History
It should be no surprise that because St. Cecilia is associated with music, one way she has historically been commemorated and remembered is with concerts! Many composers have capitalized on this connection, writing pieces for her day with the expectation that they would be played at the various musical tributes that were celebrated on November 22nd in her honor.
Henry Purcell was one of the first major composers to have composed for Cecilia, setting the text of a secular ode by Christopher Fishburn to music for a St. Cecilia’s Day performance in 1683. This collaboration between the two gentlemen was so successful that they would go on to write a Cecilian ode for every subsequent year until 1700. The most famous of these pieces was the 1692 piece, “Hail! Bright Cecilia.”
Purcell’s dedication to the creation of a St. Cecilia genre inspired many other composers to take up the gauntlet as well. Other notable pieces include Handel’s 1739 cantata for the saint, which set a poem by England’s first Poet Laureate, John Dryden; Haydn’s 1766 “St. Cecilia’s Mass”; twentieth-century composer Herbert Howells’s 1960 “A Hymn to St. Cecilia,” which set a poem written by the wife of another notable composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams; Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s 2000 composition, ”Cecilia, vergine romana”; and Benjamin Britten’s 1942 composition, “Hymn to St. Cecilia,” which set a poem by W.H. Auden and served as both a tribute to St. Cecilia and a composition in honor of Britten’s own birthday on November 22nd.
Additionally, many musical organizations have taken Cecilia as their namesake, connecting their legacy to the saint. For example, the famous French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume was known to produce violins and violas with “St. Cécile” stamped on the upper back of the instrument. Also, the St. Cecilia Society of Charleston, South Carolina, was famously named after her, beginning in 1766 as a private subscription concert organization and continuing today as one of America’s oldest and most exclusive social institutions.
Because of the tradition of creating these lovely musical pieces for November 22nd, we encourage you to enjoy a St. Cecilia’s Day concert yourself and with your household! Obviously, attending a concert or musical event in person would be preferable, but if there are no St. Cecilia commemorations taking place near you, we hope that the following concerts found online can provide you with easy access to Cecilian music!
Handel’s “Ode for St. Cecilia HWV76” performed by Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort and John Butt
Henry Purcell’s “Hail! Bright Cecilia” performed by Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herrweghe
Britten’s “Hymn to St. Cecilia” performed by Voces8
Images:
1. Print-outs featured in images courtesy of https://www.alfred.com/ and https://www.nkoda.com/
