Purcell

• Sonata in D for Trumpet and Strings: Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695)


  • Purcell is regarded as one of this country's greatest composers
  • He wrote music for almost every genre, including sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental
  • He's probably the best exponent of the expression of the English word in music
  • He wrote the first ever English opera - Dido and Aeneas
  • He grew up in a family of musicians and as a boy was a chorister in the Chapel Royal
  • He acquired a collection of musical jobs, including assistant keeper and repairer of the King's instruments, organ tuner at Westminster Abbey and occasional copyist of music
  • He succeeded Matthew Locke as 'composer for the King's violins' at eighteen
  • He followed John Blow as organist at Westminster Abbey
  • His whole adult life was spent in the services of the court and church as composer and musician
• Sonata for Trumpet and Strings

  • Probably written near the end of Purcell's life
  • Published in 1694
  • The use of the trumpet would indicate a celebration of some sort
  • It follows a similar pattern to the twenty or so Sonatas in 3 and 4 parts for violins, bass viol and basso continuo
  • Purcell had 'faithfully endeavoured a just imitation of the most famed Italian masters' - most notably the Trio Sonatas of Anton Corelli
  • Imbued with the readily recognisable fingerprints of Purcell's own compositional style, namely a lively rhythmic energy, expressive and poignant harmony with adventurous chromaticism, and a strongly inventive melodic creativity
• Baroque trumpet


  • A natural instrument with no valves
  • Most were pitched in the key of D
  • Players had a set of crooks to insert into the tubing if another key was required
  • The 'clarino' register required a different type of mouthpiece with a shallower cup and a sharper edge to the main bore which gave brilliance to the tone and made lipping the out-of-tune harmonics easier
  • The best players were able to 'manage their instrument as softly as a flute'
• Most available recordings use a string orchestra of six or eight violins, two violas, one violoncello, double bass and harpsichord (or organ) as basso continuo, although it is possible to perform the work with much smaller forces
• All three movements are short in length, and make their musical affection immediately, directly and concisely
• 1st Movement: Pomposo


  1. Section A (bars 1-11)

  2. Section B (bars 12-19)

  3. Section C (bars 20-29)
• Section A


  • Built entirely on motif a
  • Trumpet sets the fanfare-like mood with a characteristic rhythmic pattern
  • Melody and accompaniment texture
  • Arch-shape to the opening melody
  • Modulates to the dominant, A major
• Section B


  • Contrasting mood - more relaxed, lyrical and plaintive
  • Stepwise, falling melodic shapes
  • Regular quaver movement, without semiquavers
  • B minor tonality
  • More imitative and contrapuntal texture
  • Quieter and more legato style
• Section C


  • Tonic firmly re-established
  • Trumpet reasserts itself with the principal melodic line
  • Antiphonal exchange between violin and bass
  • Trumpet picks up the last four notes of motif b in inversion and rhythmic diminution
  • Falling sequence of parallel first inversion chords
• 2nd Movement: Andante maestoso


  1. A (bars 1-4)

  2. A' (bars 5-7)

  3. B (bars 8-14)

  4. B' (bars 14-20)
• 2nd Movement


  • Gently expressive and poignant mood
  • Trumpet rested, strings play in a homophonic texture
  • Short gestures of just two or three notes, punctuated by rests
  • Slow tempo, minor tonality, conjunct melody
  • Rhythmic movement in crotchets, with dotted patterns preceding cadence points

  
• Binary form


  A (bars 1-4) | A' (bars 5-73) | B (bars 74-143) | B' (bars 144-20)
• Establishing B minor


  1. I Vb I progression, with repeated F# in the melody (3rd of the D major tonic chord which ended the first movement)

  2. VI V I progression, with melody rising three notes by step as the bass descends

  3. Two-bar phrase, melody rising chromatically through a D# (harmonised by a secondary dominant (V of IV), and up four notes (reminiscent of motif b in the first movement) before falling by a characteristic diminished 5th to the cadence, a perfect cadence in B minor, with a 4-3 suspension and anticipatory note
• Repeat of bars 1-4

  Pitched a fourth higher in the subdominant (E minor), with varied melodic shapes of both outer voices, the falling diminished 5th occurring earlier in the phrase to create a short descending melodic sequence, and the rising minor 6th in the bass now replaced by its inversion, a falling major 3rd. Cadence ends with a tierce de Picardie, in preparation for the modulation to A major
• B section


  1. Falling gestures in the melody, and increasingly chromatic and audacious harmony exploring the flatter and darker side of the key spectrum

  2. Phrases begin with an anacrusis, melody entirely conjunct, starting and ending with falling tones, but descending by semitones throughout bars 10-133

  3. Sequence of appoggiaturas

  4. Repeated Cs in bars 11 and 12, extending the phrase to six bars

  5. Unresolved 7th in bar 11

  6. Vb7 in F in bar 12

  7. Augmented triad in bar 13 (IIIb in Am)

  8. Six bars repeated with expanded textural range, using the A major chord in bar 14 as the dominant of D major and exploring the distant key of Bb major before employing another tierce de Picardie to switch from D minor to the final D major chord
• 3rd Movement: Allegro ma non troppo


  • Serious and regal first two movements, this final movement allows for some spirited dancing in the manner of a Gigue
  • Brisk tempo and metre result in performances which last less than one and a half minutes
• Features of a Gigue

  • Fast tempo
  • 3/8 metre (one-in-a-bar), with occasional hemiolas
  • D major key is typical of folk music (use of open strings), with little modulation
  • Easily memorable, conjunct melody
  • Imitative texture
  • Binary structure, with the theme inverted in the second half
  • 32-bar sections
• Bars 1-16


  1. Four-bar 'subject' stated in the first violins in a regular rhythmical pattern emphasising the strong beats of the bar, utilising just five pitches of the tonic scale, firstly in descent from the dominant and then rising sequentially to finish on the third

  2. Harmonic implications are I-I-V-I, in a harmonic rhythm which changes chord once every bar

  3. Violas imitate the subject an octave lower in bar 3, second violins imitate on the dominant a 5th higher than the violas in bar 5

  4. No leading notes in the subject, so no implication of modulating to the dominant key

  5. Texture increases to three voices, an extra bar of sequence is added whilst the first violins give a brief reference back to the falling appoggiaturas of the previous movement

  6. Basses enter with the subject, again starting on A, in bar 9

  7. Trumpet makes its entry in bar 13 with a final statement of the subject at its original pitch
• Bars 16-33


  1. Strings introduce a fresh idea which slows the harmonic rhythm to a chord change every two bars, creating greater rhythmic vitality and energy with five rapidly repeating chords

  2. Trumpet pares down the opening subject motif into a three-note descending triadic figure, the two ideas alternating in antiphonal dialogue

  3. Harmony reaches chord VI, the trumpet picks up the figure from the second bar of the subject and the II-V-I cadence arrives courtesy of a distinctive hemiola pattern

  4. One-in-a-bar harmonic rhythm restored at bar 27, section closes with a short descending sequence followed by another hemiola heralding the perfect cadence
• Bars 33-46


  1. Return of the opening subject, this time inverted and with the second entry in the second violins entering after only a single bar

  2. Bars are for strings only and after the bass entry the music modulates for the only time in the movement - four bars of the relative minor
• Bars 47-64


  1. Trumpet returns to state the inverted shape of the subject, tonic restored for the remainder of the work

  2. Change of shape at the end of the phrase brings about the first imperfect cadence in this movement (bar 51)

  3. New material presented, characterised by intervals of the rising 4th and falling 3rd in another antiphonal exchange, with the first violins doubling the trumpet against the lower strings

  4. Unexpected false relation between the bass C♮ and treble C# in bars 54-55

  5. Final statement of the subject in its original descending form starts at bar 59, apparently bringing the movement to a close with another hemiola and perfect cadence at bar 64

  
• Bars 64-80 (Codetta)


  1. Fanfare figure of repeating chords returns, with the trumpet joining in with the same material in antiphony with the strings, first rising and then falling through the notes of the tonic triad

  2. Cadence figure from bar 32 returns, repeated with the same phrase by the trumpet, and two more tonic chords for the curtsey to bring the dance to a close