Dido And Aeneas Analysis

Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, thought to be composed around 1685, is based on book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid and was perhaps in response to John Blow’s Venus and Adonis (perhaps need a reference-wording quite similar). Instead of being performed for royalty, however, Dido and Aeneas’ only documented performance in Purcell’s lifetime was at a boarding school for girls in Chelsea, though some believe it was performed in court some years earlier (reference). He once stated, "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”(reference); he believed poetry and music went hand in hand, something which he demonstrates in Dido and Aeneas. Purcell transforms

The aria features a chromatically descending ground bass, reflecting grief and perhaps alluding to her fast approaching fate. This repeated ground bass ostinato is irregularly 5 bars in length, producing an unsettling quality when paired with the regular vocal phrases and the understated string accompaniment, starting at bar 7, often exploits a low tessitura, continuing the melancholy mood. The word “trouble” uses a melodic interval of a tritone, a technique of word painting, which is underpinned with a diminished 7th chord in the accompaniment. The tritone is the perfect accompaniment to the word “trouble”; in the medieval era, it was ‘nicknamed the ‘diabolus in musica’’ or ‘devil in music’ (reference) due to its instability leading to tension, thus it was used by Purcell to further foreshadow the aforementioned imminent death of Dido. Towards the end of this aria, Purcell repeats text for emphasis; the one bar phrase, “remember me”, is repeated six times, mostly on the pitch D, to stress her dying wishes to Belinda but also twice on G, the highest point in the piece. This pitch development expresses Dido’s sense of urgency and desperation to have her wishes be heard as her death rapidly approaches. Furthermore, as typical of Purcell, there is use of melisma, effective particularly on the word “Ah”; in bar 26, it ascends and descends conjunctly to give the impression of a pained sigh.