What Sweeter Music

Occasion:

Publication Information:
Oxford University Press — X319 (1988)
  ISBN 0 19 343120 3

Text Information:
Reference: From Hesperides (1647), Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

Duration: 4:00
Lyrics: What sweeter music can we bring Than a carol, for to sing The birth of this our heav’nly King? Awake the voice! Awake the string! Dark and dull night, fly hence away, And give the honour to this day That sees December turned to May. Why does the chilling winter’s morn Smile, like a field beset with corn? Or smell like a meadow newly shorn Thus on the sudden? Come and see The cause, why things thus fragrant be: Tis he is born, whose quickening birth Gives life and lustre, public mirth, To heaven and the underearth. We see him come, and know him ours, Who, with his sunshine and his showers, Turns all the patient ground to flowers. The darling of the world is come, And fit it is, we find a room To welcome him. The nobler part Of all the house here, is the heart: Which we will give him; and bequeath This holly, and this ivy wreath, To do him honour; who’s our King, And Lord of all this revelling.
Notes: SATB with Soprano, Tenor, Bass divisi.
Submitted by: Brian Luckner    Added: Nov 4, 2021    Last updated: Jan 26, 2022