If music be the food of love,
Sing on till I am fill'd with joy;
For then my list'ning soul you move
To pleasures that can never cloy.
Your eyes, your mien, your tongue declare
That you are music ev'rywhere.

Pleasures invade both eye and ear,
So fierce the transports are, they wound,
And all my senses feasted are,
Tho' yet the treat is only sound,
Sure I must perish by your charms,
Unless you save me in your arms.

Note: the first line quotes Orsino's lines in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Composition:

Set to music by Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), "If music be the food of love", note: this is a realization of a Purcell song.

Text Authorship:

• by Henry Heveningham, Colonel (1651 - 1700)

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Si la música és l’aliment de l’amor", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Si la musique est la nourriture de l'amour", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Elaine Marie Ortiz-Arandes) , "Wenn Musik die Nahrung der Liebe ist", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Paolo Montanari) , "Se la musica è il cibo dell'amore", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 80