For today’s Beautiful Music, the marvelous countertenor Reginald Mobley collaborated with Stephen Stubbs on the secular aria HERE THE DEITIES APPROVE by Henry Purcell. It was originally published in 1683, and was part of the ode Welcome to all the Pleasures. Purcell then went back and published it again in 1698 as part of his collection Orpheus Britannicus.
The text was written by Christopher Fishburn:
Here the Deities approve,
The God of Musick and of Love,
All the Talents they have lent you,
All the Blessings they have sent you,
Pleas’d to see what they be-stow,
Live and thrive so well below.