Welcome to the piece: Thy hand Belinda and When I am Laid in earth by Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell.

The first ever performance of this piece took place in the year 1688. The Dido and Aeneas is a baroque opera consisting of three acts and an amazing prologue written by the one of a kind English composer Henry Purcell. The piece is one of the developments and pioneer pieces of vocal music that came from stile rappresentativo known as aria, often including ornamentation, regular rhythm and elaborated melody. Aria is self -contained pieces perform by one soloist with instrumentation being optional in this case an orchestra of strings and a large choir. The performance begins with a basic introduction by a contrast of instruments from the string family and gently drifts into the Recitative section where the singer is in a way playing the roll of the conductor setting the theme and pulse without actually singing. The Recitative leads to the aria where rolls switch leaving the instrumentalist to dictate the time. Contrapuntal texture is used with the strings harmonizing with the vocalist leaving two lines interweaving with one another but still being subordinate to the text because it was the main focus. After the choir disperses out of unison and splits into various groups we start to pick up some characteristics of concertato style. This is displayed in the alternating motion where one group sings a few lines leaving the other group to respond similar to a call and response giving the lyrics more purpose. Vast amounts of ornamentation are used to do what musical elements cant specifically import which is emotion played by instrumentalist and vocalist.

Its find to use the hay fever excuse after listening to this piece thats what they all say, enjoy!