creates dissonance
(disharmony between notes) in
the string parts during Dido’s
lament, to express the queen’s
extreme anguish in one of the
most moving musical statements of A five-bar bass “Remember me” motif
grief ever composed. The last death repeated throughout lends a sense
scene is remarkable, too, in an era suggests inevitability. of yearning.
when operatic heroes or heroines
seldom perished. In Cavalli’s
Didone, Dido is saved from herself
and marries someone else.

A lasting legacy
Little is known about performances
of Dido and Aeneas in Purcell’s Appoggiatura Falling phrases and
lifetime. It was revived on the (short “leaning” note) dissonance to
London stage in 1700 and again in suggests sobbing. indicate anguish.
1704, yet these productions seem
to have been the last until the
late 19th century. Increasingly Queen Mary until 1694. Theatre and Aeneas suggests, however,
performed ever since, it is now work dominated Purcell’s last years. that, but for his early death at the
regularly presented by schools and Here the chief form was that of age of 36, Purcell could have laid
amateurs as well as in the world’s dramatic or semi-opera. This very the ground for an English operatic
great opera houses. English type of entertainment tradition. That space would
The accession of William III to comprised a play with interludes of eventually be filled by the German-
the throne in 1689 diminished songs, dances, and choruses at the born George Frideric Handel, who
court patronage, although Purcell ends of acts; these had little direct would compose his own operas in
wrote fine odes for William’s consort connection to the play and were London between 1711 and 1741. ■
performed by a separate company
of singers and dancers. The best
known examples are King Arthur
(1691), to a text by the poet John
Dryden, and The Fairy Queen
(1692), whose spoken text is an
adaptation by the actor-manager Music is yet but in its
Thomas Betterton of Shakespeare’s nonage, a forward child,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. which gives hope of what it
Purcell’s other works ranged may be hereafter in England,
from church and chamber music when the masters of it shall
to songs and formal odes. His Dido find more encouragement.
Henry Purcell

The score of Dido and Aeneas uses
a simple bass line which may have
been provided by cello, bassoon, double
bass—or bass viol, as shown here by
Dutch artist Caspar Netscher (1639–84).

US_072-077_Purcell.indd 77 26/03/18 1:00 PM