Descend, ye Nine! (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)

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• (Posted 2008-09-12)  CPDL #18052:        (Sibelius 4)

Editor: John Henry Fowler (submitted 2008-09-12).   Score information: Letter, 20 pages, 197 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Descend, ye Nine!
Composer: Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
Lyricist: Alexander Pope

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: Organ

First published: 1889
Description: No. 2 from Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (1889)

Original text and translations

English text

Descend, ye Nine! descend and sing;
The breathing instruments inspire,
Wake into voice each silent string,
And sweep the sounding lyre;
In a sadly-pleasing strain
Let the warbling lute complain:
Let the loud trumpet sound,
Till the roofs all around
The shrill echoes rebound:
While in more lengthen'd notes and slow,
The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow.
Hark! the numbers soft and clear,
Gently steal upon the ear;
Now louder, and yet louder rise,
And fill with spreading sounds the skies;
Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes,
In broken air, trembling, the wild music floats;
Till, by degrees, remote and small,
The strains decay,
And melt away,
In a dying, dying fall.