The cantata opens with a chorus for female voices in three divisions, with a contralto solo, in the Scotch style:—
“The mavis carols in the shaw,
The leaves are green on every tree,
And June, whose car the sunbeams draw,
Is dropping gold on bank and lea;
The hind is merry in the mead,
The child that gathers gowan flower,
The Thane upon his prancing steed,
The high-born lady in her bower,—
Gay, gay, all are gay,