Memoirs, journal and correspondence of Thomas Moore

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

147–48

text excerpt

Had promised Bowles to go and dine with him to-day […] Company at dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Lysons and their two daughters (from Gloucestershire), Mr. Clarke (the Winchester man, who wrote a pamphlet against Brougham on the Education question) and his wife, and Mr. Hume, the Vicar of Calne. Day very pleasant; music in the evening. Mr. L. and one of his daughters sung duets. “God save the King,” it seems, has been at last ascertained to have been composed by a man of the name of John Bull in the time of James I. The pretty melody sung in churches to the “Evening Hymn” was composed, Bowles says, by Tallis, the famous musician in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward, and Mary, whose responses to the Litany are still performed in cathedral service. Talked of the beautiful words there are to some of Purcell’s things; the four following lines charming: —

“We heard the nightingale, the lark, —
And all around seemed blithe and gay;
We ne’er grew sad till it grew dark,
And nothing mourned but parting day.”

Mrs. L. and her daughters sung “Verdi prati” to the English words.

excerpt from 'Memoirs, journal and correspondence of Thomas Moore' pp. 147–48 (191 words)

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1653389172298