A sound of music toucht mine ears,
or rather indeed entranced my soul:
As I stole nearer, invited by the melody, I saw
This youth, this fair-faced youth, upon his lute
With strains of strange variety and harmony
Proclaiming (as it seem’d) so bold a challenge
To the clear quiristers of the woods, the birds,
That as they flock’d about him, all stood silent,
Wondering at what they heard. I wonder’d too.
-from John Ford’s Lover’s Melancholy
Experience not only the wonderment of the lute on this season’s concerts but guitars, violins, keyboards and of course the voice, since as Robert Herrick tells us -
Rare is the voice itself: but when we sing
To th’ lute or viol, then ’tis ravishing.