1 Overture - Larghetto, e staccato - Allegro - Minuet
The overture (D major, with two oboes, strings and basso continuo) does not belong specifically to this ode, but was also used by Haendel for his Concerto Grosso op. 6 no. 5. As if the ode had not yet begun... We are still on our way to the celebration of St Cecilia's Day and are interrupting our daily routine for the time being. We progress slowly in a dotted French rhythm, accompanied by downward octave leaps in the bass line, and end on an A major dominant chord instead of the expected D major chord, which creates an expectant mood. Acceleration then sets in. A fughetto (allegro) between strings and two oboes with echo effects pushes forward. The 59-bar fugue starts again and again from below (from the cellos and bassoons) and thus demands attention. But then, surprisingly, the opening music changes to a concluding leisurely courtly minuet, presumably to wait until everyone, including the aristocratic guests, has taken their seats.
2. ‘From Harmony; When Nature’ - Tenor - Larghetto e piano
Only now does the ode begin and everything from the beginning: The universe is created over calm, horizontal chords in the organ continuo; from harmony, from heav'nly harmony, as the tenor evocatively sings, the space of the universe is created. In the orchestral chaos larghetto, the first atoms can be heard whirring, nature slowly and rhythmically structures itself until the call of the Creator is heard: ‘Arise, arise!’ The orchestra and the whole of creation are then revitalised by the elemental ‘Music's Power’ from the very beginning.
3. Choir: ‘From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony’ - Allegro
Over a syncopated orchestral melody, the choir repeats the tenor's opening words about the creation of the universe: From harmony.... The notes run up and down through the voices of the choir and create before our ears the ‘diapson’ (diapson = originally Greek octave, in the organ the whole full register of voices), the full sound of creation as it is said to have been achieved with man. However, at the word ‘diapson’ the register in the male voices sounds briefly clouded until D major and the main melody in the orchestra return.
4. Aria ‘What Passion’ - Cello - Soprano solo - Adagio
The following arias demonstrate the multifaceted power of music to depict and arouse emotions. A cello begins to play first. Just as in the Bible Jubal, the forefather of all music makers, played his ‘corded shell’ for the first time according to Genesis 4:21. The tonality changes to G major, which gives the cello the opportunity to use its lowest string in its introductory and accompanying solo. The organ continuo, the meandering cello solo and the strings in the occasional echo underline the enraptured soprano melody, which sings of the emergence of music among the first humans and of the passions that this divine music can trigger. A contemplative mood spreads.
5. Aria "The Trumpet's Loud Clangour" - Tenorsolo
Back in D major, the key of trumpets and timpani, the trumpet immediately sets the tempo and confronts the previous contemplative mood with combative provocations. The tenor aria's cries of ‘Hark!’ and ‘Charge!’ as well as the ‘double double double beat’ evoked by the timpani's rousing crescendo arouse feelings of battle. Do contemplation and struggle always go together dialectically and often unwholesomely in the prevailing life? The choir is also involved and increases the effect of this militarily seductive power of the music.
6. March
A more leisurely march for trumpet, strings and continuo brings some balance back into the broken ambivalence and ambiguity of music and life.
7. Aria ‘The Soft Complaining Flute’ - flute, lute - soprano solo - andante
The flute, accompanied by the lute, now begins to play in a subdued B minor key. The soprano sings of sorrow and lamentation. Music can alleviate despair and pain in bad times. Music wants to be there for that too. All the expressive possibilities and musical gestures for sadness and lamentation are brought together by the flute, lute, soprano and muted strings in a joint lamentation aria.
8. Aria ‘Sharp Violins Proclaim their Jealous Pangs’ - Tenor solo - Allegro
In A major, the unison strings begin with trills and dotted rhythms. It is not entirely serious about the emotions of longing, lovesickness and jealousy. The tenor imitates the violins with his own arpeggios and octave leaps, which fits perfectly with the slightly ironic verses of the text.
9. Aria ‘But Oh! What Art can Teach’ - Organ - Soprano solo - Larghetto, e mezzo piano
Consoling F major leads to a change of mood and a distancing from all the earthly emotions that music had previously caused. The organ (now as a fully-fledged partner instrument to the orchestra) and the soprano voice remind us in meditative sounds of the heavenly dimension of music as it was revealed to St Cecilia with her organ. The soprano sings heavenly ‘sacred organ praise’, and the organ plays the most beautiful of its melodious stops. Another Handel moment to marvel at!
10. Aria ‘Orpheus could Lead the Savage Race’ - Alla Hornepipe
Once again, Handel and the poet return to antiquity to remind us of the mighty power of music as early as Orpheus, whose lyre was also said to work miracles, and even uprooted trees because they wanted to follow his song. Handel composed a traditional English hornpipe dance in ¾ time with syncopations and shifts of accent, probably to acoustically visualise these dancing trees, and in a dark D minor, presumably to prepare for an expected D major ending.
11. Recitative ‘But Bright Cecilia Raised the Wonder Higher’ - Largo
This bridge to the final climax is formed by an accompagnato on Dryden's verses, which point to an even greater wonder than the sound of the organ and uprooted trees: namely that an angel was mistaken when he heard Caecilia playing the organ and believed that he was no longer travelling on earth but was already in heaven. It is this scene that iconographically made Caecilia the patron saint of music. Simple long sustained notes form the harmonic work Handel needed to get from D minor to D major.
12 . Choir ‘As from the Power of Sacred Lays’ - Soprano - Final chorus - Grave - un poco piú Allegro
This marks the climax of the ode. The soprano becomes the lead singer of a solemn chorale entitled Grave: ‘As from the pow'r of sacred lays’. After half a bar of complete silence, the entire choir and orchestra join in and repeat her line. Three more times Handel lets the soprano line hover above the general silence, and three times the universe calls back. The chorale traces an arc from the beginning of creation to the last trumpet call at the end of time. Handel composes world theatre here and musically transports us listeners into a mythical-eschatological vision.
The end, however, is not horror, but a magnificent, four-part, 156-bar choral fugue. Even if in Dryden's poem the celestial sound of the spheres of music also comes to an end with the end of the universe, the trumpets, timpani, choir and orchestra heighten the expressive power of the music to a triumphant final victory of life.
TENOR:
From harmony, from heavenly harmony
This universal frame began.
When nature, underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head.
The tuneful Voice, was heard from high,
Arise! Arise!
Arise ye more than dead!
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap!
And music's power obey!
And music's power obey!
CHORUS:
From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began.
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in man.
TENOR:
The trumpet's loud clangour excites us to arms,
With shrill notes of anger and mortal alarms,
The double-double-double beat,
Of the thund'ring drum,
Cries hark! Hark! Cries hark the foes come!
Charge! Charge! Charge! Charge!
'Tis too late, 'tis too late to retreat!
Charge 'tis too late, too late to retreat!
TENOR:
The trumpet's loud clangour excites us to arms,
With shrill notes of anger and mortal alarms,
The double-double-double beat,
Of the thund'ring drum,
Cries hark! Hark! Cries hark the foes come!
Charge! Charge! Charge! Charge!
'Tis too late, 'tis too late to retreat!
Charge 'tis too late, too late to retreat!
SOPRANO:
The soft complaining flute
In dying notes discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers,
Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute.
TENOR:
Sharp violins proclaim,
Their jealous pangs,
And desperation!
Fury, frantic indignation!
Depth of pains, and height of passion,
For the fair disdainful dame!
SOPRANO:
But oh! what art can teach,
What human voice can reach
The sacred organ's praise?
Notes inspiring holy love,
Notes that wing their heavenly ways
To join the choirs above.
SOPRANO:
Orpheus could lead the savage race,
And trees uprooted left their place
Sequacious of the lyre:
Soprano:
But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher:
When to her Organ vocal breath was given
An Angel heard, and straight appeared –
Mistaking Earth for Heaven.
SOPRANO / CHORUS:
As from the power of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the blest above;
So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
CHORUS:
The dead shall live,
the living die,
And music shall untune the sky
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