1. Chorus
From Harmony, from heav’nly Harmony
		This universal Frame began;
	When Nature underneath a heap
		Of jarring Atomes lay,
	And cou’d 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 MUSICK’S pow’r 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. Soprano Solo and Chorus
What Passion cannot MUSICK raise and quell?
		When Jubal struck the corded Shell,
	His listening Brethren stood around,
		And, wond’ring, on their Faces fell
	To worship that Celestial Sound:
Less than a God they thought there could not dwell
		Within the hollow of that Shell
		That spoke so sweetly, and so well.
What Passion cannot MUSICK raise and quell?

3. Chorus and Baritone Solo
	The TRUMPETS loud Clangor
		Excites us to Arms
	With shrill notes of Anger
		And mortal Alarms.
	The double double double beat
		Of the thund’ring DRUM
		Cryes, heark the Foes come;
Charge, Charge, ‘tis too late to retreat.

4. Soprano solo
	The soft complaining FLUTE
	In dying Notes discovers
	The Woes of hopeless Lovers,
Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling LUTE.

5. Chorus
	Sharp VIOLINS proclaim
Their jealous Pangs and Desperation,
Fury, frantick Indignation
Depth of Pains and Height of Passion,
	For the fair, disdainful Dame.

6. Baritone Solo
	But oh! What Art can teach
	What human Voice can reach
		The sacred ORGANS Praise?
	Notes inspiring holy Love,
Notes that wing their heavenly Ways
	To mend the Choires above.

7. Soprano Solo
Orpheus cou’d lead the savage race,
And Trees unrooted left their Place,
	Sequacious of the Lyre;
But bright CECILIA rais’d the Wonder high’r:
When to her Organ vocal Breath was given,
An Angel heard, and straight appear’d
	Mistaking Earth for Heav’n.

8. Soprano and Baritone Soli and Chorus
As from the Pow’r of Sacred Lays
	The Spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator’s Praise
	To all the bless’d above;
So, when the last and dreadful Hour
This crumbling Pageant shall devour,
The TRUMPET shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And MUSICK shall untune the Sky.

Composer’s Note

This commission from Choral Arts New England was for a work that would include a couple of soloists, mixed chorus SATB and a few instruments. The work should be accessible for other choruses in New England (choruses lacking the virtuoso abilities of Chorus pro Musica), a work that offered challenges but not one filled with excessive difficulties, and a score which would be modest in its instrumental requirements. The score calls for two horns, double bass and organ.

Their suggestion for a setting the Dryden poem was indeed a happy one. I was very familiar with this text. I admit, however, to having felt somewhat intimidated by the great Handel setting of these same words. Handel, however, used enormous forces and painted on a large canvas. My work was to be in the 15-minute category, brief but not small.

Like the Handel score, my work is divided up into multiple short movements. There are separate movements devoted to the attributes of the trumpets, the flute, the violins, the organ and St. Cecilia’s voice. (The complete text is printed elsewhere in this program). The first and concluding movements celebrate the power of music.

—Daniel Pinkham

Allusions

Jubal is cited in Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 21 as “the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ.” In classical mythology he is said to have invented the lyre by having attached strings to a tortoise shell from which he made music and thereby astonishing his companions.

In Greek mythology Orpheus, by some reports the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, is reputed to have charmed wild animals and even caused trees to move by the power of his playing on the lyre.

Saint Cecilia, Roman virgin and martyr, is patroness of musicians. She is often depicted as singing while accompanying herself on an organ. Her feast day is 22 November.