To Musick, Sing

To Musick, Sing!

Shake off thy Sloth, my drouzy Soul, awake;

With Angels sing

Unto thy King,

And pleasant Musick make;

Thy Lute, thy Harp, or else thy Heart-strings take,

And with thy Musick let thy Sense awake. (from On Christmas Day - Thomas Traherne)

Awake the Voice! Awake the String!

Heart, Eare, and Eye, and every thing

Awake! (from A Christmas Caroll, sung to the King in

the Presence at White-Hall - Robert Herrick)

And thou, sweet music, dancing’s only life,

The ear’s sole happiness, the air’s best speech,

Lodestone of fellowship, charming rod of strife,

The soft mind’s paradise, the sick mind’s leech,

With thine own tongue thou trees and stones canst teach,

That when the air doth dance her finest measure,

Then thou art born, the gods’ and men’s sweet pleasure. (from Orchestra - Sir John Davies)

Awake the Voice! Awake the String!

Heart, Eare, and Eye, and every thing

Awake!

Aye, at times on summer evenings,

It was there for one sweet hour

That we met for mirth and music,

On the green beside the bower, Once I had a grey hawk,

And a pretty grey hawk,

A sweet pretty bird of my own,

Ere as yet the flitting blackbird

Still’d her singing for the night,

Or the evening shed its dew-drops

In the lily’s cup of white. But she took a flight,

By ones or twos, two or one, She flew away quite,

We sang and play’d our music And there's nobody knows

Out before the evening sun. Where she's gone, my brave boys.

(from Mirth and Music - William Barnes) (The Grey Hawk - trad. Dorset)

Awake the Voice! Awake the String!

Heart, Eare, and Eye, and every thing

Awake!

If we moder oure Musyke as the trewe tune is,

In hevyn we shall synge OSANNA IN EXCLESIS. (from The Lekingfelde Proverbs - Anon 16c)

To Musick, Sing!