Cecilia and Valerian
(apse mosaic in S. Cecilia, Rome)
all my colleagues and of course ladies, who as church musicians and composers worrying about the right care of the Musica Sacra , I wish for today's feast of our patroness, the Virgin and Martyr Cecilia, all the very best and as much fun as steadfastness in not often easy service!
Today more than ever we should entrust to the intercession of the venerable saint, already the Roman Meßkanon to the Holy City of Rome is one. And we should not be swayed by self-proclaimed "experts" who direct the patronage Cecilia as well as their lives into the realm of fable and dismissed as a misfortune of hagiography want. Although ostensibly led the mention of the organ in her legendary Vita create its patronage, it is still a deep theological thought that Cecilia makes the legitimate protection of women of all those people whom the church music is not only external decoration, but an essential expression of human speech with and to God.
In the following I would like this (shortened) some thoughts , For which I cite on this subject in the publication "SOLI DECANTABAT DOMINO" 70 I published my father's birthday Erich Weber in 2007.
"The starting point of all reflections on music patronage of saints is a text from their amour. Cecilia was at an early age a vow of virginity saved for Christ's sake. However, it should make it that, but young pagan Valerian are given in marriage. To to keep faithful to Christ, she prayed to God with fasting and prayer to preserve their virginity:
"It came the day when the bridal chamber was ready, and while the organ sounded, she sang [Cecilia] alone in her heart to the Lord and said, My heart and flesh may remain unsullied, so I'm not ashamed "
This text, which had included the 1263-1273 resulting portrayal of the famous" Golden Legend "of the. Dominican friar and Genoese Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine is based, found in two versions included in the Divine Office for the Feast of St. Cecilia, 22 November, which since about the eighth Century is celebrated. In the first watch of the Matins Responsorium is after the first reading:
"While the organ was played, the virgin Cecilia sang in her heart, the Lord alone and said, "It may remain Lord, my heart and my body unspotted, so I'm not ashamed. - While they fasted and prayed two or three days, she confided to the Lord that which frightens you: may it remain Lord, my heart and my body unspotted, so I'm not ashamed "
appears in abbreviated form. the text as the first antiphon for Lauds and Vespers:
"While the organ was heard singing, and Cecil to the Lord said, My heart be undefiled, so I'm not ashamed."
is to these two texts noted. What seems clear, to the fact that it was in this music for the wedding of Cecilia to pagan music, and that their mention of the sharp contrast between the exuberant secular wedding noise and the quiet inner prayer of the Holy identify the "in her heart sang God alone" . Joseph Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI., Has been involved in several notable publications with the theology of music and show that this view is characteristic of the Church's conception of music of the Church Fathers to Thomas Aquinas and beyond. In a particularly flagrant articulated St. Jerome's rejection of a church music especially the self-representation of performers is:
"psallieren singing and praising God, we need more with the spirit as with the voice. May these young people and those entrusted with the duty of the Psallierens in church listening to sing that one God is not with the voice, but with the heart must be that they do not smear in the nature of the tragedian throat and stomach with sweet products allowed, so theatrically in church sound stilted and ornate melodies, but that her God through piety, good works and knowledge of the Scriptures have praise. "
This setting of the ancient Church is clearly expressed in the Responsorium at Matins expressed to convey as the antiphon for Lauds and Vespers antiphons in their poetry quite common omissions may feel as though even Cecilia sang to the accompaniment of the organ. Supports the latter interpretation of the linguistic ambiguity of the Latin ablative absolute cantantibus organis , the almost contradictory translations are allowed, "while the organ sounded," although the organ sounded, "where the organ was played" within the meaning of "to the organ sound" - all options are possible, if only i n corde suo soli [Domino decantabat] omitted.
(...) can thus be stated in summary, first, that the St Cecilia came to her office as a saint of music from a purely historical perspective, "like the Virgin Mary for the child." During and even at their wedding reception the usual wheel there was a pagan festival musical society, prayed - "sang" - she stopped for itself, "in her heart" to God alone to preserve the stored Jungfräulichkeitsgelübdes. Only medieval popular piety, the ambiguity of a liturgical text took advantage on her feast day, rose them to the rank of a patron saint of music, his tools and people involved.
appears Given the above considerations of patronage, however, always justified, and the unerring sense of the faithful seems to the superficial wisdom of professional historians to lie. Cecilia is in their legend clearly be related to music, that's for sure. The manner in which their relationship is portrayed to the music, fits also perfectly into the theology of music as an example was set by the Holy Pope Gregory the Great:
"If (...) from the singing of the psalm the intimacy of the heart out sounds, the Lord Almighty will through him access to the heart (...). Thus it is written: 'A song of praise brings me honor, and this is the way in which I will show him God's salvation' (Ps. 49.23). Indeed, what in Latin salutare, medical means, that is Jesus in Hebrew. In praise therefore access is created where Jesus can reveal himself. "
The legend of St. Cecilia certifies a role model just because of this" sincerity of heart "that made their prayers and their songs are a way to God. It is rightly revered as the patron saint of musicians and their art - and, well, not only as a patroness of church music, but the music in general, such as "all true art (..) approximation to the 'artist', in Christ, the Creator Spirit" (Joseph Ratzinger). Even the church musicians of our day maturity, would be well advised to rediscover their patron saint as a model. Only there, where external actions with the singing of the heart to the Lord alone together, music can cross the border to the heathen to the true church music and noise, yes to musica divina be. "
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