Hail! Bright Cecilia
Hail! Bright Cecilia | |
---|---|
Sacred choral composition by Henry Purcell | |
Portrait of Purcell by John Closterman, 1695 | |
Catalogue | Z.328 |
Text | by Nicholas Brady |
Composed | 1692 |
Scoring | SSATB choir |
Premiere | |
Date | 22 September 1692 |
Location | Stationers' Hall, London |
Hail! Bright Cecilia (Z.328), also known as Ode to St. Cecilia, was composed by Henry Purcell to a text by the Irishman Nicholas Brady in 1692 in honour of the feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians.
Annual celebrations of this saint's feast day (22 November) began in 1683, organised by the Musical Society of London, a group of musicians and music lovers. Welcome to all the pleasures (Z.339) was written by Purcell in 1683 and he went on to write other Cecilian pieces of which Hail! Bright Cecilia remains the best known. The first performance on 22 September 1692 at Stationers' Hall was a great success, and received an encore.[1]
Text
[edit]Brady's poem was derived from John Dryden's "A Song for St Cecilia's Day" of 1687. Following Dryden, Brady extols the birth and personality of musical instruments, including the idea that Cecilia invented the organ (see note 1). Purcell responds to the text by giving emphasis to the colours and dramatic possibilities of the baroque orchestra.
Music
[edit]Scoring
[edit]With a text full of references to musical instruments, the work is scored for a variety of vocal soloists and obbligato instruments, along with strings and basso continuo.[2] For example, "Hark, each Tree" is a duet between, vocally, soprano and bass, and instrumentally, between recorders and violins. These instruments are called for in the text ("box and fir" being the woods from which they are made). However, Purcell did not always follow Brady's cues exactly. He scored the warlike music for two brass trumpets and copper kettle drums instead of the fife mentioned by Brady.
It has been suggested that Purcell himself was the countertenor soloist at the first performance. However, although he was a trained singer, the idea that he sang at this premiere appears to be a misunderstanding of a contemporary review.[2]
Musical structures
[edit]The airs employ a variety of dance forms.[3] "Hark, each tree" is a sarabande.[2] "Thou tun'st this world" is set as a minuet.
The compositional techniques used by Purcell include counterpoint and the ground bass ("Hark, each Tree" is a duet on a ground bass, "In vain the am'rous flute" is set to a passacaglia bass).[2]
Movements
[edit]The work consists of 13 movements.
- Symphony (overture): Introduction—Canzona—Adagio—Allegro—Grave—Allegro (repeat)
- Recitative (bass) and chorus: "Hail! Bright Cecilia"
- Duet (treble [though range would suggest alto] and bass): "Hark! hark! each tree"
- Air (countertenor): "'Tis nature's voice"
- Chorus: "Soul of the world"
- Air (soprano) and chorus: "Thou tun'st this world"
- Trio (alto, tenor and bass): "With that sublime celestial lay"
- Air (bass): "Wondrous machine!"
- Air (countertenor): "The airy violin"
- Duet (countertenor and tenor): "In vain the am'rous flute"
- Air (countertenor): "The fife and all the harmony of war"
- Duet (two basses): "Let these among themselves contest"
- Chorus: "Hail! Bright Cecilia, hail to thee"
Text
[edit]2. Hail! Bright Cecilia, Hail! fill ev'ry Heart |
8. Wondrous Machine! |
Publication
[edit]The work was edited for publication by Edward Francis Rimbault.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- 1.^
"With that sublime celestial lay" and "Wond'rous machine" are numbers in praise of the organ.[4]
The organ would count as a member of the speaking forest to which Brady refers. It should be remembered that English organs of the period typically had wooden pipes.
References
[edit]- ^ The Gentleman's Journal, or Monthly Miscellany, November 1692, cited in Rimbault's edition, London: Musical Antiquarian Society Publications, 1848, p. 2.
- ^ a b c d Hail! bright Cecilia and Who can from joy refrain? – Introduction, by Robert King, Hyperion Records, 2010
- ^ CD liner notes, Purcell: Odes & Funeral Music [CD], Virgin Classics Ltd, 7243 5 61582 2 1
- ^ http://www.musicalconcepts.net/legacy/deller/2-4-texts.html [dead link]
External links
[edit]- Hail, Bright Cecilia, Z.328: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project, including Rimbault's introduction
- A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687 by John Dryden