Henry Purcell (1 gen 1659 anni – 1 gen 1695 anni)

Descrizione:

an English composer. Although it incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements, Purcell's was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no later native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Benjamin Britten in the 20th century.

Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and the Question of “English Opera”
1. Purcell was a musical genius who wrote for all genres available to him.
a. He was organist at Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, for which he
composed.
b. He also wrote for the theater.
2. Dido and Aeneas is his only stage work meant to be sung throughout.
3. The plot for Dido and Aeneas comes from Virgil’s Aeneid.
4. English is difficult to set to music because the accentuation patterns do not lend
themselves to music.
5. Dido and Aeneas is a synthesis of Italian and French styles.
a. Group activities (dances, choruses, instrumental numbers) are French.
b. Solo singing is Italianate (including recitatives and madrigalisms).
6. It includes three pieces set to ground basses, for which Purcell had a particular affinity.
a. Dido’s Lament, a famous aria at the end of the work, is based on the
descending tetrachord, encountered earlier in Monteverdi’s music.
7. Purcell’s stage music was soon forgotten, not rediscovered until the nineteenth century.

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