William Crowe

Elegy to the Memory of Dr. W. Hayes, Professor of Music in the University of Oxford

Set to Music by his Son and Successor, P. Hayes.


  SYMPHONY.

  These sounds of grief, this solemn air,
    To thee I sing, dear, honour’d shade!
  Hear, spirit of my father, hear!
    To thee these mournful rites are paid.

  Here followed an Organ Movement, being a Psalm Tune
  of the Professor, Dr. Wm. Hayes.

  Such the last strains by thee were tried,
    Strains that to holy Choirs belong;
  While Age, that wasted all beside,
    Yet spared the sweetness of thy song.

  So pass’d he: nor approved alone
    In science; like his gentle art,
  His life was Music, and in tone
    With Virtue’s harmony his heart.

  O! let thy tuneful Spirit, to hear
    The melancholy strains we raise,
  Now stoop from that celestial sphere
    Where Music is the voice of Praise!