Dido's Lament in the context of "Henry Purcell"

Play Trivia Questions online!

 or

Skip to study material about Dido's Lament in the context of "Henry Purcell"

⭐ Core Definition: Dido's Lament

Dido's Lament ("When I am laid in earth") is the closing aria from the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate.

It is included in many classical music textbooks to illustrate the descending chromatic fourth (passus duriusculus) in the ground bass. The conductor Leopold Stokowski wrote a transcription of the piece for symphony orchestra. This is played annually in London by the massed bands of the Guards Division at the Cenotaph remembrance parade in Whitehall on Remembrance Sunday, the Sunday nearest to 11 November (Armistice Day).

↓ Menu

In this Dossier

Dido's Lament in the context of Gamut (music)

Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900.

These terms may mean different things in different contexts. Very often, diatonic refers to musical elements derived from the modes and transpositions of the "white note scale" C–D–E–F–G–A–B. In some usages it includes all forms of heptatonic scale that are in common use in Western music (the major, and all forms of the minor).

↑ Return to Menu
LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Gamut (music) ← Diatonic and chromatic ← Chromatic ← Diatonic chord
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Lea Desandre → Les Arts Florissants (ensemble) → Aria → Opera → Dido and Aeneas → Henry Purcell → Libretto → Nahum Tate → Chromatic fourth → Bar (music) → Classical music → Ground bass → Leopold Stokowski → Transcription (music) → Symphony orchestra → Guards Division → The Cenotaph → Whitehall → Remembrance Sunday → Armistice Day →