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As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending is an English Madrigal by the composer Thomas Weelkes. Define madrigal. Define and Discuss word painting and counterpoint in this piece, and discuss the growing humanism in the late Medieval and Renaissance periods with regard to music. Do a web-search for this piece of music. (You will not need a full page.)

Thomas Weelkes: As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending

As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending,
She spied a maiden queen the same ascending,
Attended on by all the shepherds swain,
To whom Diana’s darling came running down amain,
First two by two, then three by three together,
Leaving their goddess all alone, hasted thither;
And mingling with the shepherds of her train,
With mirthful tunes her presences entertain.
Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana
Long live fair Oriana

Among the finest English madrigal composers was Thomas Weelkes (about 1575-1623),

An organist and church composer. Weelke’s As Versta Was Descending comes

From the Triumphes of Oriana (1601), an anthology of English madrigals written

to honor Queen Elizabeth, who was often called Oriana. The text of this sixteen

voice madrigal pictures Vesta (the Roman Goddess of the hearth) coming down

a hill with her attendants, “Diana’s darlings.” (Diana was the Roman goddess

of chastity, hunting, and the moon.) At the same time, the “maiden queen,” Oriana

(Elizabeth), is climbing the hill with her shepherd gallants. Vesta’s attendants

Desert her and race down the hill to join Oriana.

–Roger Kamien