Ode for St. Cecilia's Day

St. Cäcilia, Guido Reni (1606)

The Ode for St. Cecilia's Day ( From Harmony, from Heav'nly Harmony , HWV 76) is an ode (in German comparable works are more likely to be referred to as hymns ) by Georg Friedrich Händel .

Emergence

Handel composed this ode in September 1739 based on a poem by the Englishman John Dryden (1631–1700). It premiered on November 22nd along with a performance of Alexander's Feast at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater in London. In 1742 the work was played for the first time outside of England in Dublin, and in 1769 in Berlin. The title refers to St. Cecilia , an early Christian virgin and martyr who is considered the patron saint of music. Her feast day on November 22nd was also celebrated in the 17th and 18th centuries as a “music holiday” with concerts and church services and works specially composed for them.

Handel was not the only composer who dedicated his own work to this saint. Cäcilienoden come from Henry Purcell : Laudate Ceciliam (1683) and Hail, bright Cecilia (1692), Daniel Purcell (1693 and 1698), Charles Burney (1759) and Benjamin Britten : Hymn to St. Cecilia (1942). The main theme of the seven-part work is a praise to the power of music.

literature

Winton Dean : Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. 1990, ISBN 0-19-816184-0 (English).
Hans Joachim Marx : Handel's oratorios, odes and serenatas. A compendium. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-27815-2 .
Dirk Möller: "From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony". Ode for St. Cecilia's Day HWV 76. In: Hans Gebhard (Hrsg.): Harenberg Chormusikführer . 2nd Edition. Harenberg, Dortmund 2001, ISBN 3-611-00817-6 , pp. 376-378.
Albert Scheibler, Julia Evdokimova: Georg Friedrich Händel. Oratorios guides. Edition Cologne, Lohmar 1993, ISBN 3-928010-04-2 .

Web links

Score of the Cäcilien-Ode (Handel work edition, edited by Friedrich Chrysander , Leipzig 1866)
Ode for St. Cecilia's Day : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project

Remarks

↑ Peter Jost: Ode: IV. Oden compositions in the 19th and 20th centuries. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, Volume 7 (Myanmar Sources). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1997, ISBN 3-7618-1108-X , Sp. 570-572 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)

[1] Peter Jost: Ode: IV. Oden compositions in the 19th and 20th centuries. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, Volume 7 (Myanmar Sources). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1997, ISBN 3-7618-1108-X , Sp. 570-572 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)