In the dedication of Henry Purcell’s opera, Dioclesian, to the Duke of Somerset, he declared, "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. Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are joined, because nothing is then wanting to either of their perfections: for thus they appear like wit and beauty in the same person." Henry Purcell was a prolific English composer of Baroque opera, church music, cantatas, instrumental works, and more. Not only did he have a vast understanding of music and composition, but he also understood the obligation to form a connection between the music and the text. Purcell’s compositional ability is demonstrated in his opera Dido and Aeneas, which contains common Baroque characteristics that define his style. Even though he used distinct “Purcell-isms” in Dido and Aeneas, there is still a definite connection to the structure of Venus and Adonis by John Blow.
Although the original purpose of Dido and Aeneas may have been that of court entertainment, it has become one of Purcell’s most widely acclaimed operas, as well as one of the most popular operas of the Baroque period. The first known performance of Dido and Aeneas was held at Mount Josias Priest’s Boarding School in Chelsea, England in 1689. Scholars such as Bruce Wood and Andrew Pinnock have questioned whether this performance was truly the first, or if it was a repetition of an earlier court premiere, due to the fact that John Blow’s opera Venus and Adonis was written and then debuted in 1684, around the same time as Dido and Aeneas, and they seemed to follow the same path to their first performances. B...
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These semi-operas include King Arthur, with a text by the poet John Dryden, a work that includes interesting music for a chorus full of cold people, frozen by the Cold Genius but were thawed out by love. The Fairy Queen, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, includes a fascinating and inappropriate Chinese masque, while The Tempest, again based on Shakespeare, includes songs and dance music. Purcell provided music, dances and songs for many plays, including Aphra Behn's Abdelazar or The Moor's Revenge, a rondeau from which provides the theme for Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Purcell created numerous amounts of church music. Purcell provided verse anthem and full anthems for the Church of England. The anthems offered musical interest like in My Heart Is Inditing. Other sacred vocal music included Latin psalm Jehovah as well as poems by contemporary writers. Purcell’s secular vocal music includes a number of odes for the feast of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and a number of welcome songs and other celebrations of royal occasions. He wrote an abundance of solo songs, which offer a particularly rich repertoire, exemplified by ‘Music for a while’, from the play Oedipus. Purcell's greatest work was a song ,Te Deum and
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There has been much debate on who is the greatest hero of the ancient world. There has also been much dispute on which is the greatest epic poem of the ancient world. However, comparing The Aeneid to The Odyssey is entirely a difficult task itself. Odysseus' journeys, both physical and emotional, are essential in the overall work because it defines The Odyssey as an epic poem. Aeneas also shares a similar experience as Odysseus as well. Both stories are similar in countless ways because they both undergo comparable experiences on their travels and their life journeys. With that being said, they both demonstrated leadership in their own way. However, it is difficult to determine who the best leader actually is. Both men exhibit great leadership skills; therefore, causing a challenge for some in determining which the greater epic is. After analyzing both texts, it is possible to conclude that Aeneas is the better leader, but The Odyssey is the greater epic.
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Baroque music is characterized by its development of tonality, elaborate use of ornamentation, application of figured bass, and the expression of single affections. A considerable philosophical current that shaped baroque music is the interest in Renaissance ideas that spawn from ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered music to be an instrument of communication that could easily stimulate any emotion in its listeners. Therefore, musicians became progressively knowledgeable of the power one’s composition could have on its audiences’ emotions. Because of this, one of the primary goals of baroque art and music was to provoke emotion in the listener, which is closely connected to the “doctrine of affections”. This doctrine, derived from ancient theories of rhetoric and oratory, was the theory that a single piece of art or a single movement of music should express one single emotion. Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Ma...
The story of Dido and Aeneas also shows what happens when one loves too much. Dido’s love is destructive. Dido falls so deeply in love with Aeneas that she c...
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