Ode for Music

Thomas Gray

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  • Air
  • Chorus
  • Recitative
  • Air
  • Recitative
  • Quartetto
  • Recitative
  • Air
  • Recitative
  • Grand Chorus



  • Air




    "Hence, avaunt, ('tis holy ground)
    Comus and his midnight-crew,

    And Ignorance with looks profound,
    And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue,

    Mad Sedition's cry profane,
    Servitude that hugs her chain,
    Nor in these consecrated bowers
    Let painted Flattery hide her serpent-train in flowers.



    Chorus





    "Nor Envy base nor creeping Gain

    Dare the Muse's walk to stain,
    While bright-eyed Science watches round:

    Hence, away, 'tis holy ground!"



    Recitative




    From yonder realms of empyrean day
    Bursts on my ear the indignant lay:
    There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine,
    The few whom genius gave to shine
    Through every unborn age and undiscovered clime.
    Rapt in celestial transport they, (accomp.)

    Yet hither oft a glance from high

    They send of tender sympathy
    To bless the place, where on their opening soul
    First the genuine ardour stole.
    'Twas Milton struck the deep-toned shell,

    And, as the choral warblings round him swell,
    Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime,
    And nods his hoary head and listens to the rhyme.



    Air




    "Ye brown o'er-arching groves,
    That Contemplation loves,
    Where willowy Camus lingers with delight!
    Oft at the blush of dawn
    I trod your level lawn,
    Oft wooed the gleam of Cynthia silver-bright
    In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly,
    With Freedom by my side, and soft-eyed Melancholy."



    Recitative




    But hark! the portals sound and, pacing forth
    With solemn steps and slow,
    High potentates and dames of royal birth
    And mitred fathers in long order go:
    Great Edward with the lilies on his brow
    From haughty Gallia torn,
    And sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn
    That wept her bleeding love, and princely Clare,
    And Anjou's heroine, and the paler rose,
    The rival of her crown and of her woes,
    And either Henry there,
    The murthered saint and the majestic lord,

    That broke the bonds of Rome,
    (Their tears, their little triumphs o'er, (accomp.)

    Their human passions now no more,

    Save charity, that glows beyond the tomb).
    All that on Granta's fruitful plain

    Rich streams of regal bounty poured,
    And bade these awful fanes and turrets rise,
    To hail their Fitzroy's festal morning come;

    And thus they speak in soft accord
    The liquid language of the skies.



    Quartetto




    "What is grandeur, what is power?
    Heavier toil, superior pain.

    What the bright reward we gain?

    The grateful memory of the good.
    Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
    The bee's collected treasures sweet,
    Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
    The still small voice of gratitude."



    Recitative




    Foremost and leaning from her golden cloud
    The venerable Margaret see!

    "Welcome, my noble son," (she cries aloud)

    "To this, thy kindred train, and me:
    Pleased in thy lineaments we trace
    A Tudor's fire, a Beaufort's grace.



    Air




    "Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye,
    The flower unheeded shall descry,
    And bid it round heaven's altars shed
    The fragrance of its blushing head:
    Shall raise from earth the latent gem
    To glitter on the diadem.



    Recitative




    "Lo, Granta waits to lead her blooming band,
    Not obvious, not obtrusive, she
    No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings;
    Nor dares with courtly tongue refined

    Profane thy inborn royalty of mind:

    She reveres herself and thee.
    With modest pride to grace thy youthful brow
    The laureate wreath, that Cecil wore, she brings,

    And to thy just, thy gentle hand
    Submits the fasces of her sway,
    While spirits blest above and men below
    Join with glad voice the loud symphonious lay.



    Grand Chorus


    "Through the wild waves as they roar
    With watchful eye and dauntless mien
    Thy steady course of honour keep,
    Nor fear the rocks nor seek the shore:
    The star of Brunswick smiles serene,
    And gilds the horrors of the deep."