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- Music for a While was composed by Henry Purcell to accompany the play Oedipus
- He often wrote choral music, chamber music, orchestral music, and theatre music
- In the play, this song is sung by a priest who is attempting to summond the ghost of a dead king
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- A ground bass is a repeating melodic phrase in the bass part
- The ground bass in Music for a While is only three bars long, which is unusual considering the metre is in 4/4
- The general shape of the melody is ascending chromatic (going from F♯ to G, then G to A♯
- As the ground bass rises, the vocal melody descends, in a technique called contrary motion
- The quavers in the ground bass continue through the whole piece, this is an example of walking bass
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- Purcell uses word painting to reflect the meaning of the lyrics
- In bars 23-25, the short quaver notes with quaver rests between sound like raindrops while the singer repeats 'drop'
- The word 'eternal' in bars 20-21 is held over a number of notes (melisma)
- There is discord in bar 12 when 'pains' is sung, which is then resloved as the lyrics move to the word 'eas'd'
- Most keywords are placed on main beats to highlight them
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- The main tonality of this piece is in A minor (however the original version was in C minor)
- This minor key reflects the sombre mood of the lyrics
- The ground bass has many accidentals, and is very chromatic, making it hard to identify the key
- In bars 3-4, a perfect cadence in A minor establishes the key
- This piece also passes through many related keys throughout the middle of the piece
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