Roxanna Panufnik - Heavn'ly Harmony

From harmony, from heav'nly 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 pow'r obey
From harmony, from heav'nly harmony
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Thro' all the compass of the notes it ran
The diapason closing full in Man

What passion cannot Music raise and quell!
When Jubal struck the corded shell
His list'ning brethren stood around
And, wond'ring, on thеir faces fell
To worship that celеstial 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 Music raise and quell!
The Trumpet's loud clangor
Excites us to arms
With shrill notes of anger
And mortal alarms
The double double double beat
Of the thund'ring Drum
Cries: "Hark! the foes come;
Charge, charge, 't is too late to retreat."

The soft complaining Flute
In dying notes discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers
Whose dirge is whisper'd by the warbling Lute

Sharp Violins proclaim
Their jealous pangs, and desperation
Fury, frantic indignation
Depth of pains, and height of passion
For the fair, disdainful dame

But O! what art can teach
What human voice can reach
The sacred Organ's praise?
Notes inspiring holy love
Notes that wing their heav'nly ways
To mend the choirs above
Orpheus could 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 giv'n
An angel heard, and straight appear'd
Mistaking earth for heav'n

As from the pow'r of sacred lays
The spheres began to move
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the blest 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 Music shall untune the sky