This aria is called "Dido's Lament" because Dido is lamenting the loss of Aeneas, her lover. We know it is a lament because of the text and the plot of the opera. But Purcell also lets us know it is a lament with a bass line that descends stepwise. Purcell's audiences would have known just by the music that this was an expression of deep sadness because other composers have used the same kind of bass line for the same reason.

Listen carefully to the bass line throughout this excerpt. Which best describes the melodic shape of the bass line?

Dido's Lament is worked on by a dark recitative, accompanied by the basso continuo, which exemplifies the lament in the composition.

Explanation:

The bass line of the work "Dido's lament is touted to be one of the greats musical achievements of Western music which Purcell did while employing cello and lute to give a seep and resounding tone wherein the theme of the song could be justified to the full.

The melodic line followed by the bass is dark, brooding and melancholic and its movements throughout the composition closely resemble an actual lament with multiple stages of grief coming with he rise and the fall of intensity of music.

It follows the form of traditional laments done for fallen soldiers in war.