Choral Celebrations – Purcell, Handel And Saint Cecilia (Part One)

Mornings with Music: Choral Celebrations

No great celebration would be complete without music, and I expect we have all experienced the thrill of such an occasion as a listener or participant. This course will delve into works written for important occasions, sacred and secular, describing the background to the event and examining how the composers produced their effects.

In future terms we shall eavesdrop on occasions for which Bach or Mozart provided the music, but we begin with occasions graced by the greatest composers working in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Henry Purcell and George Frederick Handel.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, musicians in London conceived the idea of an annual celebration of St. Cecilia, their patron saint. Each year a poet and a composer were chosen to write an ode for the occasion, which featured a feast and a church service. Most of the resulting works have been lost, but the two odes written by Purcell, Welcome to All the Pleasures and Hail, Bright Cecilia remain as fine examples of his work. Handel also set one of the St. Cecilia texts and it became his oratorio Alexander’s Feast. This is now known mainly for its instrumental music, but the work is full of drama and masterly mood-setting, and takes an interesting sideways look at St. Cecilia celebrations. 

Join me to celebrate with Purcell on Friday October 9th, and to explore Handel on Friday October 16th.

You are booking for part one, 9th October