FOR SAINT CECILIA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 953, 15 November 1957, Page 20

FOR SAINT CECILIA

ST: CECILIA, whose fame in music is known only by the legendary comment that she praised God by instrumental and vocal music, has nevertheless been a fount of inspiration to artists throughout the centuries. Raphael painted her, also Domenichino and Rubens; Chaucer and Dryden celebrated her in verse. Some authorities think that the former poet’s "Second Nun’s Tale" was probably partly responsible for the tradition-since the late Middle Agesof celebrating her day with a festival of music. "The 22nd of November," says the Gentleman’s Journal of 1691, "being St, Cecilia’s Day, is observ’d through all Europe by the

Lovers of gMusick." So on Friday of next week the NZBS will mark St. Cecilia’s Day with a broadcast at 7.50 p.m. from all YCs of Purcell’s 1692 Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, the last, and what has been called the greatest of his Cecilian odes. In 17th-century London, the annual festival in honour of music’s patron saint (she is also patron saint of the blind) was organised by the gentlemen of the Musical Society. Six stewards were appointed each year to arrange the celebration, four "Persons of Quality" and two "Gentlemen of His Majesty’s Musick." The company foregathered in the morning at St. Bride’s Church, where a service was performed by skilled musicians, and a sermon preached in defence of Cathedral Music, which had lately. been suppressed under the Puritans. Everyone then went to Stationers Hall to hear the new ode composed in the Saint’s honour. This was in turn followed by a banquet. This was "one of the genteelest in the world," says the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1691, the company at table being charmed with "hautboys and trumpets" played successively. The year after these comments on the Festival were written Purcell’s 1692 Ode ‘was performed.

This was set to a poem by Nicholas Brady, Chaplain to Mary II. Brady’s Ode gave ample scope to Purcell’s brilliance in musical illustration. It fol-

lows the pattern, as was conventional, of praising each instrument in turn. Thus we have the organ, "wondrous machine," the "sprightly violin," the "am’rous flute and soft guitar," and "fife and all the harmony of war," all contending for Cecilia’s favour. The work has 13 movements, or "parts," beginning with the "symphony" and ending with the’ Great Chorus, "Hail! Bright Cecilia." Part four, the alto solo "Tis Nature’s Voice," was sung at the first performance by Purcell himself"with incredible graces,’ said an observer of the day. This solo is a magnificent example of the composer’s mastery of the florid Italian recitative style.

Michael Tippett, who with Walter Bergmann edited this Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, has re-introduced many almost forgotten masterpieces, and remains the leading scholar and conductor of music of the Restoration period. Noted as one of the outstanding younger composers of England, he succeeded Gustav Holst in 1940 as musical director of Morley College. The performance of Purcell’s Ode to be heard on November 22, is by the Deller Consort, George Eskdale (solo trumpet), the Ambrosian Singers, and the Kalmar Chamber Orchestra of London, conducted by Michael Tippett. The singers in the Deller Consort are Alfred Deller (counter-tenor), April Cantelo (soprano), Wilfred Brown (tenor), Peter Salmon (counter-tenor), Maurice Bevan (baritone) and J ohn Frost (bass).