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:
“Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred Head
For such a worm as I?”
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
“Because the Muses never knew their pains.
They boast their peasants’ pipes, but peasants now
Resign their pipes and plod behind the plough;”
—George Crabbe (1754–1832)