A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (John Dryden)

 “A Song for St. Cecilia's Day” composed in 1687, is the first of two great odes written by poet laureate John Dryden and set to music for the annual St. Cecilia’s Day celebration held every November 22 from 1683 to 1703 and sponsored by the London Musical Society. The poem consisting of seven stanzas and a grand chorus, describes the involvement of music in both the makings of the universe and the subtleties of human emotion and piety.

 

In Stanza 1, an unnamed speaker opens the poem by describing how the world was created according to a certain kind of “heavenly harmony” or divine order. From a chaotic state, nature was summoned to existence by Music. The creation of the universe, initiated by the command of Music, then culminated in the creation of Man. In Stanza 2, the speaker goes on to describe music's capacity to inspire passion, giving as an example the story of Jubal and the power of his instrument to move the hearts of his listeners.

From Stanza 3 to Stanza 6, the speaker describes different musical instruments and their abilities to incite different kinds of emotions: Stanza 3 describes the trumpet and drum and their power to inspire militant anger; Stanza 4 the ability of the flute and lute to inspire melancholy; Stanza 5 the diversity of strong emotions such as jealousy, fury, anger, pain, and passion that the violin can incite; Stanza 6 the organ’s capability to inspire piety. Stanza 7 continues the previous stanza’s description of the organ, elaborating upon its appearance in the story of St. Cecilia. Alluding to Roman mythology, the speaker argues that St. Cecilia’s organ possesses a power superior to that of Orpheus’s lyre, in that the former even caused an angel to mistake Earth for Heaven.

The Grand Chorus closes the poem with the description of the “dreadful hour,” in which the spheres of the world are reordered, the reign of the great Creator, the Christian God is celebrated, the existing laws of the world are reversed, and the universe is rebuilt and restructured with the force of music.

Themes:

Music

"A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687” seems to be not so much a poem about St. Cecilia’s Day as an ode to music itself. The poem celebrates several different properties of music. In Stanza 1, the concept of musical harmony helps us to understand the makings of the universe  and interpret and comply with the wishes of the divine. In Stanzas 2 through 6, music allows us to enjoy our emotions to the fullest, and causes us to be energized, passionate, and festive. In Stanza 7 and the Grand Chorus, music connects the earthly to the heavenly, allowing for spiritual experiences like that St. Cecilia had through her organ performance. Meanwhile, the poem also warns of certain hazards of music, and furthermore, the dangers of art itself.

Religion

Though “A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687” celebrates a Catholic holiday, the poem contains references to more than one belief system. Alongside the Biblical references to Jubal, Heaven, and angels, and the Catholic narrative of St. Cecilia, the speaker incorporates the Greek myth of Orpheus. Greek philosophy also makes multiple appearances: Pythagorean cosmology, Aristotelian atomic theory, and Epicurean atomic theory are all featured in this poem. Thus the poem prompts us to think about the synthesis of competing belief systems and how one mode of thought can be appropriated, embraced, or challenged by another.

Cosmology

One attribute of this poem that makes it so unique is its scale: Anchored by an extremely specific event  the poem expands to the broader theme of music itself, then even goes on to make claims about the universe and its makings. Cosmology is an important element of “A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687” because it is what connects the festivities of a specific holiday to broader claims about art, life, and the universe. According to the poem's cosmology, there is also a Heaven and an Earth, the dichotomy of which can be bridged, again, through the performance and audition of music. Heaven and Earth become relative concepts when the speaker claims that St. Cecilia's organ made an angel mistake Earth for Heaven.