by Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)
Descend, ye Nine! descend and sing
Language: English
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 against a primary source]
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 [ sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Luca Antonio Pagnini) , no title, written 1800, appears in Ode di Alessandro Pope in onore di Santa Cecilia, no. 1
Researcher for this page: John Fowler
This text was added to the website: 2009-09-04
Line count: 21
Word count: 114