Ode for St Cecelia's Day. Patron Saint of Music Philharmonia Baroque Purcell and Handel
Experienced pure joy this evening at the Philharmonia Baroque holiday concert at the Congregational Church in Berkeley, which was looking festive.
Here are some excerpts from the "Ode for St Cecilia's Day, text by John Dryden"A Song for St. Cecelia's Day". Dryden's text is an amalgamation of Newtownian physics, Biblical apocalypse, and a yougn person's guide to the baroque orchestra...beginning with the "jarring atomes " of creation and condluing with the trumpet of Last Judgement. Like "the Messiah", Cecelia was composed in ten days !
. First presented at Covent Garden 1736, Music by the incomparable Handel(for the Holiday season) Cecilia is, as you know the patron saint of Music (18th century) . Pope Piux IX invoked her name in the resotration of Gregorian chant and a cappella choral...counterpoint to the excesses of symphonic and operatic church music. November 22 is her "feast day". The signed and dated manuscript of this masterpiece resides in the rare book collection of Stanford University.
5. What passions cannot music raise and quell...
10.But oh, what art can teach,
...
12. But bright Cecilia raised 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.
and I am afraid the last lines are abit strange:
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,
The dead shall live, the living die
And music shall untune the sky.
----------------------------
The first part of the program was Purcell, however, Te Deum and Jubilate in D.
2. Jubilate. (Psalm 100, one of the joyouse of psalms)
O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands:
serve the Lord with gladness,
and come before his presence with a song.
...be thankful unto Him and speak good of His Name.
Duet from the cantata Cecilia, volgi un sguardo, " In innocent embraces,/ in harmonious words/the heart alone finds pleasure. // Fervent emotion, / sincere delight,/ only these are worth praise. "
The other part was "Distressed Innocence" or "the Prince of Persia (1691). by a public antagonist of John Dryden, or the city poet, "Elkanah Settle. (1648-1724)
Whatever we say about the experience of music, it cannot create the music...no wonder all arts aspire to be MUSIC!
I feel grateful for this evening, for being alive, and hearing this concert. Isaih Bell appeared in a different persona, as I had seen him enact a mad woman in Britten's "Curlew River" which was so compelling! I also heard him sing the Britten war songs(inspired by my course with the late and dear Paul Fussell). Tonight he was a stunning red haired young tentor, with a stunning voice...and he played opposite a woman with the namesake and her own name of Sherezade De Patnhaki, who also teaches at Yale from which she graduated. So nice to see an Indian diva....she is wonderful! Oh, I feel blessed. What else can I say! Happy Holidays.
Here are some excerpts from the "Ode for St Cecilia's Day, text by John Dryden"A Song for St. Cecelia's Day". Dryden's text is an amalgamation of Newtownian physics, Biblical apocalypse, and a yougn person's guide to the baroque orchestra...beginning with the "jarring atomes " of creation and condluing with the trumpet of Last Judgement. Like "the Messiah", Cecelia was composed in ten days !
. First presented at Covent Garden 1736, Music by the incomparable Handel(for the Holiday season) Cecilia is, as you know the patron saint of Music (18th century) . Pope Piux IX invoked her name in the resotration of Gregorian chant and a cappella choral...counterpoint to the excesses of symphonic and operatic church music. November 22 is her "feast day". The signed and dated manuscript of this masterpiece resides in the rare book collection of Stanford University.
5. What passions cannot music raise and quell...
10.But oh, what art can teach,
...
12. But bright Cecilia raised 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.
and I am afraid the last lines are abit strange:
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,
The dead shall live, the living die
And music shall untune the sky.
----------------------------
The first part of the program was Purcell, however, Te Deum and Jubilate in D.
2. Jubilate. (Psalm 100, one of the joyouse of psalms)
O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands:
serve the Lord with gladness,
and come before his presence with a song.
...be thankful unto Him and speak good of His Name.
Duet from the cantata Cecilia, volgi un sguardo, " In innocent embraces,/ in harmonious words/the heart alone finds pleasure. // Fervent emotion, / sincere delight,/ only these are worth praise. "
The other part was "Distressed Innocence" or "the Prince of Persia (1691). by a public antagonist of John Dryden, or the city poet, "Elkanah Settle. (1648-1724)
Whatever we say about the experience of music, it cannot create the music...no wonder all arts aspire to be MUSIC!
I feel grateful for this evening, for being alive, and hearing this concert. Isaih Bell appeared in a different persona, as I had seen him enact a mad woman in Britten's "Curlew River" which was so compelling! I also heard him sing the Britten war songs(inspired by my course with the late and dear Paul Fussell). Tonight he was a stunning red haired young tentor, with a stunning voice...and he played opposite a woman with the namesake and her own name of Sherezade De Patnhaki, who also teaches at Yale from which she graduated. So nice to see an Indian diva....she is wonderful! Oh, I feel blessed. What else can I say! Happy Holidays.
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