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major are linked to pastoral scenes, and the trumpet keys C and D major to triumph. Price
wisely points out that there are no evidence of whether Purcell intended the different keys to
have these particular connotations, but that it is nevertheless obvious that certain keys have
been used for certain situations. 85 In some cases there are a corresponding usage of keys in
the mad songs, notably C or D major for triumph or jubilation, c minor for melancholy and g
minor for implied eroticism. If the keys have been chosen consciously, I rather think it is in
order to highlight the mood of a certain passage than to define a whole scene.
Establishing madness in a single scene; multisectional mad songs
“Let the dreadful engines”
Roughly dividing “Let the dreadful engines” into sections we can see how it moves from the
opening key F major to f minor in bar 17 (recitative), then from f minor to F major again in
bar 29 (aria); the F major section pulling towards C major, and thus anticipating a shift to C
major in bar 70 (recitative). Following the C major section is an aria in melancholic c minor,
with a tonicization of seven bars in g minor. Through the bass stepwise descending a fourth
the piece moves back to F major in bar 116 (recitative and aria), then a few bars in f minor in
130 (recitative), and from bar 135 the piece closes in F major (aria), after shifting both to B b
major and g minor.
32
Thus one finds that the main features of madness in “Let the dreadful engines” are the
unexpected, sometimes even abrupt, shifts of key and style between the sections. Such shifts
also mean a shift in mood, from desperation to despair, to exaltation to melancholy to rage to
indifference. There are sometimes tonicizations within the sections, sometimes natural to to-
nality and sometimes to the mode, giving the music a certain nerve. There are text-illustrative
devices like word-painting melismas rhythmicized or composed of intervals to illustrate the
words properly. An ascending or descending melody line also illustrate particular world or a
mood in general, as does the tessitura and sometimes the key per se.
The first F major section in recitative style opens Cardenio’s soliloquy as a kind of in-
vocation, boldly challenging the power that be and its forcible means thunder and lightning in
rapid, ascending melismas. 86 The shift to f minor changes the mood from the heat of challenge
to a chill of despair (“despair’s more cold than all the winds can blow”), and the move back
85
Price, London Stage, pp. 21 ff. esp. p. 22-23.
86
The power that be (”engines of eternal will”) is probably here to be understood as Zeus/ Jupiter judged by the
attributes thunder and lightning. Cardenio’s comparing himself to Zeus/ Jupiter is another indication of his madness,
see below.