A Hymn for St Cecilia (Charles H. Giffen)

From ChoralWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

To the Choral Public Domain Library, in praise of singing   St-Cecilia.jpg

Music files

L E G E N D Disclaimer How to download
ICON SOURCE
Icon_pdf.gif Pdf
Icon_mp3.gif Mp3
MusicXML.png MusicXML
File details.gif File details
Question.gif Help

Full score

  • (Posted 2018-09-26)  CPDL #51371:       
Editor: Charles H. Giffen (submitted 2018-09-26).   Score information: Letter, 34 pages, 484 kB   Copyright: CC BY NC SA
Edition notes: This is a letter-size version of the full score. A larger (tabloid-size) conductor's score are also available. Performance time is about 8.5 minutes. Revision uploaded 2021-09-14.

Choral score

  • (Posted 2021-09-14)  CPDL #65784:     
Editor: Charles H. Giffen (submitted 2021-09-14).   Score information: Letter, 16 pages, 337 kB   Copyright: CC BY NC SA
Edition notes: Chorus score which includes the harp part and a reduction for keyboard (organ) of the winds & strings instrumental parts.

Instrumental parts

  • (Posted 2018-10-01)  CPDL #51405:     
Editor: Charles H. Giffen (submitted 2018-10-01).   Score information: Ledger, 4 pages, 145 kB   Copyright: CC BY NC SA
Edition notes: Harp part. Revision uploaded 2021-09-14.
  • (Posted 2018-10-01)  CPDL #51406:     
Editor: Charles H. Giffen (submitted 2018-10-01).   Score information: Letter, 15 pages, 550 kB   Copyright: CC BY NC SA
Edition notes: Wind parts: Flute, English horn, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trombone. Revision uploaded 2021-09-14.
  • (Posted 2018-10-01)  CPDL #51407:     
Editor: Charles H. Giffen (submitted 2018-10-01).   Score information: Letter, 15 pages, 551 kB   Copyright: CC BY NC SA
Edition notes: String parts: Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass. Revision uploaded 2021-09-14.

General Information

Title: A Hymn for St Cecilia

Composer: Charles H. Giffen
Lyricist: Ursula Vaughan Williams (1911-2007)

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: SacredAnthem for St. Cecilia

Language: English
Instruments: Chamber orchestra (flute, English horn, bassoon, horn in F, trombone, harp, and strings)

First published: 2018, rev. 2021
Description: This is a concert-anthem setting of the poem 'A Hymn for St Cecilia' by Ursula Vaughan Williams, for mixed choir and chamber orchestra. It is dedicated to the Choral Public Domain Library, as CPDL approaches the 20th anniversary of its founding (in December 1998) by Rafael Ornes, with much appreciation by the composer for all that CPDL has done for choirs and choruses, making thousands upon thousands of choral scores available for free download. The music itself is an elaboration of the composer's hymn on the same text (Sing for the morning's joy, Cecilia, sing to the tune "Gloucester Crescent" which was composed in 2017 explicitly for the Ursula Vaughan Williams text. The harp is an organic part of the accompaniment.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English.png English text

Sing for the morning’s joy, Cecilia, sing,
in words of youth and phrases of the spring.
     Walk the bright colonnades by fountains spray
     and sing as sunlight fills the waking day.
Till angels, voyaging in upper air,
     pause on a wing, and gather the clear sound
     into celestial joy, wound and unwound,
a silver chain or golden as your hair.

Sing for your loves of heaven and of earth,
in words of music, and each word a truth,
     marriage of heart and longings that aspire,
     a bond of roses and a ring of fire.
Your summertime grows short and fades away,
     terror must gather to a martyr’s death,
     but never tremble, the last indrawn breath
remembers music as an echo may.

Through the cold aftermath of centuries
Cecilia’s music dances in the skies,
     lend us a fragment of the immortal air
     where with your choiring angels we may share.
A light to light us through time-fettered night,
     water of life, a rose of paradise;
     so from the earth another song shall rise
to meet your own in heaven's long delight.

 — by Ursula Vaughan Williams (1911-2007)
Copyright © 1961 by The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust. Used by permission.