Henry Purcell, “Dido’s Lament”

by Kevin Lu | April 12, 2021

The Baroque era (~1600–1750) was an important musical epoch of innovation and experimentation in which composers began to push the idea of melodic and harmonic practices to greater heights. Though the practices were slow to gain approval as they constantly drew harsh criticism for their radical nature, the era had seen the emergence of many distinguished composers who have paved the way for composers of later generations. Henry Purcell (1659–1695) was an English composer from the Baroque era who had incorporated both French and Italian contrapuntal styles in his writing. It is said that no English composer had reached the reputation that he had until the 20th century, with the emergence of composers such as Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughn Williams. He had an interest in a broad range of genres and was one of the nation’s first composers to explore the opera genre.

Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas was one of the first English operas written and remains one of the most monumental and important works in the opera repertory. It occupies a substantial part in his vast oeuvre of works as it was his only true operatic work and his only all sung dramatic work. Dido and Aeneas consist of a prologue that is followed by three acts. The first documented performance took place at Josias Priest’s girls’ school in 1689, however, its first performance date remains unknown as most of the documentation concerning the premiere have been lost. Its librettist is Nahum Tate and it is based on the Aeneid, a Latin poem by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. It depicts the story of the Trojan Hero, Aeneas, when he is shipwrecked on the island of Carthage on his way to find Rome. He comes across the widowed queen, Dido, who falls in love with him and accepts his marriage proposal. Unfortunately, Aeneas is tricked by the Sorceress who plans a destruction of Carthage to leave and continue his journey in finding Rome. Heartbroken that Aeneas will no longer be near her, Dido despairs and eventually takes her life as a result of her insurmountable grief. Though the work was based on a generally well-known and tragic story, the work was never performed again in Purcell’s lifetime. It was only sparsely performed until its revival during the bicentenary of Purcell’s death in 1895, when it received its first performance outside of England. Nowadays, the score editions used are a modified variant of Purcell’s original work as the earliest existing version dates to approximately the mid-18th century, decades after the composer’s death. Nevertheless, the opera has been frequently performed and championed by some of the world’s most acclaimed musicians, such as Nancy Evans and Jessye Norman since its first recording in 1935. What are some of the music pieces that helped Dido and Aeneas to garner such a massive reputation?

The aria “When I am Laid,” which is commonly known as “Dido’s Lament,” is the most famous piece from the entire opera. Sorrowful and impassioned in nature, it expresses the profound grief that Dido goes through after being abandoned by Aeneas. The music is scored for strings and continuo and provides a sparse accompaniment texture to convey a feeling of emptiness to the work. Throughout the aria, Purcell employed striking melodic and harmonic elements that were integral in the subtext's communication. Elin Manahan Thomas has recorded an excellent rendition of the aria. The performance is very natural throughout, and she accurately portrays the feeling of sorrow and grief through the pure but rich timbre of her voice. The aria's immense popularity led it to take on various forms as a standalone piece, most notably as a band piece for the celebration of the remembrance ceremony on Armistice Day. What were some harmonic and melodic elements that Purcell employed in the music, and what could they be trying to express?

“When I am Laid in Earth” begins with a recitative in the key of C minor before moving into the main aria set in the key of G minor. Owing to the very intimate and mournful nature of the music, it is a recitative secco accompanied by continuo only. The recitative sets the atmosphere of the aria up immediately; it begins by introducing a melisma on “darkness”, and it contains chromatic inflections of major and minor harmony, which makes the music unusually chromatic.

Both the melisma and the chromatic inflections are recognized as ways of communicating feelings of despair and anguish. The simplistic nature of both the harmony and melody gives the aria its powerful and convincing nature. Like the main aria, the recitative consists of a simple but emotionally intense melodic line decorated with suspensions and neighbor tones to enhance its expressive nature. The harmony consists of a balanced proportion of tonic and predominant prolongation, with two measures allocated to each within a four-measure phrase. The tonic region consists of a root position tonic and secondary dominant chord that tonicizes iv, while the predominant region consists of a stepwise bass line that moves from iv(IV♮)-iv6.

Since the recitative is divided into four-measure phrases that all end in a half-cadence, the balanced and straightforward use of tonic and predominant harmony emphasizes a strong pull towards the dominant, which helps the music generate a rich and powerful quality to it. Both of the four measure phrases could be thought of as being identical to one another, with the latter being set to the dominant of C minor.

As in the main aria, Purcell has also introduced elements of word painting in the recitative. An interesting observation that can be made is that when the G minor tonality is confirmed, the corresponding text is as: “Death is now a welcome guest.” It shows that Dido has fully accepted the notion of suicide as a possible solution for her unbearable torment. The recitative has helped introduce the main aria by setting up a somber and pessimistic atmosphere in which Dido cannot escape from except by realizing that death is the ultimate destination for her suffering.

In the main aria, the most striking feature of the work is the ground bass which features a descending chromatic line covering a 4th presented in it. It is one of the most famous examples of a chromatic line in a ground bass from the literature of music as it so happens to profoundly convey the theme of death and fate throughout the aria. The chromatic line is not only a symbol of death on its own, but it also creates dissonant sonorities against the otherwise very simple and diatonic melodic line, creating tension, and emphasizing Dido’s extreme anguish.

Though the vocal line varies at certain moments, Purcell manages to maintain a strict, unvaried repetition of the ground bass, which repeats for a total of eleven times throughout the aria.

Like the recitative, most of the song is sung melismatically, and there is an emphasis on certain words to bring out specific meanings. For instance, in the first verse, “When I am Laid am Laid in Earth, May my wrongs create,” there is a long melisma on “Laid” and “wrongs” which emphasizes the idea of death and its consequences thereafter.

However, when it gets to “Remember me!”, the aria uses syllabic text setting. The shift in text setting signals the feeling of urgency in Dido as her grief reaches a terminal stage. She even elevates the register and dynamic intensity on one of the repeats, which I thought was very effective in exacerbating her feeling of torment.

The ground bass ostinatos are unusual because they are five measures in length which is highly irregular. It also leads to irregular phrasing in the vocal line as they are presented in nine-measure groups of four-measure and five-measure phrase units, all of which end on half cadences. The half cadence helps propel the music forward because of its lack of feeling of a conclusion, and it represents Dido’s consistent struggle against her grief. The only time the music falls on a perfect authentic cadence (PAC) to affirm the key is when Dido gets to “forget my fate” after she stops singing. The conclusion on “forget my fate” confirms her eventual fate in the end, her grief is too much to be overcome, and she eventually decides to take her life.

It is also worthy to note that after Dido finishes singing, there is an occurrence of the full descending chromatic scale on G in the upper voice, and it’s the only occurrence of a chromatic scale to be presented in a full octave. It gives the music an emphatic close as Dido’s fate has been officially confirmed.

Throughout the analysis, it is evident that harmony and melody play an integral part in evoking the character of a song. Though it can be tedious at times to take apart the harmonic details and draw meaningful implications from them, it is helpful to do so, as it can provide ideas for understanding and interpreting the work. It gives a clear insight into the composer's style and what makes their music special enough to be part of the vast oeuvre of masterpieces from the musical era. Dido and Aeneas is definitely no exception, as seen from “When I am Laid in Earth”. Its compelling melodic and harmonic elements give rise to a unique but compelling way of communicating despair and anguish. By analyzing the music in further detail, we can observe the subtleties in the musical expression and its role in generating for the music its universal appeal.