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The Bacchae (Preview)

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by Ralph Vaughan Williams | Solo Alto, Chorus (SSA) and Orchestra

THOU IMMACULATE ON HIGH

THOU IMMACULATE ON HIGH Chorus – Some Maidens TEXT Leader: Thou Immaculate on high; Thou Recording Purity; Thou that stoopest, Golden Wing, Earthward, manward, pitying, Hearest thou this angry King? Hearest thou the rage and scorn Chorus: ’Gainst the Lord of Many Voices, Him of mortal mother born, Him in whom man's heart rejoices, Girt with garlands and with glee, First in Heaven's sovranty? For his kingdom, it is there, In the dancing and the prayer, In the music and the laughter, In the vanishing of care, And of all before and after; In the Gods' high banquet, when Gleams the grape-blood, flashed to heaven; Yea, and in the feasts of men Comes his crowned slumber; then Pain is dead and hate forgiven! Others Loose thy lips from out the rein; Lift thy wisdom to disdain; Whatso law thou canst not see, Scorning; so the end shall be Uttermost calamity! 'Tis the life of quiet breath, 'Tis the simple and the true, Storm nor earthquake shattereth, Nor shall aught the house undo Where they dwell. For, far away, Hidden from the eyes of day, Watchers are there in the skies, That can see man's life, and prize Deeds done well by things of clay. PEV02 – x

Leader: But the world's Wise are not wise, Claiming more than mortal may. Life is such a little thing; Lo, their present is departed, And the dreams to which they cling Come not. Mad imagining Theirs, I ween, and empty-hearted! Divers Maidens Leader and Chorus alternating: Where is the Home for me? O Cyprus, set in the sea, Aphrodite's home in the soft sea-foam, Would I could wend to thee; Where the wings of the Loves are furled, And faint the heart of the world. Leader: Aye, unto Paphos' isle, Where the rainless meadows smile With riches rolled from the hundred-fold Mouths of the far-off Nile, Chorus: Ah, Streaming beneath the waves To the roots of the seaward caves. Leader: But a better land is there Where Olympus cleaves the air, The high still dwell Where the Muses dwell, Leader and Chorus: Fairest of all things fair! O there is Grace, and there is the Heart's Desire. Leader: And peace to adore thee, thou Spirit of Guiding Fire! A God of Heaven is he, And born in majesty; Yet hath he mirth in the joy of the Earth, And he loveth constantly Her who brings increase, The Feeder of Children, Peace. PEV02 – xi

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