Consonance An Anthem

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Down steers the Base with grave majestic Air

Author: Mather Byles
Tune: [Down steers the Bass with grave majestic air]
Published in 1 hymnal

Printable scores: MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

Down steers the Bass with grave majestic Air
And up the Treble mounts with shrill Career
with softer sounds in mild melodious maze
Warbling between the Tenor gently plays
But if the Aspiring Altos joins it force
see like the Lark it wings its Tow'ring course
From the bold height it hails the Echoing Base
which swells to melt and mix in Close embrace
though diffrent Systems all the parts divide
by Musics Chord the distant Notes are ty'd
and sympathetic strains in Chanting winds
their Restless Race till all the parts are join'd
then Rolls the Rapture thro the Air around
in the full magick melody of sound

Source: The Psalm-singer's amusement: containing a number of fuging pieces and anthems #81

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Author: Mather Byles

Byles, Mather, D.D., born 1706, educated at Harvard, 1725, died 1788. He was an eminent Congregational Minister of Boston, and, for his time and place, an elegant scholar. He corresponded with, and was well thought of by the English wits and literati. His Toryism brought him into trouble at the Revolution, causing him, in his own words, to be “guarded, reguarded, and disregarded." His Sermons wore published at various dates from 1729 to 1771, and his Poems in 1727, 1736, and 1744. Of the Appendix to Tate and Brady, published by S. Kneeland in 1760, he edited hymns 77 to 100 inclusive, of which hymns 78, 79, and 80 seem to be his own. Part of No. 78, beginning with st. vii., "When wild confusion wrecks the air," is a Judgment hymn, and ha… Go to person page >

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