FROM harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
When nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
'Arise, ye more than dead!'
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And Music's power obey.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.
2 comments:
Dryden with a Händel accompaniment. What an artful nod to the Restoration. I like.
I think The Ode for St. Ceclia's Day is first piece of music I ever understood.
If you listen very closely to the vocal arrangements in the final chorus, Handel brings the separate voices of the soloists together with the chorus in EXACTLY the way Dryden describes in his poem.
It always gives me chills to hear it.
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