Ye Sacred Muses is William Byrd's Musical elegy on the death of his colleague and sometime mentor, Thomas Tallis. It is scored for 5 vv (usually four viols and countertenor).
The words are:-
- Ye sacred Muses, race of Jove,
- whom Music's lore delighteth,
- Come down from crystal heav'ns above
- to earth where sorrow dwelleth,
- In mourning weeds, with tears in eyes:
- Tallis is dead, and Music dies.
The concluding lines are particularly effective and are repeated.
Famous quotes containing the words sacred and/or muses:
“A hidden strength
Which if Heav’n gave it, may be term’d her own:
‘Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:
She that has that, is clad in compleat steel,
And like a quiver’d Nymph with Arrows keen
May trace huge Forests, and unharbour’d Heaths,
Infamous Hills, and sandy perilous wildes,
Where through the sacred rayes of Chastity,
No savage fierce, Bandite, or mountaneer
Will dare to soyl her Virgin purity,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“The Muses inspire art and pretend not to notice when Mammon buys it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)