Benjamin Britten | Hymn to St Cecelia (with score)

[@Mackeson3]

Listening to this lovely piece today, 22 November , St. Cecilia's day and Benjamin Britten's birthday.

[@NanWellins]

Thank you so much! Had the privilege of singing this piece long ago, and remember most but not all by heart... especially some tricky bits in Part III... so it's great to have the score! "O wear your tribulation like a rose" might be a good motto for life.

[@TumuheirweEditor-jt8fc]

Wao praise God

[@leonorenanko5248]

Divine

[@smnewstead4093]

Thanks for the practice score. Hopefully I never have to sing this again, lol.

[@jansumi]

LOL. Yup, only time I've ever been Truly terrified before a concert. And yet, once it was all over, I went into deep withdrawal I missed it so dreadfully. One day again...

[@smnewstead4093]

@@jansumi It's funny you replied to this because my music director said, "It would be a shame for us to have spent all this time learning this to NOT sing it again sometime." Lol.

[@jansumi]

@@smnewstead4093 :) It's a wondrous thing. I'm doing Ceremony of Carols, tonight, written same time, amazing. Slightly less terrifying but goosebumps & welling up. Good luck & !EnJoy!

[@CatswithteethUwU]

It hits different at 2x speed 💯💯

[@floorroeterdink9399]

Beautiful piece and o wonderful to see how each part comes seamlessly together! What is the notation above the stave? I thought maybe an indication of cadence but I haven't seen it before.

[@danrussell2188]

This is the "tonic sol-fa" notation that was helpful to choralists in England who couldn't read scored notation. In this system, you don't need to know key signatures. (Frankly, I think it was a shortcut for those who had the need for immediate help but no ambition to move beyond English compositions. Eventually, choristers need to learn the basics of music notation.)

[@ivanviehoff3410]

Tonic sol-fa. An alternative music notation for singing, invented in Britain about 200 years ago, supposedly easier to learn. But like many things that are easier to learn, it is less useful. It was taught in some British choirs from about mid 19th century towards about mid-20th century. So you see many British choral scores from first half of the 20th century, and late 19th century, with both notations in parallel. I think it has pretty much fallen out of use.

[@villageorganist]

Tonic sol-fa was in general use in Scotland in the seventies. I had to transcribe scores to sol-fa for choir members, who also had sol-fa hymnals. During teaching practice (in Kent!) we had to use a «modulator» for class sight-singing!

[@jansumi]

WH AUDEN - LYRICS Like a black swan as death came on Poured forth her song in perfect calm: And by ocean's margin this innocent virgin Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer, And notes tremendous from her great engine Thundered out on the Roman air. Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited, Moved to delight by the melody, White as an orchid she rode quite naked In an oyster shell on top of the sea At sounds so entrancing the angels dancing Came out of their trance into time again, And around the wicked in Hell's abysses The huge flame flickered and eased their pain. Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions To all musicians, appear and inspire: Translated Daughter, come down and startle Composing mortals with immortal fire. I cannot grow I have no shadow To run away from, I only play. I am defeat When it knows it Can now do nothing By suffering. I shall never be Different. Love me. Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions To all musicians, appear and inspire: Translated Daughter, come down and startle Composing mortals with immortal fire. I cannot err There is no creature Whom I belong to, Whom I could wrong. All you lived through, Dancing because you No longer need it For any deed. O ear whose creatures cannot wish to fall, O calm of spaces unafraid of weight, Where Sorrow is herself, forgetting all The gaucheness of her adolescent state, Where Hope within the altogether strange From every outworn image is released, And Dread born whole and normal like a beast Into a world of truths that never change: Restore our fallen day O re-arrange. O dear white children casual as birds, Playing among the ruined languages, So small beside their large confusing words, So gay against the greater silences Of dreadful things you did: O hang the head, Impetuous child with the tremendous brain, O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain, Lost innocence who wished your lover dead, Weep for the lives your wishes never led. O cry created as the bow of sin Is drawn across our trembling violin. O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain. O law drummed out by hearts against the still Long winter of our intellectual will. That what has been may never be again. O flute that throbs with the thanksgiving breath Of convalescents on the shores of death. O bless the freedom that you never chose. O trumpets that unguarded children blow About the fortress of their inner foe. O wear your tribulation like a rose. Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions To all musicians, appear and inspire: Translated Daughter, come down and startle Composing mortals with immortal fire.

[@jibberjabbott]

Why does this music not have a key signature?

[@matthewweber3904]

Changing tonal centers. Even when it's in E for a while, like it is in the first part, it's not diatonic E major; there are so many altered notes that there would be just as many accidentals.

[@smnewstead4093]

Because it's an egotistical vanity trip?

[@leonorenanko5248]

I know IT by Heart. Can't read Notation. Regard St Cecilia as painted by Max Ernst....one of His muss was Leonora Carrington who dies very old in Mexico, beloved by her Family. Alas Max Ernst Tests alone in the Parisienne pêre lachaise in an urn. Chance Findung in Paris one day. He must have been B, with his Last wide throught. He suggested the Name BIRTHDAY, when he das her topless in a self Portrait. Dorothea Tanning. Was SHE jewish with German upbringing....who knows ?