Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Act III

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Aria - Starts

"When I am laid in the Earth"

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Time Period

Baroque

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Aria - Accompaniment

Basso ostinato (ground bass), small orchestra with continuo

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Recitative - Characters

Dido and Belinda, Dido is dying

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Characters

Dido, Aeneas, and Sailors

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Genre

English Opera, hornpipe

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Recitative - Genre

English opera

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Recitative - Meter

Free rhythm

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Recitative - Melody

Long descending line (grief), chromaticism (tension, note out of key), half-step slides (sighing motives)

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Medium

Solo voice and men's chorus with small orchestra and continuo

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Recitative - Medium

Soprano and small orchestra with continuo

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Form

Strophic (orchestral prelude, solo and chorus)

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Meter

Triple meter

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Aria - Meter

Triple meter, steady beat

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Basis

Virgil's Aeneid

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Aria - Form

binary form (AB) each repeated over ground bass

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Opening - Melody

jaunty tune. Scottish snap on "Never."

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Recitative - Form

secco recitative