When Orpheus went down (Samuel Wesley)
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- Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-05-14). Score information: A4, 6 pages, 338 kB Copyright: CC BY SA
- Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.
General Information
Title: When Orpheus went down
Composer: Samuel Wesley
Lyricist: Thomas Lislecreate page
Number of voices: 3vv Voicing: TTB
Genre: Secular, Glee
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published:
Description: Composed 1781
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
When Orpheus went down to the regions below,
Which men are forbidden to see,
He tun'd up his lyre, as old histories show,
To set his Euridice free.
All Hell was astonish'd that a person so wise
Should rashly endanger his life,
And venture so far; but how vast their surprise,
When they heard that he came for his wife.
To find out a punishment due to his fault,
Old Pluto long puzzl'd his brain;
But hell had not torments sufficient, he thought,
So he gave him his wife back again.
But pity, succeeding, found place in his heart,
That, pleas'd with his playing so well,
He took her again, in reward of his art:
Such merit had music in hell.