How will you celebrate Saint Cecilia Day?

This Saturday, I will be playing a recital „From Harmony“ at Vilnius University St. John's church which will feature my improvisations based on the text of the poem by the famous 17th century English poet John Dryden (1631-1700) known as "A Song for Saint Cecilia Day" (1687).

The words of this poem became the foundation of the famous "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" by Georg Frideric Handel.

In the poem Dryden tells a story about the Harmony of the Universe and touches upon the place of various musical instruments (strings, winds, and especially the organ) in the cosmology of the world. The listeners of this recital will be able to better comprehend and follow unfolding musical story because the text will be provided in the program notes for everyone to see (with a elegantly rhymed Lithuanian translation by Nijolė Babelytė – Balčiūnienė, an old time friend of the member of our Vilnius University Unda Maris studio, Regina Dainytė.

Here's the text of the poem:

Stanza 1
From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony
This universal frame began.
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise ye more than dead.
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And music's pow'r obey.
From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in man.
 
Stanza 2
What passion cannot music raise and quell!
When Jubal struck the corded shell,
His list'ning brethren stood around
And wond'ring, on their faces fell
To worship that celestial sound:
Less than a god they thought there could not dwell
Within the hollow of that shell
That spoke so sweetly and so well.
What passion cannot music raise and quell!
 
Stanza 3
The trumpet's loud clangor
Excites us to arms
With shrill notes of anger
And mortal alarms.
The double double double beat
Of the thund'ring drum
Cries, hark the foes come;
Charge, charge, 'tis too late to retreat.
 
Stanza 4
The soft complaining flute
In dying notes discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers,
Whose dirge is whisper'd by the warbling lute.
 
Stanza 5
Sharp violins proclaim
Their jealous pangs, and desperation,
Fury, frantic indignation,
Depth of pains and height of passion,
For the fair, disdainful dame.
 
Stanza 6
But oh! what art can teach
What human voice can reach
The sacred organ's praise?
Notes inspiring holy love,
Notes that wing their Heav'nly ways
To mend the choirs above.
 
Stanza 7
Orpheus could lead the savage race;
And trees unrooted left their place;
Sequacious of the lyre:
But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder high'r;
When to her organ, vocal breath was giv'n,
An angel heard, and straight appear'd
Mistaking earth for Heav'n.
 
GRAND CHORUS
As from the pow'r of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the bless'd above;
So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
​
Saint Cecilia Day is a perfect occasion to remember all musicians who are working in churches - organists, choir directors, choristers, cantors, and instrumentalists whose joint input into the liturgy and overall musical life in the church cannot be overestimated.

The improvisations which will sound in this recital will be divided into 8 spontaneous pieces - there are that many stanzas in the poem by Dryden. I will create a unified but contrasting cycle in which the Dryden world will be re-created with various musical means - melody, rhythms, harmony, dynamics, registration, texture, and form.

Last year I also improvised a recital based on the poem of Dryden but of course every time is different. This will be no exception.

​What will your Saint Cecilia Day be like?