Your Recorder Community

The ground bass of this chaconne is established by the lower voices, which play steadily throughout. It is most effective when the half-notes in the pattern are played slightly detached, the first half-note of each bar a little long, giving it weight, and the third half-note a little shorter, allowing the players to catch a short breath at the end of each bar. This pattern is repeated until the last bar of the ground, when the first half-note is slightly shortened to give (unaccented) weight to the whole note that follows. The melody is carried by the two tenors and the alto, but if you have more than one player on a part, be sure to put your extra players on the tenor lines. The middle voices provide Purcell’s beautiful harmonies and add to the joyous Baroque style that comes out in the hallelujas. Take care that the dotted figures are not played as triplets, but as true dotted figures.

For a brief and interesting analysis of this work (Z 193 in the Purcell catalog), visit Todd Tarantino’s web page on the subject. He offers a link to a few Youtube recordings which can give you a good sense of the music and its emotion: http://www.toddtarantino.com/hum/purcell_eveninghymn.html.