Talk:Welcome to all the pleasures
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Movements/text
[edit]For possible inclusion – from "Welcome to all the Pleasures: Music for Saint Cecilia", Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, 21 November 2004:
- Movements
- Symphony
- Verse, Chorus & Ritornello: “Welcome to all the Pleasures”
- Song & Ritornello: “Here the deities approve”
- Verse & Ritornello: “While joys celestial their bright souls invade”
- Song & Chorus: “Then lift up your voices”
- Verse & Chorus: “Then lift up your voices”
- Instrumental Interlude
- Song & Ritornello: “Beauty, thou scene of love”
- Song & Chorus: “In a consort of voices while instruments play
- Text
Welcome to all the Pleasures that delight
Of ev’ry Sense the grateful Appetite!
Hail, great Assembly of Apollo’s Race!
hail to this happy place,
this Musical Assembly that seems to be
the Ark of Universal Harmony!
Here the Deities approve,
the God of Music and of Love,
all the Talents they have lent you,
all the Blessings they have sent you,
pleas’d to see what they bestow
live and thrive so well below,
While Joys Celestial their bright Souls invade,
To find what great improvements you have made.
Then lift up your Voices, those Organs of Nature,
those Charms to the troubled and amorous Creature.
The Pow’r shall divert us a pleasanter way,
For sorrow and grief
find from Music relief,
and Love its soft Charms must obey.
Beauty thou Scene of Love,
and Virtue thou innocent Fire,
made by the Powers above
to temper the heat of Desire:
Music that Fancy employs
in Rapture of innocent Flame,
we offer with Lute and with Voice
to Cecilia, Cecilia’s bright Name.
In a Consort of Voices, while Instruments play,
with Music we celebrate this Holy day.
In a Consort of Voices we'll sing – Îo Cecilia!
The text, in different spelling, can also be found here: Edmond Malone, ed. (1800). The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden. Thomas Cadell and William Davies. pp. 272–273.