“Emphasising text over music was important in the Baroque period, as well as to Purcell personally. He believed that “as poetry is the harmony of words, so music is that of notes; and as poetry is a rise above prose and oratory, so is music the exaltation of poetry”.” cite this quote
It can be said that what makes Henry Purcell achieve particular success with his writing is his ability to take strong emotions written in the text and express them to the listener by using devices such as word painting, text repetition, declamation and chromatic inflection, as well as others, which will be explained further.
Purcell wrote his only opera in his career, Dido and Aeneas, for Josiah Priest’s Academy for Young Gentlewomen. Thus, it was written with schoolgirls in mind to perform it resulting in the principal parts being written for soprano voices and is why the music is relatively simplistic to perform in its range, for instance. Priest was a successful dance teacher, which may explain why Purcell frequently incorporated dance sections to his opera, making full usage of his ability. The first performance took place in the year 1689 at the academy. Dido and Aeneas is based on the story of Dido, the Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, the Prince of Troy, with the libretto written by Nahum Tate. Nahum Tate became Poet Laureate shortly after writing the libretto for Dido and Aeneas, which arguably in itself professes the effectiveness of his writing. The storyline is also said to be based on book four of the twelve books that make up Virgil’s poem, The Aeneid. which covers the range where the storyline is from, tells of Aeneas’ journey from Troy to Italy…
Moving on to Act I of Dido and Aeneas, it opens in the setting of Dido’s palace where Dido is telling of her torment that she feels love for Aeneas, which is causing her distress because after her husband’s death, she vowed to never remarry and devote herself to the welfare of her empire and Belinda, Dido’s sister, tries to console Dido and explain that marrying Aeneas may not be cause for upset. Purcell starts by echoing Dido’s sadness in the tonality of the music as he has set this section to the key of C minor, a key associated with tragedy and anguish in the Baroque era. What is more intriguing, though, is Purcell’s use of word painting to set the phrase ‘shake the cloud from your brow’. This is sung by Belinda to Dido as if to comfort her and persuade her that all is not lost. Purcell seems to set each word in this phrase carefully, for instance when the word ‘shake’ is sung, he writes frequent small, conjunct movements in the pitch as if to resemble the physical movement of shaking. Also, when the word ‘cloud’ from that phrase is sung, the pitch ascends as if to look up at a cloud in the sky.
An important device which Purcell uses to present the feelings of confusion that Dido is feeling, in the second song, is by using irregular phrase lengths in the opening to conflict with the repeating four-bar ground bass (Ex.1.2.1-4). The sense of confusion is achieved because it is the first three phrases which are of different lengths and causes the vocal cadence to fall at the beginning of the ground bass pattern, throwing the pulse off of where the listener would expect it to sound. In addition, there is a descending sequence in bars 26-27 of the song when the words ‘strangers’ are sung, as part of the phrase ‘Peace and I are strangers, strangers grown’. The descending nature of the melody is a subtle technique which expresses the ongoing decline of Dido’s mood. Moreover, when Dido sings the word ‘languish’ as part of the phrase ‘I languish ‘till my grief is known’ (Ex. 1.2.29-30), Purcell starts to introduce chromaticism as a device to portray the uneasy thought of languishing. Also, this same selection of notes are pitched carefully by Purcell, as the interval between the ground bass and Dido’s melody line is often a minor third, again conveying the grief that Dido has. Lastly, the way that the shape of the melody descends at the beginning of the word ‘languish’ here could be described as word painting as the melodic line is itself dying away, or ‘languishing’. It can also be noted that the more poignant lines from the text are frequently repeated for emotive effect. For example, the phrase ‘peace and I are strangers, strangers grown’ is sung four times, emphasising Dido’s sadness at this point in the opera.
Ex.1.2.1-4 Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Song
Ex.1.2.29-30 Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Song
Moving in to the sixth item of the opera, the duet and chorus between Belinda and an attendant character. In this section, they are trying to convince Dido that it may be beneficial to Troy if she married Aeneas and that her love for him would not be unrequited as Aeneas has love for her also. Purcell expresses this uplifting passage by modulating to C major, the tonic major of the previous sections. Also, possibly to express the agreement between Belinda and the Assistant, their melodies are written in homorhythms. Lastly in this duet, the use of false relation is introduced to not only add dissonance, but it arguably adds dramatic effect as it adds a sense of tension for the listener. For example at bar 11 when the A in Belinda’s part is sounded simultaneously with the A# in the Attendant’s part.
Ex.1.6.11 Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Duet and Chorus
In the ninth item of the opera, a recitative sung by Aeneas to Dido where he is pleading for her to marry him, ‘if not for mine, for Empire’s sake’, Purcell continues to use word painting as a device to portray the words, gaining the most dramatic effect. For example, at bar six, when Aeneas sings the word ‘fall’ as part of the phrase ‘A Hero fall and Troy once more expire’ (Ex.1.9.6), the shape of the melody also quickly descends as if also ‘falling’ with the word. Furthermore, another device that Purcell uses in this section to convey the harsh text is his use of dissonance. For instance, when Aeneas sings the word ‘expire’, referring to what may happen to Dido’s empire, Troy, if she does not marry him, there is a harsh dissonance with a G sounding in the bass part against the A that Aeneas is singing. It could then be said that the consonance of the sound has ‘expired’ at this point.
(Possibly add about last bit when they are to be married)
Ex.1.9.6 Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Recitative
Next, Act II of Dido and Aeneas starts with the leader of the witches commanding that Carthage is destroyed as a punishment for Dido and Aeneas in their hunting behaviour. The witch is ordered to disguise herself as Mercury and reveal to Aeneas that Zeus has ordered him to leave to go to Italy immediately. Purcell represents the change in topic matter by modulating to a minor key – F minor, a key symbolising horror in this section. Also, the way the witches and sorceresses sing repeating often the same note in a simplistic rhythm in the beginning of the first chorus of the act could resemble the witches casting a spell against Dido, sounding almost chant-like, as they sing ‘Harm’s our delight and mischief all out skill’.
Next in the story, the witches evoke a storm to drive the hunting away to the city. Purcell represents the chaos of the storm by writing this next section, a duet between the two witches, in polyphony, demonstrating the chaos a storm brings. When Aeneas and Dido return after Aeneas has killed a wild boar and they notice the storm has come and a roar of thunder has graced their presence, the uneasiness is conveyed by the change in rhythm in the melody so that it becomes faster, and when the word ‘thunder’ is sung by Dido, Purcell takes an entire bar containing mostly semiquavers to express the fear in her. As well as this, the fear of the storm is made clear by the sudden use of higher pitches to the previous phrase, as if to represent the sound of Dido screaming in terror of what is overhead.
Moreover, in the next song and chorus where Belinda sings, Purcell returns to his technique of text repetition to bring out an important warning from Belinda who is saying that they should retreat to the city to avoid the storm. Belinda repeats the phrases ‘Haste, haste to town’, ‘No shelter this open field no shelter from the storm’, ‘the storm can yield: haste to town’ throughout this section. The repetition of the text reinforces the urgency of the text, that the storm is dangerous and they should, therefore, leave.
Then in the story, a witch disguised as the God, Mercury, comes to Aeneas when he is alone and tells him to leave Dido and retreat to Italy in order to restore Troy, therefore out of duty Aeneas feels compelled to follow these orders. Purcell adds interest to this section, musically, by incorporating frequent lower auxiliary notes and chromatic movements as is shown in this example (Ex.2.24.1). These devices, however, do not only add interest but can represent the deceit from the witch. Another technique which Purcell has used in this section is by keeping the accompanying part largely to sustained notes and the melody with more frequent movement as this effectively draws the attention from the listener to the important words within the text.
Ex.2.24.1 Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Recitative
Lastly, in the final song of the act, the storyline involves a Sailor gathering the Trojans to the boat to leave the shores of Troy and not to return. There is more evidence here of Purcell using word painting to express the text, for when the Sailor sings ‘come away’, there is written a disjunct leap, representing the increasing distance between them and Troy once they leave. Finally, Purcell again uses chromatic inflection in the accompanying bass line to add tension to fit the poignant scene shown. The bass line even descends in a chromatic scale between bars 46-51 of the song.
The storyline in the final act of Dido and Aeneas, Act III, starts with the Sorceress and Witches dwelling on how they have manipulated Aeneas and the other Trojans to leave Troy. Purcell reflects the imagery by again using word painting. For instance, when the Sorceress sings ‘curling’ from the phrase ‘See, see, the flags and streamers curling’, the shape of the melody ascends and returns to the same note as if in a curled shape (Ex.3.27.2). Moreover, when ‘Anchors weighing’ is sung in the following bar, there is a short descending of a sequence which satisfyingly depicts an anchor slowly falling to the bottom of the sea.
When Dido finds out that Aeneas is to leave she feels this twist of fate has occurred because she has married Aeneas after her vow to never remarry.