- Date: ca. 1693
- Composer: Henry Purcell
- Period: Baroque (1600-1749)
Review
This is a dramatic, recitative like aria for solo soprano. The words are by Nahum Tate, and are the dramatic representation of the time that Mary couldn't find Jesus because he had stayed behind at the temple to talk to the Elders. He was just a young boy, and the distress of his mother is well documented in this poem. Mr. Tate has Mary recalling the slaughter of the Innocents under Herod, and imagining all sorts of ills having befallen her son. Purcell gives the setting an appropriate amount of pictorial representation, but more importantly, he represents in the music all of the emotions passing through her during this scene. Of all Purcell's songs, it is the most operatic.The opening is urgent and demanding as Mary cries out for some "pitying angel" to tell her what has become of her son. As usual, Purcell highlights words with extended melismatic material, especially to highlight her remembrance of Herod's slaughter. The "wilderness" that they had to travel through to flee the slaughter is highlighted. "Savages" are given a savage turn of phrase, and "tyrant's" are also treated accordingly.
The emotional pitch builds as Mary begins to ask "Why, why, why" in ever more intense harmonies and angularity. "Where's Gabriel" she cries, to signify her feeling of desertion by her former protector. "I call, I call , I call " she sings in a trumpet like passage. Then she repeats his name again and again while the tension and the distress of the music builds. Finally, as if overcome by despair, she almost whispers "He comes not." The section is repeated for emphasis, and even more dramatic the second time through.
There is an emotional breath taken on the next few lines of text. In triple time, Mary sings in hopeful strains of how blessed she is. But the finale of the setting is even more pictorially dramatic, if that is possible. "How shall my soul its motions guide" is full of the soul's uncontrollable movement. And Mary's "lab'ring thoughts" wander in an endless chromatic melisma. "But oh!" is the final text, and it wanders hopelessly through to the end. ~ All Music Guide
