St.

Cecilia and Music

Author(s): Richard Luckett
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 99 (1972 - 1973), pp. 15-30
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association
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 St. Cecilia and Music

RICHARD LUCKETT

ST. CECILY, a Roman virgin, beautiful, of noble and wea

ing the Gospel, carried it alwaies about her, reading o
her father betrothed her to Valerian, a young aristoc
Christian. He, 'being inflamed with the love of Cecily,
wedding day'. But Cecily 'fasted, wept, and prayed con
God to preserve her virginity, 'for that this marriage
sired ... since she had given herself wholly to Jesus Chris
wedding took place and only afterwards, when she was
in the bridal chamber, was she able to tell him of 'a w
have an Angel of God in my company, who is jealous of
my body very diligently. If he see thee so hardy, a
touch me, with carnal or lascivious love, he will chasti
but if he see, that thou love me with pure and chast love
as he lovest me.' Valerian, we are told, 'hearing these w
troubled'.
Fortunately Cecily was able to avert catastrophe by persuading Valerian
to visit Pope Urban, at that time in hiding in the catacombs, and Urban
converted her husband to Christianity. On his return to Cecily Valerian
was accorded a vision of the guardian angel, who 'had two garlands in his
hand, made of lillies, and fresh odoriferous roses', coronas wrought in
Paradise. These he gave to the pair, promising that they would 'continew
alwayes fresh, and smell very sweet' in token of God's love for them. To
Valerian, since he had 'given credit unto thy spouse' he offered any boon
that he should demand, upon which Valerian asked that his brother
Tiburtius might also be brought to the faith. This was granted, though
with dire consequences: for their 'good works and for burying martyred
Christians' Valerian and Tiburtius were arrested and decapitated. Al-
machius, the 'governor' of the city responsible for this, also intended to seize
their goods, which he coveted, but these Cecily gave away to the poor. He
thereupon arraigned her, and discovered her to be a Christian. She refused
to recant by sacrificing to the Gods, so he 'caused her to be put in certain
bathes, which were in her owne house, and having shut her in one of them,
being empty and without water, they made a great fire under, which
burned a whole day and night. The holy saint received not any hurt thereby,
but it seemed to her a place rather of pleasure and refreshing, than other-
wise. When Almachius heard thereof, he commanded one to cut off her
head in that place. The hangman gave her three blows, yet he did not cut
off her head altogether, but left it even as it was hanging by the skinne.
The blessed virgin being thus wounded, lived three dayes, many Christians
coming to visit her ... When three dayes were ended, the holy virgin, and
glorious martyr... yielded her blessed soul unto God, on the 22 November
... her house was converted into a church.' Into this church, in the course
of time, Pope Paschal translated her body, and there it still remains-.

1 lEdward Kinesman], The Lives of Saints Newly perused, corrected, amplified. ..,
[Paris], 1628, pp. 815-9. Misprints have been corrected and some
spellings modernised.

'5

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 16 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

SUCH is the substance of the a

fifth or sixth century in orig
references to her name, the
the saint's life.2 Where, then, does music come in? The
abbreviated version of the Acts from which I have quoted
appears in an early seventeenth-century recusant martyr-
ology-the same work to which Peter Anthony Motteux, in
1692, referred those readers of his literary and musical
Gentleman's Journal who wished to know more about the pat-
roness of the annual Cecilian celebrations.3 They, we may
surmise, would have been considerably baffled. A study of
more recent sources4 would leave the modern inquirer better
informed but, in all probability, more than a little confused
and-I would hope-unconvinced.
The Acts are essentially a literary fiction designed to glorify
the virginal life. They were subsequently broken up into peri-
copal martyrology entries, and suffered translation into Greek
and then retranslation into Latin as a consequence of the mis-
taken apprehension that Greek was the language in which
they were originally written. Perhaps surprisingly, they
survived such vicissitudes. But unlike most legends their
history is one of degeneration, not evolution; we look in vain
for accretions apart from references intended to anchor them
to what was known of early Christian history. A scholarly
edition was published in I6oo by the Jesuit archaeologist
Father Antonio Bosio; he does not identify his main authority
but we learn from his posthumously published survey of the
catacombs that it was a codex in the Vatican.5
In the latter half of the nineteenth century a group of
Roman Catholic archaeologists endeavoured to prove that the
relics found in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere were
genuine, that the church was Cecilia's former house, that
there was an identifiable sudatorium and that there was thus a

'For a bibliography, see Ulysses Chevalier, Ripertoire des sources historiques,

Paris, 1905-7, i. 826; for the possibility of a connection with Sicily,
G. B. de Rossi, La Roma sotterranea cristiana, Rome, 1867, ii. 147.
3 The Gentleman's Journal: or the Monthly Miscellany, i/I (January 1691/2), 6.
SW. H. Husk, An Account of the Musical Celebrations on St. Cecilia's Day,
London, 1857; Dom H. Quentin in F. Cabrol and H. Leclerq, Diction-
naire d'archlologie chritienne et de liturgie, Paris, 1924-53, ii/2. 2712-38;
Alie Poir&e, Sainte Cicile, Paris, 1926; Dom Gregory Murray, 'Saint
Cecilia and Music', Music and Liturgy, vii (1938), 22-26; G. McNair
Rushworth, 'St. Cecilia', Journal of the British Society of Master Glass Painters,
vi (1937), I80-83.
5 Antonio Bosio (ed.), Historia passionis B. Caeciliae virginis, Rome, I6oo;
idem, Roma sotterranea, ed. M. R. P. Giovanni Severani da S. Severino,
Rome, 1632, pp. 18, 22, 599-

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 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 17

degree of historical truth in th

however. The saint's body w
1599 at the order of Clement
accounts of the exhumation
of the allegedly perfectly pr
from Stefano Maderno, but, as
the attitude and detail of th
are thoroughly conventional
resemblance to the celebra
'Cicero's daughter' in 1485.9 I
how the body discovered by
in a dream) in the catacomb
that of a saint whom the ear
buried in the catacomb of C
that the saint was exhumed wi
just as it was supposedly left
it is known that her head was on exhibition at the church of
the Four Crowned Ones in 885." But it is undeniable that
Cecily proliferated heads: at present there are specimens at
Paris, Beauvais and Tours, whilst Albi and Giistrow also
boast relics, and there are further important remains in Agnani
Cathedral; her wedding ring may be seen at Cambrai. The
historical saint is the subject of a voluminous literature, but
she cannot be taken very seriously. It is significant that her
proponents all fail to mention the existence in pagan Rome of
an image of Caia Cecilia, venerated as an example of married
chastity and, to judge from Plutarch, of considerable popu-
larity.12
All we really know about Cecilia is that the name gained in

6 J. P. Kirsch, Die heilige Cdcilia in der romischen Kirche des Altertums, Pader-
born, 19io; D. Bartolini, Gli atti del martirio nobilissima vergine romana S.
Cecilia, vendicati e illustrati coi monumenti, Rome, 1867; see also Pio Franchi
de' Cavalieri, 'Recenti studi intorno a S. Cecilia', Studi e Testi, xxiv
(1912), 3-38.
SBosio, Historia, pp. 155-60; Caesare Baronio, Annales, Cologne, 16o9,
ix, 749-5I.
8 'Die CAcilienstatue des Maderna', Zeitschriftfiir Kunstgeschichte, iv (1935),
35-46.
' Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Oxford, 1945,
pp. 111-2.
10 On the niche supposedly occupied by her cadaver in the latter ca
comb see de Rossi, La Roma sotterranea, i. 18o-8 i; for details of the alleg
fresco of the saint, George Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints in Central and So
Italian Schools of Painting, Florence, 1965, cols. 277-80.
" Quentin in Cabrol and Leclercq, Dictionnaire, cols. 2735-7.
12 Plutarch, Romane Questions, tr. P. Holland, ed. F. B. Jevons, Lond
1892, p. 5o; [Charlotte Yonge], History of Christian Names, London, 18
p. 309.

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 18 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

significance from the late fi

tioned in the Martyrologium
in the Ravenna mosaics; she
Roman Mass and her repute
Roman use and the growth
as those of Bede and Ado of Vienne. Thus she became known
throughout western Europe, and in the tenth century
reached the Orthodox church. Iconographically she
appeared as a characteristic virgin martyr, distinguished by
her corona, palm of martyrdom, and sometimes by a book
(the gospel that she 'carried with her always'), but she could
easily be confused with a number of other virgin martyrs-
for instance Dorothy or Felicity. Her appeal was in large
measure literary. In England there are only four ancient
dedications of churches, yet there are at least eight extant
vernacular lives, including, most notably, Chaucer's Second
Nun's Tale. The reason seems to be that the literary qualities
of the Acts recommended her to clerks but had little popular
appeal." That was to come later. In the early Middle Ages
Cecilia was simply another virgin martyr. The patrons of
music were King David, St. Job and St. Gregory-and in
local instances SS. Germanus of Paris, Odo of Cluny, Aldric
and Dunstan of Canterbury. In each case there was a sound
reason for the association.
When were they superseded by Cecily? One definite point
of reference confirms the extent of this supersession, and also
helps to determine the appropriate period for our enquiries.
In 1514 Raphael painted his magnificent altarpiece for the
church of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. Cecilia is the
central figure, and at her feet lie the instruments of terrestrial
music-viol, kettle-drums, cymbal, tambourine-broken. In
her hands is an organetto, also broken; listlessly held, it hangs
upside down, forgotten. For Cecilia is listening in rapt atten-
tion to the heavenly music of an angel choir that sings in the
clouds of glory above her.15 The altarpiece rapidly achieved
fame, and was the subject of a popular engraving by Marc'
Antonio-in which the broken instruments appeared restored.

x3 Martyrologium hieronymianum, ed. J. B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne (Acta

sanctorum: novembris, ii/i), Brussels, 1894, s.v. I I August, 16 September,
22 November.
14 For a full discussion of the English lives see R. Luckett, The Legend of
St. Cecilia and English Literature, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge
University, 1971.
15 S. J. Freedberg, Painting of the High Renaissance in Rome and Florence,
Cambridge, Mass., I961, i. 175-7, ii. x8o-8i.

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ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 19

Henceforth the saint was fr

by major artists which por
organ, virginals, viol or lute.
The date of the initial occ
association between Cecilia and music is in doubt, but
probably falls within the period I45o-x 500.16 This hypothesis is
supported by an examination of the nine portraits of St. Cecily
that occur amongst the miniatures in the Bodleian Western
manuscripts. The earliest is German and dates from between
I271 and I300; there are three fourteenth-century examples,
one English, one French and one Italian; the remainder are
all fifteenth century, three being Italian, one Belgian and one
French. Of the nine only one shows Cecilia with a musical
instrument-in this case a portative again. It is Italian in
origin and dates from the latter half of the fifteenth century.
This is paralleled by the English situation, where the authen-
ticated early depictions all show a non-musical Cecilia with
corona and palm, often in the company of her fellow virgin
martyrs. I know of only three possible 'musical' saints: a
highly suspect Cecily with an amorphous musical instrument
on a heavily restored screen at Kenton (Devonshire), ' a
figure in a window at Charlinch (Somerset) which is, accord-
ing to an eminent authority, 'almost entirely modern',"" and a
good instance, with a portative, in a window of the north
aisle at Wrangle, Lincolnshire, reliably attributed to a date
'somewhat late' in the fifteenth century."
There is one problematical instance that would upset the
proposal of a terminus at 1450. This is the hortus conclusus
painting by the Upper Rhenish artist now known, from the
title it subsequently acquired, as the Master of the Little
Paradise Garden; it hangs in the Historical Museum at Frank-
furt and may have been painted as early as 1410. The
Madonna is seated in a walled rose-garden with her hand-
maidens; one of these is allowing the infant Jesus to strum on a

16 Rushworth ('St. Cecilia', p. I81) held that the earliest instance was the
Cologne altarpiece attributed to the 'Master of the Bartholemew Altar';
but his suggested dating of 1500 seems too late to be the first appearance
and too early for this particular painting. See Franz von Reber and Adolf
Bayersdorfer, Catalogue of Paintings in the Old Pinakothek, Munich, n.d.,
p. 11.
17 Charles E. Kayser, 'On the Panel Paintings of Saints on the Devonshire
Screens', Archaeologia, vi (1898), 215.
18 Christopher Woodforde, Stained Glass in Somerset: 125o-183o, London,
1946, p. 57.
1' Woodforde, 'Ancient Glass in Lincolnshire: No. 2-Wrangle', Lincolnshire
Magazine, i (1933), 198.

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 20 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

psaltery. The sugge

cherry-plucking han
should be noted, ho
this symbolically
Marian rosary rebus.
whole painting allud
tion does not rule out
but it makes it less
period a musical ins
Perhaps reluctantly,
i450 examples, observ
'popular' art appear
Two historical even
mentioned. The fir
of the cathedral at
Cecily is firmly ass
with a portative in
again above the entr
the scheme carried
and are therefore lat
we find scenes from
and a series of pai
features also. Thus
the new association
important is the de
1502, who asked a g
ation that they prop
but to Cecily, who
patron of their art
legal mind cannot be
At this point it is a
examine their sing
thalamus collocatus
suo soli Domino dec
latum, ut non conf
was to be celebrated,
sang in her heart t
and my body, that
at this point to ref
St. Ambrose said th

20 Eithne Wilkins, The R

21 Edmond van der Stra
Brussels, x867-88, ii. 22
22 Bosio, Historia, pp. 3-

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ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 21

makes the sweetness of celestial music re-echo on earth.

As lyre players are said to sing internally, so should we sin
the psalms.' In Classical times Philo had claimed that
'internal singing' was more valuable than 'audible music'.'"
Augustine's words from the Expositio psalmorum, 'He who re-
joices sings no words, but his song is a song of joy withou
words', have sometimes been taken as a justification of meli
mas, but may equally well be another reference to 'interna
singing'. The expression was perfectly accessible throughou
the Middle Ages and after; Thomas Fuller, describing Queen
Elizabeth's death, refers to her making 'still music to God i
her heart'-obviously meaning that she prayed.2' Clement
Alexandria in his Instructor tells us to 'Praise God on the Psalt-
ery, for the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord', and turns the
whole of Psalm 150 into an image of prayer, both internal and
audible. Thus we have in the Cecilian Acts an example of a
concept of inward prayer widespread in the early church and
derived from both Classical and patristic authors.2,
Dom Gregory Murray rightly stresses the contrasts between
the 'thoroughly secular' and 'frivolous' connotations of the
organ in early Christian times and the 'silent prayer' that the
saint offers to God.26 Yet he is himself in part a victim of the
processes that came to make Cecily the patroness of music.
For when the author of the Acts wrote 'organis' it is unlikely
that he meant 'organs'. As Father Bosio pointed out in 600oo,
'organis', in a Latin text of the fourth or fifth century, signified
instruments in general rather than organs."7 Bosio goes on to
use the shift in meaning to explain the depictions of the saint
holding that instrument, though he is quite clear that the
saint sang to God 'only in her heart alone'. His case can be
verified from the various Middle English lives of the saint;
several of them translate 'organis' as 'organs'. As Caxton put
it in his version of Voraginus' Golden Legend: 'She heeryng
the organes makyng melodye, she sange in hir herte onely to
god... '.". Chaucer in the Second Nun's Tale has:

23 I owe these references to James Hutton, 'Some English Poems in Praise of

Music', English Miscellany, ii (I950),' 5-16.
24 Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, 4th edn., London, 1663, p. 305.
25 For a full discussion see Leo Spitzer, 'Classical and Christian Ideas of
World Harmony', Traditio, ii (0944), 409-64, iii (i945), 307-64.
26 Murray, 'St. Cecilia and Music', p. 23.
27 Historia, p. 59.
28 The Golden Legend of Master William Caxton, ed. F. Ellis, Hammersmith,
1892, iii. zo81.

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 22 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

And whil the organs

To God allone in her

How near does this

The original distinc
pagan music and sile
when the pagan musi
above all others, had
ation with the church
no less damnable than
become 'organs' and
ecclesiastical use then
to the inventive mind. Yet the authors of all the Middle
English versions except two make it clear that Cecily sang
'stilliche', 'in hart', 'to God allone in herte' or 'covertly in hyr
inward mynde'.29 Nor were the artists any more easily misled:
an early fifteenth-century fresco in the sacristy of S. Maria de
Carmine, Florence, shows Cecilia at the extreme right of th
bridal party and behind, on the left, a musician at a port-
ative."3 The artist has understood the situation described in
the Acts, even though he has misinterpreted organis. In a
French manuscript of the later fifteenth century there is a
miniature of Cecily and Valerian in which just such a separ-
ation of the saint and the musicians is maintained, though in
the illumination a shawmist and lutenist accompany the
organist; it is possible, therefore, that the limner understood
organis correctly."3 Ruskin owned and described a service-book
from Beau-pre, made in I290, which contained a similar
illustration in conjunction with the words from the Acts.32
I excepted two of the English lives from my statement that
the English authors understood the Acts. In the very first
English life (save for a martyrology entry), written by Abbot
Aelfric at Winchester, probably in 997, the shift is slight;
Aelfric's somewhat ambiguous wording could make Cecily an
exponent of psalm singing, though there is no possible associ-
ation with organs or instrumental music.3" For that we have to
look at the life of Cecily in the North English Legendary, written

29 E.g. the accounts in the South English Legendary, the Scottish Legendary, the
Second Nun's Tale and Osbern Bokenham's Legendys of Hooly Wummen.
80 George Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting, Florence, 1952,
cols. 251--2.
31 Paris, Bibliothbque Nationale, MS Fr. 51; reproduced in Poir6e, Ste
Ctcile.
32 J. Ruskin, Pleasures of England, Orpington, 1884, p. I39.
8" Aelfric, Lives of the Saints, ed. W. W. Skeat, London, Igoo: 'Passio sanctae
Cecilie', 11. 23-25.

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 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 23

in the early fourteenth century

Cicilles to chamber went,

Calland to Christ with gude en
Thai herd grete noyis, that wer
Of angels sang and organs cler
Scho made hir melody omang
And al thus said scho in hir sa
Fiat cor meum et corpus meum im

The Durham version is consisten

ing retelling in terms that
ballads. It would be excessive t
ly able-had misunderstood the
did not think twice about a
between pagan and Christian
is heavenly. But it is audible,
the chamber. So here we have
and music; but no more impor
isolated reference than to the co
or thirteenth-century Germa
told that:

ir gebet in gottes oren drang

alse ein sizes orgenen sanch
(Her prayer came into God's ears like the sweet song
of an organ.)""

Again, though the Acts are altered they are not misrepresen-
ted; we are near the musical association but we are not
actually there.
Thus far nothing is solved. But we can go further. Rushworth
believes that the real source of confusion is a 'mutilated text'
in the Breviary.86 The same conclusion was arrived at inde-
pendently by Dom Murray-and was reached a hundred
years before either by Auguste Bott6 de Toulmon,*7 who
pointed out that it is not so much a case of a mutilated text
as an abbreviated one. It brings us once again to the key
sentence from the Acts. As Dom Murray puts it, 'although
[the] sentence is quoted in full in one of the responsories at
Mattins on the feast ... it occurs also in an abbreviated form

31 Altenglische Legenden, ed. C. Horstmann, neue folge, Heilbronn, I88 :

'De Sancta Cecilia historia', 11. 39-47.
'5 A. Dufourcq, Atude sur les Gesta Martyrum romains, Paris, 1900, i. 413.
11 Rushworth, 'St. Cecilia', p. I81.
37 'Des puys de palinods en g6ntral, et des puys de musique en particulier',
Revuefranfaise, vii (1838), 107.

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 24 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

as the first Vesper antipho

Domino decantabet, dicens ...
antiphon, taken alone, wou
her prayer aloud, to the ac
should be wary, however, o
the patroness of music bec
Breviary': anyone who kne
full story from the Mattin
whether they would choos
Vespers antiphon, with a p
tation.
In the fifteenth century the preconditions for this misin-
terpretation existed. The end of the Middle Ages saw a
multiplication of attributes and the adoption of a special
emblem for each saint.g3 Now Cecilia, we recollect, had no
really distinctive attribute. Moreover at this time we find
other relevant trends: the growth of craft guilds, the triviali-
zation of the cult of saints, and a rise in the social position of
the artist which must have affected the musicians, even if of
the artists they remained the least exalted class. 40 We can add
as well the gradual emancipation of music from the shackles
of philosophical and theological theory, the development of
Ars Nova in the late fourteenth century and the shift in em-
phasis away from psalms and plainsong, the preserves of
King David and St. Gregory respectively. There is also the
decline of the old Testament pseudo-saints (which affects
both David and Job) and the growth of cults of the Virgin-
who was intimately associated, through accounts of her
assumption, with the singing of heavenly choirs. Mary was
clearly too important to be claimed as a patroness; musicians
therefore had to look elsewhere. They found Cecilia, and if
the association was loosely conceived it fell short of being as
outrageous as the pun that made St. Clare the patroness of
glass-makers.
This claim, that Cecilia fulfilled a need, can be supported
by reference to a miniature in a late fourteenth-century manu-
script of Boethius' De musica and De arithmetica." It depicts a
seated woman playing a portative; she is surrounded by musi-
cians, and at the top of the page is a roundel showing David
88 Murray, 'St. Cecilia and Music', pp. 22-23.
38 limile Mile, The Gothic Image, London, 1913, P. 292.
40 Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, New York, 1954, pp.
165-77, 242-64.
1x Naples, Bibliotheca Nazionale, MS V.A. 14; Emma Pirani, Gothic
Illuminated Manuscripts, London, 1970, P1. XLVII.

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 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 25

with his psaltery. But the w

is not a corona-and she is, in
or muse of music-Musica. Th
many would suppose her to
playing the portative on a w
altarpiece is frequently mist
female figure playing a port
is customarily referred to as
corona nor palm, whilst h
proves to be part of the flor
text and find it to be Landin
weeps to see intelligent peop
fect' effects for the sake of p
tearful figure represented m
Musica has a far better pedi
emblems of the seven libera
Herrade of Landsberg's twelf
She was still a recognizable f
his Iconologia at the end of
Hawes described her as 'Da
Pleasure, and it was in honou
wrote his 'Ftir allen Freuden auf Erden'. But once the con-
nection between Cecily and music was in the air, Dame Music
could easily be made to lose her secular connotations. A
Florentine engraving of c.I470 emphasizes this:41 Musica
plays a recorder, and other instruments, including an organetto,
lie at her feet. We are not so far from the layout of Raphael's
picture.
As soon as it was translated into emblematic terms the
association took on a life of its own. It has long been known
that many stories of the saints 'have come into being in an
attempt to explain pictorial representations'."6 The legend o
St. George evolved in just these circumstances." In The
Golden Legend Caxton provides an instance of the process in
action: 'I will set here in one myracle whiche I have sene
paynted on an aulter of Saynt Austyn'.48 He might easily have
42 At the foot of f. 121v.
,S Hortus Deliciarum, ed. A. Straub and S. Keller, Strasbourg, 1899, p. Ir
and P1. XI.
"* Nova Iconologia, amplified edition, Padua, I618, p. 357-
45 G. Kinsky and R. Hass, Geschichte der Musik in Bildern, Leipzig, 1929, p. 74-
46 Hyacinth Delehaye, Les Ligendes hagiographiques, Brussels, 19o6, pp.
45-47.
, Peter Heylyn, The Historie of... St. George ofCappadocia, 2nd edn., London,
1633, pp. 67-82.
48 Golden Legend, i. 75.

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26 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

mistaken an allegorical for a li

Cecily's musical achievements,
by her singing, and of her inven
rationalizations of her emblem
that gave rise to the emblems.
The legend of St. Cecilia as the
mentioned by historians of instr
Agricola, Virdung, Juan de Ber
Nor did instrument makers ta
general, it is true, they had no
incorporated into those of cab
with appropriate dedications to
of Liege made an annual pilg
Gilles.16 Professional associatio
generally associations of musician
She is represented on organ cas
her on a few sixteenth-century
ally Italian spinets, and in the
quently appears on harpsichord
Italian eighteenth-century d
either rivalled or accompanied
the seventeenth and eighteenth
a commonplace on organ cases,
may consider the organ-builde
in a pioneer of their art is provi
Chartres organist Julien, publi
contains an elaborate motet in
represents her seated at a sple
a scroll bearing the abbreviate
sponse; the title was engraved
d'Orgue & Paris'."5 The general
to Cecily in the fifteenth and
the possibility, remote but not
the musical connection might
guild. Representations of her ma
astic assistant executioners blo
with bellows, and this I once
whole mystery. But no solid
though the bizarre association
49 Leon de Burbure, Recherches sur lesfact
Brussels, 1863.
3o Antoine Auda, La Musique et les musiciens de l'ancien pays de Lie'ge, Schaer-
beek, 1930, p. 59-
x1 Gottfried S. Fraenkel, Decorative Music Title Pages, New York, 1968,
Pl. CXI.

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 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 27

Sebastian, after all, was the pa

In one respect, however,
her association with music
society of musicians dedicate
of the Louvain magistrate w
formal association. There w
France, based on cathedral c
day, held a competitive musi
a communal banquet. When
elaborate musical services on
we do not know. A Vespers a
been a special performance
Henry VI on that day in 1444
ter College, but this is proba
nothing more for over a cen
brations, those at tvreux in No
They were followed by the f
Paris in 1575, and about this
founded in Rouen.s5 There a
Angers. In 1584 Pope Sixt
what is customarily referre
Cecilia in Rome, founded about
in association with St. Philip
the publication by Palestrina
(1575) of a motet on the a
Cecilia'-possibly the earliest
position in her honour. By 1
under way in Germany and i
Herman van der Ryst esta
Ceciliae at Hasselt."' There w
The exhumation in 1599 came
est. It prompted not merely B
its translation into Dutch, G
partly in consequence the se
Cecily as much in literature
than thirteen plays on the t
between 1581 and 1696,11 and

51 F. L1. Harrison, Music in Medieval

53 Bott6e de Toulmon, 'Des puys d
L'Ancien Chapitre de Notre Dame de P
s5 Auda, La Musique ... de Lilge, p.
55 Amsterdam, 1604; Gratz, 1604; P
16 Lione Allacci, Dramaturgia, Ven

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 28 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

France in 16o6 and 1662.57

In Protestant the sit England
and the only early piece of C
poser seems to be the motet
worked in the Netherlands.
title-page of Parthenia is ad
she has been entirely secula
Madam Cicilia pavan, curren
still danced at the Middle Te
any significance it is impossib
sant martyrologies the only
to her between the Reformati

Crashaws-and there she is n

of music. The first monument
a play entitled St. Cecily or the
ful blending of the old legend and the new association;
Cecily (or 'Cis') is an ardent singer and organist. The work is
a kind of Counter-Reformation charade, and its chief theme,
apart from music, is of resistance to persecution. It is, in every
sense, catholic; the comic characters make dubious jokes
about virginals and organs; and references to music abound.
When the largely decapitated Cecily turns to convert her
incompetent executioner she says:

I want a servant yet; O there he stands;

'Tis he that ran division best: 'Twas he
Which rounded, with a Crimson twist of silk,
This neck with pretious Rubies once adorn'd.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this St. Cecily seems to have had no

influence.
The English celebrations of St. Cecilia's day started in
1683. A church service preceded the concert and banquet,
but there is no reference to Cecily in the six surviving sermons

57 Nicholas Soret, La Ciciliade, ou martyre sanglante de Saincte Cicile, patronne

des musiciens, Paris, 16o6; Jean Frangois de Nisme, Ste Cicile coronnde,
Autun, 1662.
58 O. E. Deutsch, 'Cecilia and Parthenia', The Musical Times, c (1959),
591-2.
5' For instructions on how to dance it, see Mr. Butler Buggins his Book,
London, Royal College of Music, MS xI Ix9.
60 Richard Crashaw, The Poems, ed. L. C. Martin, Oxford, 1927, PP. 337,
450-53. Cecilia also features in a Protestant martyrology, John Foxe's
Actes and Monuments; the allusion is very cautious.
61 Published in 1666 and reissued the next year as The Converted Twins, it is
usually attributed to Matthew Medbourne; but the attribution is
clearly wrong. See Luckett, The Legend of St. Cecilia, pp. 196-21x8.

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 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC 29

preached on this occasion, tho

on the title pages.62 The Mu
the defence of church music
no such vital part in this as di
Cecilia in the artistic revival of the Counter-Reformation. The
English odes anticipate Handel's development of oratorio as
a concert form; they are not conceived, as were their Conti-
nental equivalents, as part of any religious celebration. The
saint played only a minor role, and we must see the English
iconographical instances as inspired by the notable series of
poems written in her honour for these occasions. We must also
note that these poems do not treat of her in a very serious
way.s63
By the end of the sixteenth century the association of
Cecilia with music was firmly established. But it must be insisted
that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the historical
legend and the new association could coexist without real
conflict. Thus Raphael painted the 'musical' Bologna altar-
piece, but we know from an engraving by Marc' Antonio that
he painted another picture, now lost, illustrating a scene from
the Acts. Italian maiolica painters worked out her martyrdom
in great detail, but included no musical allusions.64 No musical
instruments are featured in the elaborate surround to Mad-
erno's sculpture of the saint's body; but a painting of the
exhumed saint by the Florentine artist Ventura Salimbeni
shows a portative organ.65 A long poem by Casteletti published
in Florence in 1594 which recounts her life makes no reference
to music, yet at the same time Domenichino was painting his
six studies of the musical saint. The twelve poems on the
lives of virgin martyrs by the Dutch poetJoost van den Vondel,
published in 1642, contain an account of Cecily's wedding
which is based closely on the Acts, without musical reference;
but the cut that prefaces the poem illustrates Cecily with a
palm of martyrdom, a book-presumably the Gospel-and a
portative. And in I65o Vondel paid tribute to the musical
skills of 'Joffer Anna Hinlopen' in a poem that is replete with

*2 Ralph Battel, I693 (pub. 1694); Charles Hickman, 1695 (pub. 1696);
Samson Estwick, at Oxford, 1696; Nicholas Brady, 1697; William Sher-
lock, 1699; Francis Atterbury, date of delivery unknown, printed in his
Sermons and Discourses.
63 For a brief discussion see J. Hollander, The Untuning of the Sky, Princeton,
96 I, pp. 390-442.
64 See Gaetano Ballardini, Corpus della maiolica italiana: le maioliche datatefino
al 53o, Rome, [I933], Nos. 156, 187, 228.
65 The painting is in a private collection, Cambridge. There is a related
drawing in the Louvre.

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 30 ST. CECILIA AND MUSIC

Cecilian allusion."6
The parallel tradition laste
in France we find at Saint-
reading from the 'material
Loire she is shown on a spand
her musical attributes. Th
indications are that the asso
always somewhat approxi
attribute it to a 'mistaken
never a matter of educated
as Raphael, Dryden and Pur
emotional responses it was ne
something that was not taken
The legend of the musical
representation of the ancie
loose interpretation a solid
of romantic Angst that lead
attitude characteristic of th
our culture. It is revealing
on Cecilia should have bee
whom Stravinsky once rem
and musician is Cecilian in
art 'sub specie ludi'.

66 De Werken van Vondel, ed. J

iv. 457-62, v. 500.
67 Joan Evans, Monastic Iconograph

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