Purcell uses several techniques to draw attention to the lyrics being sung in this song. The key word music is sung on the tonic note A then reinforced by repetition a fifth higher on the dominant note E at bar 5. The lyric is sung syllabically to make it stand out and is an example of word painting. Some other lyrics (such as the word all) are also repeated to draw attention. The quaver rest before shall all also makes the words stand out clearly.

There is alternative phrasing between the vocal line and the ground bass. The ostinato in the bass line is only 3 bars long, while the phrasing for the vocal line is 4 bars throughout the verse. Although the two lines start together in bar 4, they are out of sync within 4 bars. Purcell does this to make the song to sound like a continuous stream of music.

Purcell often uses dissonant intervals between the bass and melody to add feelings of anguish or pain to the music. A good example is the word pains in bar 12. The vocal line sings an E above a D minor chord. The E is not part of the chord and clashes noticeably with the F in the chord. This E begins a four-note melisma which places further stress on the word pains.

Bars 13–14 start to modulate to E minor (the dominant key) through the addition of a D# in the harpsichord part. The ground bass is also altered here. The melody and bass line resolve on the word pleas’d in bar 15 with a perfect cadence in E minor.

The song modulates again into G major, the relative of E minor, giving a more optimistic tone. Dissonance is heard between the vocal part and the bass line in bars 19–21 in the form of suspensions, which add to the expressive power of the music.

In bar 21, the bass line is altered again, shifting the piece into C major (the relative of A minor).

Henry Purcell: ‘Music for a While’