Author Description

Product Description for soprano solo and SATB unaccompaniedIn this innovative arrangement Stanley M. Hoffman takes Henry Purcell's most popular solo aria, the 'Lament' from his opera Dido and Aeneas, and reimagines it as a work for unaccompanied soprano solo and SATB choir, thus making a staple of the solo song repertoire available for choral performance.The chromatic passage that opens the piece is sung wordlessly by the bass section, and Hoffman's setting features imaginative interplay between chorus and soloist, sharing the well-known lyrics between them, and sensitive dynamic contrasts. About the Author Purcell was the outstanding musician and composer of his time in Britain. Like other seventeenth-century musicians, Purcell's career began in the church, first as a chorister at the Chapel Royal, then as organist at Westminster Abbey composing anthems. At court he enjoyed the favour of successive monarchs composing odes on special occasions, but his works for Mary II are the best known, composed when Purcell was reaching the height of his powers, just before his premature death.