Musica, Dei donum optimi

When asked to write a work for The Rose Ensemble’s 20th Anniversary Season, I looked for a text that would resonate with this special occasion, perhaps something regal that might tie in with their earlier concerts – The Last Queen of Hawaii, King Louis IX – or something to help “crown” the May Day celebration. But I kept coming back to music: “Music, gift of the highest God,” music with the power to “untune the sky,” music that refreshes and gives us strength, “affording solace to all.”

First performance by The Rose Ensemble, Jordan Sramek, Artistic Director
May 1, 2016, Ordway Concert Hall, Saint Paul, MN

As from the pow’r of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator’s praise
To all the blessed above,
So, when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shall untune the sky.
–John Dryden, from A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (1687)

Musica, Dei donum optimi,
trahit homines, trahit Deos.
Musica truces mollit animos
tristesque mente erigit.
Musica vel ipsas arbores
et horridas movet feras
Cunctisque solatia prestans.

[Music, gift of the highest God,
attracts mortals, it attracts the gods.
Music calms angry souls
and uplifts sad spirits.
Music even moves the very trees
and the wild beasts,
affording solace to all.] –anonymous; translation by Ron Jeffers