As steals the morn upon the night

Rational thinking doesn’t get much good press in this post-truth era (‘post-truth’ was the Oxford Dictionary word of the year for 2016). Politicians, media commentators, pop songs – all go for the gut response; few have a kind word for reason or the intellect. But amongst all the fear and grief Covid-19 has given rise to, there are signs (at least in some countries) of a revival of respect for truth, reason, logical thinking and the scientific method – a sudden realisation that rationality may have practical, even life and death, value.

Here is a song in praise of those two currently unfashionable and oft-neglected things, reason and truth. If you expect this to be dry and intellectual, you will be surprised – on the contrary, it’s quietly rapturous, and one of the most beautiful songs its composer ever wrote. (There is a story behind this; I will share it later.)

The lyrics were adapted from lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest (V.i.65–68): ‘And as the morning steals upon the night, / Melting the darkness, so their rising senses / Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle / Their clearer reason.’

The photos of sunrise were all taken on the same morning in the same place, over the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia, and are in chronological (i.e. rational!) order.

The music is from Handel's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato, its first two sections based on poems by Milton about happiness and melancholy (which is not as simple as you might think - worth reading what Milton had to say about it) and the 3rd section on a text by a contemporary of Handel, all about moderation. This beautiful duet is the highlight of that 3rd section. Performers: the superb soprano Patrizia Kwella, tenor Maldwyn Davies, English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, who got the tempo just right.