The King’s Consort, Robert King
Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor
Michael George, bass
James Bowman, countertenor
Rufus Müller, tenor
00:00 I. Symphony
03:11 II. Sound the trumpet, beat the drum, / Caesar and Urania come. / Bid the Muses haste to greet ’em, / Bid the Graces fly to meet ’em / With laurel and myrtle to welcome them home.
05:09 III. Crown the year and crown the day / While distant shores their tribute pay, /
While never-failing Thames shall glide / With treasures and pleasures renew’d with each tide. / To Caesar all hail, unequall’d in arms, / To Urania all hail, unequall’d in charms.
08:39 IV. Let Caesar and Urania live, / Let all delights the stars can give / Upon the royal pair descend, / Let discord to the shades be driven, / While earth and sky our song attend, / And thus our loyal vows ascend: / O, O preserve ’em, Heaven!
11:36 V. What greater bliss can Fate bestow, / While Caesar rules these isles / And bright Urania smiles? / The spheres above no better sway can show, / Jove is Heaven’s Caesar, / Caesar Jove below. / With plenty surrounding and loyalty sounding / Iô paeans of joy, / We’ll pay our devotion / To the monarch of Britain and lord of the Ocean.
14:25 VI. Chaconne
18:00 VII. While Caesar like the morning star / Our British sphere shall grace, / No more alarms of rebel war / Shall Albion’s beauteous soil deface. / His arms did first the rebel host confound, / His godlike mercy next the conquest crowned. / His fame, like incense, mounts the skies, / While never, never more to rise / Pride and Discord headlong go / Down to the deep abyss below.
20:23 VIII. To Urania and Caesar delights without measure, / With empire no trouble, and safety with pleasure; / Since the joys we possess to their goodness we owe, / ’Tis but just our best wishes like that should o’erflow.
Artwork: ‘A Representation of the Fireworks upon the River of Thames, over against Whitehall, at their Majesties Coronation April 1685’ by Unknown Artist. 1687
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