Henry Purcell and Dido and Aeneas

1) Henry Purcell:
a) English composer
b) Born 1659 in London
c) Chorister at the Royal Chapel by the age of 10
d) When voice broke, became an unpaid assistant to the keeper of the Kings instruments (BBC
Music, n.d)
e) Born a year before the Restoration of the Monarchy in England, Scotland and Ireland
i) Music was becoming more popular and needed again.
f) Studied at the Royal Chapel with Dr John Blow.
i) Dr John Blows tombstone read Master to the famous Mr Henry Purcell
ii) Purcell was well respected by others in the music community, including his superiors.
g) 1679- Purcell became Westminster Abbeys organist, taking over from John Blow, his
teacher.
i) Blow apparently stepped aside for Purcell
ii) Took over again in 1695 after Purcells death and wrote Ode to the Death of Purcell
(Baroquemusic.org, n.d)
h) September 10
th
1677 became the composer in ordinary for Violins for two years before
becoming Westminster Abbeys Organist in 1679
i) 1682 appointed one of three organists at the Chapel Royal
j) 1683 composed his first ode Ode for St Cecilias Day
k) 1683 became Royal Instrument Keeper but kept other posts (Classic FM, n.d)
l) 1685 Composed the anthem for the Coronation of James II
m) 1688 James II forced into exile 1689 took part in Coronation of William and Mary
(Humanities Web, n.d)
n) 1689 William and Mary came to the throne kept Purcell as instrument keeper Purcell
shared duties of Court Composer with his teacher John Blow and Alexander Damazene.
(Classic FM, n.d)
o) 1689 Dido and Aeneas first performance Girls school in Chelsea.
p) 1695 wrote music for funeral of Queen Mary Westminster Abbey.
q) 1695 Died 21
st
November Buried in Westminster Abbey (Humanities Web, n.d)
2) Dido and Aeneas:
a) Baroque Opera
b) Composed by Henry Purcell
c) Prologue and three acts
d) Libretto by Nahum Tate
e) First performed 1688, Josias Preists Girls School, London
f) Based on book 4 of Publius Vergilius Maros Aeneid (Boyden, Matthew et al., "Dido and
Aeneas", The rough guide to opera 3rd edition, Rough Guides, 2002)
g) Purcells only all sung opera
h) The Story:
i) Widowed Queen of Carthage, Dido, entertains Trojan Prince Aeneas after he was
shipwrecked on his way to Italy and they fall in love
ii) Sorceress conjures a storm to hit them whilst they hunt.
iii) Aeneas leaves to sail for Italy and Dido kills herself (Naxos, 20/9/13)
i) Clear key structure used major and minor chords happiness and sadness
i) First scene C minor Dido is fearful
ii) Out of the ordinary key changes tonic minor to tonic major, not tonic minor to relative
major
j) Dance movements are included
i) May have been more dance movements written that have been lost
k) Around the time it was written:
i) French Opera sometimes included ballet not popularly used in England
l) Written for Josiah Priest dance master
i) Could be the reason for all the dance movements.
m) Purcell used Ground Bass in some parts of this work
n) Use of chromatics. (IB Music , n.d).