Descend, ye Nine! descend and sing

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.

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship

• by Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744), no title, appears in Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, no. 1, first published 1708 [ author's text checked 1 time]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "Descend ye nine", 1889 [chorus and orchestra], from Ode to St. Cecelia's Day, no. 2. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]

Text added to the website: 2009-09-04.
Last modified: 2014-06-16 10:03:21
Line count: 21
Word count: 114

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