LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,110)
  • Text Authors (19,487)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by John Dryden (1631 - 1700)
Translation © by Guy Laffaille

From harmony, from heav'nly harmony
Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE
From harmony, from heav'nly 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, ye more than dead."
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And Music's pow'r obey.
From harmony, from heav'nly harmony
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Thro' all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.

What passion cannot Music raise and quell!
When Jubal struck the corded shell,
His list'ning brethren stood around,
And, wond'ring, on their faces fell
To worship that celestial sound.
Less than a god they thought there could not dwell
Within the hollow of that shell
That spoke so sweetly and so well.
What passion cannot Music raise and quell!

The Trumpet's loud clangor
Excites us to arms,
With shrill notes of anger,
And mortal alarms.
The double double double beat
Of the thund'ring Drum
Cries: "Hark! the foes come;
Charge, charge, 't is too late to retreat."

The soft complaining Flute
In dying notes discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers,
Whose dirge is whisper'd by the warbling Lute.

Sharp Violins proclaim
Their jealous pangs, and desperation,
Fury, frantic indignation,
Depth of pains, and height of passion,
For the fair, disdainful dame.

But O! what art can teach,
What human voice can reach,
The sacred Organ's praise?
Notes inspiring holy love,
Notes that wing their heav'nly ways
To mend the choirs above.

Orpheus could lead the savage race;
And trees unrooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre;
But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder high'r:
When to her Organ vocal breath was giv'n,
An angel heard, and straight appear'd,
Mistaking earth for heav'n.

GRAND CHORUS
As from the pow'r 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,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And Music shall untune the sky.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: In Händel's setting, each stanza is a separate movement:

1.    Overture: Larghetto e staccato—allegro—minuet
2.    Recitative (tenor): "From harmony, from heavenly harmony"
3.    Chorus: "From harmony, from heavenly harmony"
4.    Aria (soprano): "What passion cannot music raise and quell!"
5.    Aria (tenor) and Chorus: "The trumpet's loud clangour"
6.    March
7.    Aria (soprano): "The soft complaining flute"
8.    Aria (tenor): "Sharp violins proclaim their jealous pangs"
9.    Aria (soprano): "But oh! What art can teach"
10.   Aria (soprano): "Orpheus could lead the savage race"
11.   Recitative (soprano): "But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher"
12.   Grand Chorus with (soprano): "As from the power of sacred lays"


Text Authorship:

  • by John Dryden (1631 - 1700), written 1687 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 - 1759), "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day", HWV 76, first performed 1739 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "Heav'nly Harmony", 2015, first performed 2015 [ mixed chorus and organ ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by David Evan Thomas (b. 1958), "A Song for Saint Cecilia's Day", 1991/2005 [ 3 sopranos, string quartet and harpsichord ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Ellen Florence Williams Whitlock (1889 - 1978), "From Harmony To Harmony", op. 5 (1958) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, adapted by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008) [an adaptation] ; composed by Norman Dello Joio.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation possibly by Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725 - 1798); composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
    • Go to the text.

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Miguel Antonio Caro) , "Canto en honor de Santa Cecilia", appears in Traducciones poéticas, first published 1889


Research team for this page: Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor] , David Evan Thomas

This text was added to the website: 2006-06-12
Line count: 64
Word count: 351

De l'harmonie, de la céleste harmonie
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
De l'harmonie, de la céleste harmonie
Cet universel cadre a commencé :
Quand la nature sous un tas
D'atomes désordonnés gisait,
Et ne pouvait pas lever la tête,
La voix mélodieuse s'entendait d'en haut :
« Debout, toi qui es plus que mort. »
Alors le froid, le chaud, l'humide et le sec
En ordre sautèrent à leur place,
Et obéirent au pouvoir de la Musique.
De l'harmonie, de la céleste harmonie
Cet universel cadre a commencé :
D'harmonie en harmonie
À travers toute la portée des notes, ils coururent,
Le diapason fermant la marche.

Quelle passion la musique ne peut-elle élever et apaiser !
Quand Jubal frappa les cordes de la coque,
Ses frères qui l'écoutaient s'arrêtèrent
Et, émerveillés, sur leur visage tombèrent
Pour adorer ce son céleste.
Seul un dieu, pensèrent-ils, pouvait loger
À l'intérieur du trou de cette coque
Qui parlait si doucement et si bien.
Quelle passion la musique ne peut-elle élever et apaiser !

Le son de la trompette
Nous appelle aux armes,
Avec les notes aiguës de la colère
Et des alarmes mortelles.
Le double battement
Du tambour tonnant
Crie : « Écoutez ! l'ennemi arrive;
Chargez, chargez, il est trop tard pour faire retraite. »

La plainte douce de la flûte
Découvre en notes funèbres
Le malheur d'amants sans espoir,
Dont le luth mélodieux murmure le chant funèbre.

Les violons brutaux proclament
Leurs douleurs jalouses et leur désespoir,
Leur fureur, leur indignation frénétique,
Leur souffrance profonde et leur grande passion
Pour la belle dame pleine de dédain.

Mais Oh ! quel art peut apprendre,
Quelle voix humaine peut atteindre
La louange de l'orgue sacré ?
Des notes inspirant un amour saint,
Des notes qui volent sur des chemins célestes
Pour s'accorder avec les chœurs de là-haut.

Orphée pouvait mener les animaux sauvages ;
Et les arbres déracinés quittèrent leur place,
Suivant la lyre ;
Mais la brillante Cécile éleva la merveille plus haut :
Quand à l'orgue de ta voix le souffle fut donné,
On entendit un ange et il apparut aussitôt,
Prenant la terre pour le ciel.

GRAND CHŒUR
Comme par le pouvoir de chants sacrés
Les sphères commencèrent à bouger,
et chantèrent la louange du grand Créateur
À tous les bienheureux ici-bas.
Ainsi quand la dernière et terrible heure
Dévorera ce spectacle en ruine,
La trompette retentira en haut,
Les morts vivront, les vivants mourront,
Et la Musique désaccordera le ciel .

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of title(s):
"Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" = "Ode pour sainte Cécile"
"A Song for Saint Cecilia's Day" = "Un chant pour sainte Cécile"


Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2018 by Guy Laffaille, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by John Dryden (1631 - 1700), written 1687
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2018-12-20
Line count: 64
Word count: 389

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris