Page 98 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Dido’s final aria is introduced by a brief example of simple recitative (accompanied by basso continuo only): “Thy hand, Belinda.” Normally, simple recitative is a businesslike process that moves the action along through direct declamation. In this passage, however, recitative transcends its typically routine role. Notice the remarkable way Purcell sets the Eng- lish language. He understood where the accents fell in the text of his li- bretto, and he knew how to replicate these effectively in music. In Example 5.4, the stressed words in the text generally appear in long notes and on the downbeat of each measure. Equally important, notice how the vocal line descends a full octave, passing through chromatic notes along the way. (Chromaticism is another device composers use to signal pain and grief.) As the voice twists chromatically downward, we feel the pain of the abandoned Dido. By the end, she has slumped into the arms of her servant Belinda.
Example 5.4 > simple recitative “thy hand, belinda”
bb 4 ‰ œ œ nœ œ. œ œ bœ. œ œ œ bœj. œ nœ. œj Œ bœj œj bœj j Œ j j
& 4 J J J J J Thy hand, Be- lin - da! Dark
-
œ J 
œ œ œ œ
˚
&b œŒŒœœ œœ‰œœbœj.œjnœjœjŒœjbœœjœjœ#œœœœœ. w
b
WATCH . . . a walkthrough of the score of “Thy hand, Belinda” and “When I am laid in earth,” online.
j j j
j
- ness
shades
me;
on
thy bo - som let me
rest. More I would, but Death in - vades me: Death is now a wel - come guest.
From the recitative “Thy hand, Belinda,” Purcell moves imperceptibly to the climactic aria “When I am laid in earth,” in which Dido sings of her impend- ing death (see Listening Cue). Because this high point of the opera is a lament, Purcell chooses, in the Baroque tradition, to build it upon a basso ostinato. Eng- lish composers called the basso ostinato the ground bass, because the repeating bass provided a solid foundation, or grounding, on which an entire composition could be built. The ground bass that Purcell composed for Dido’s lament con- sists of two sections (Example 5.♭5): (1) a chromatic stepwise descent over the interval of a four♭th (G, F#, F, E, E , D) and (2) a two-measure cadence returning to the tonic G (B , C, D, G).
The text of Dido’s lament consists of a short, one-stanza poem with an aba rhyme scheme. Here brevity begets eloquence.
When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs create No trouble in thy breast.
Remember me, but ah! Forget my fate.
Each line of text is repeated, as are many individual words and pairs of words. (Such repetition of text is typical of an aria but not of recitative.) In this case, Dido’s repetitions are perfectly appropriate to her emotional state—she can communicate in fragments, but cannot articulate her feelings in com- plete sentences. Here the listener cares less about grammatical correctness,
76 chapter five baroque art and music
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