Fantasia, “Three Parts on a Ground”

Composer: PURCELL, Henry
  • Fantasia à 4 “Three parts on a ground” Z 731 was composed c. 1678. “à 4” means “for four voices.”1
  • The title indicates that this contrapuntal work consists of four independent voices: three melodic parts a “ground bass,” in this case a six-note repeating bass line.2
  • Purcell’s aria “When I Am Laid in Earth” (Dido’s Lament) is another famous example of a ground bass composition.3

Sources

  1. Peter Holman and Robert Thompson, “Purcell, Henry (ii),” Grove Music Online, accessed December 26, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278249.
  2. Mary Cyr, “Established by Royal Favour,” liner notes to Rameau: “Castor et Pollux;” Purcell: 3 Fantasias, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Frans Brüggen, Philips 426714, CD, 1990. 
  3. J. Peter Burkholder et al, A History of Western Music, 7th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006), 374.

Cut IDs

49238