"Music for a while shall all your cares beguile" is from Act III, Scene 1 of Oedipus, with incidental music by Purcell. The music is scored modestly, employing only alto, tenor, and bass soloists, two violins, and continuo. The surviving manuscripts of Purcell's setting are undated, but Charles Burney suggests the date 1692, in part because the play was reprinted that year.
Oedipus, a tragedy, was written in 1678 by Nathaniel Lee and John Dryden (1631-1700), author of the text for King Arthur and co-author of that for The Indian Queen. In Oedipus, Tiresias, a blind seer, and two priests summon the ghost of King Laius to discover the identity of his murderer. After entreating the "powers below" through solo and tutti numbers, the first priest tries to conjure King Laius by singing "Music for a while."
A full statement of the ground bass precedes the entrance of the first priest. The arpeggiated chords of the bass part intertwine with the tenor voice line as both slowly rise with powerful chromatic alterations, depicting the rising of the dead King Laius. The tonally ambiguous, non-diatonic bass line allows for greater harmonic exploration through modulation in the middle of the piece. During the fourth repetition of the ground, the pattern goes astray, although maintaining the basic arpeggio figure of the bass line. At this point, the text describes one of the Furies, Alecto, who is capable of "free[ing] the dead from their eternal bands." When the narrator describes snakes dropping from Alecto's head, Purcell places a rest between each of the numerous statements of "drop," which occur on the second half of the beat. A gentle descending line closes the middle section on the dominant as preparation for the return to the tonic. Purcell's return to the home key (C minor) brings with it a return of the opening melody and text; a regular occurrence in Purcell's late ground-bass arias. This brings to mind the da capo aria with its ternary plan. ~ All Music Guide
