Song for St Cecilia's Day (Cäcilienode) HWV 76

Ode to St Cecilia
- Urtext from the “Halle Handel Edition”
- Detailed notes on performance practice in the text section (Ger/Eng)
- Easy-to-play piano reduction

Language(s) of textGerman, English

Following upon “Alexander’s Feast” (1736), in 1739 Handel produced a second setting of the “Ode to St Cecilia” (“Song for St Cecilia’s Day”). At its première it was combined with “Alexander’s Feast”. Rather than a dramatic plot presentable in the theatre, the Ode, in its seven sections, offers a general hymn of praise to music and its impact. Accordingly, it largely consists of emotion-laden arias and festive orchestration.

This edition, based on the Urtext from the “Halle Handel Edition”, offers the version heard at the first performance – the version preferred in today’s concert life. The foreword (Ger/Eng) provides many detailed notes on performance practice with regard to orchestration.

Contents:

·
Ouverture
·
Menuet I
·
Menuet II
·
Recitative From harmony, from heav’nly harmony (Tenore solo)
·
1. Accompagnato When nature underneath a heap (Tenore solo)
·
2. Chorus From harmony, from heav’nly harmony
·
3. Air What passion cannot music raise and quell? (Soprano solo)
·
4. Air and Chorus The trumpet’s loud clangour (Tenore solo and Chorus)
·
5. La Marche
·
6. Air The soft complaining flute (Soprano solo)
·
7. Air Sharp violins proclaim (Tenore solo)
·
8. Air But oh! what art can teach (Soprano solo)
·
9. Air Orpheus could lead the savage race (Soprano solo
·
10. Accompagnato But bright Cecilia rais’d the wonder high’r (Soprano solo)
·
11. Solo and Chorus As from the pow’r of sacred lays (Soprano solo and Chorus)