Henry Purcell Now that the sun hath veiled his light, sacred song for soprano & continuo (An Evening Hymn), Z. 193 Now that the sun hath veild his light, Z. 193, was published in 1688 in Henry Playfords Harmonia Sacra, or Divine Hymns and Dialogues. The first piece in the collection, Now that the sun is subtitled An Evening Hymn on a Ground. A second volume of Harmonia Sacra appeared in 1693 with several more pieces by Purcell. In Playfords publication, the song gives only the voice and bass parts, with only seven measures showing bass figures. Later editions contain figures or realized accompaniments by editors. The text of Now that the sun hath veild his light is by Dr. William Fuller, bishop of Lincoln. As the narrator puts himself to bed, he wonders, But where, where shall my soul repose? He hopes it is in the arms of his Dear God and is thankful that he has had many days of life. Purcell sets Fullers rumination on an evening prayer with serene music in G major. Purcells ground bass is simple and descending, behaving like an ornamented G major passacaglia. A repeated pattern of three half notes descends stepwise, then rises a step to begin again. This happens for four measures, falling from G to B. In the fifth measure, the bass rises through C to D, then the pattern begins again. Purcell, as usual, avoids the potential monotony of the ground bass song by altering the voice part often and to such a degree that it covers the manifold repetitions of the bass. Nearly every line of the poem is repeated, but to melodies of different shape and length. However, these irregular phrases have common motives, such as those setting the two appearances of To the soft and Then to thy rest. Also, the motive setting the words singing is the basis for the extended Alleluia, which Purcell added to Fullers text. As in Music for a while (From Oedipus), Z. 583, Purcell transposes the ground bass in order to modulate in the middle of the song. In Now that the sun, the G major ground first moves up a third, at And can there be, allowing a foray into B minor. At the repetition of this line, Purcell pushes to the dominant (D major) through A major. Before the Alleluia, the piece returns to G major, but in the course of this new section, which is as long as the preceding song, we hear other brief modulations before a final dotted-rhythm melisma and a close on G major.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 11:35:23 +0000
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