Before we fly away from Eloys thread Ill add a related text. I found this text very striking when I heard it on the recording The Leaves be Greene. It was read by Peter Bale and preceded the final music on the LP A Dump by John Johnson. (The Leaves be Greene, The Consort of Musicke - Anthony Rooley, dir., LOiseau-Lyre SOL 328)
This is the way I had transcribed it from the recording: The little chirping birds the wren and the robin they sing a mean. The goldfinch, the nightingale they join in the treble. The blackbird, the thrush they bear the tenor, while the four-footed beasts with their bleating and bellowing they sing a bass. Only man, as being a wild and a fierce creature, hath no certain note or tune. His instruments are the guts of dead creatures a token of his cruelty, and a remainder of his riot. Godfrey Goodman (c. 1600?) With the internet one can now search for the source and for an accurate reading of the original. The hard part is now deciding which variation is accurate! I do think little chirping birds seem more likely be the treble (and working the list down to lower animals), but the score is 2-2 in the examples below that I found. Perhaps I transcribed it incorrectly, or an inaccurate source was used for the recording. Perhaps Goodman used it in two different books. Rocky _____ in their Church-musick, here you haue a full, perfect, and complete Quier; sufficient variety of voices: the little chirping birds, the Wren, and the Robin, they sing a treble; the Gold-finch, the Nightingall, they ioyne in the meane; the blacke bird, the Thrush, they beare the tenour, while the foure-footed beasts, with their bleating and bellowing, they sing a base Bishop Godfrey Goodman, The Creatures Praysing God: or, The Religion of Dumbe Creatures (London, 1622), p.24 as quoted by Philip C. Almond, Adam and Eve in Seventeenth-Century Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.113 _____ The little chirping birds (the Wren, and the Robin) they sing a mean; the Goldfinch, the Nightingall, they ioyne in the treble; the Blacke bird, the Thrush, they bears the tenor; while the four footed beasts with their bleating and bellowing they sing a base. [Man being] a wild and a fierce creature, hath no certain note or tune his instruments are the guts of dead creatures, a token of his cruel tie, and a remainder of his riot. Godfrey Goodman, [no specific footnote is indicated for the passages, but the text implied this source in my reading: The Fall of Man, or The Corrvption of Nature, Proved by the light of our natural Reason (London: Felix Kyngston, 1616) ?] as quoted by Erica Fudge, Brutal Reasoning: Animals, Rationality, and Humanity in Early Modern England (Cornell University Press), p. 100 _____ To instance only in their Quier, or in their Church-musick, here you have a full, perfect, and compleate Quier; sufficient variety of voices; the little chirping birds, the Wren and the Robin, they sing a treble; the Gold-finch, the Nightingale, they joyne in the meane; the Black-bird, the Thrush, they beare the tenour, while the four footed beasts, with their bleating and bellowing, they sing a base. Godfrey Goodman, The Creatures praysing God, p.24. by P Webster - 2001 http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3208/8/Webster_2001_-_Ch_6_-pp72-100.pdf _____ Singing Birds. " Hkarkk, hearke, the excellent notes of singing birds ! what variety of voices ! how are they fitted to every passion ! The little chirping birds (the wren and the robin) they sing a mean ; the goldfinch, the nightingale, they join in the treble; the blackbird, the thrush, they bear the tenour : while the four- footed beasts, with their bleating and bellowing, thev sing a base. How other birds sing in their order, I refer you to the skilful musicians some of them keep their due times ; others have their continued notes, that all might please with variety; while the woods, the groves, and the rocks, with the hollowness of their sound like a musical instrument, send forth an echo, and seem to unite their song.'" Goodman's Fall of Man, p. 78. SOUTHEYS COMMON-PLACE BOOK BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, JOHN WOOD WARTER, B.D (NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 8'2 CLIFF STREET, 1849). http://archive.org/stream/commonplacebook00sout/commonplacebook00sout_djvu.txt -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
