Sound the Trumpet

Purcell wrote Come, Ye Sons of Art in 1694 for the birthday of Queen Mary, who would be dead within the year; it was the last of six such odes and the finest. Sound the Trumpet is its most performed number, a duet for two countertenors written over a ground bass, in which the two voices imitate the instrument they are calling for and never once need it. The trick is old and the effect has not worn out.