LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • 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

by John Dryden (1631 - 1700)
Translation by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008)

To Saint Cecilia
Language: English  after the English 
From harmony this universal frame began:
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head.

The Voice of Thunder was heard on high,
"Arise, arise ye more than dead."
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
The elements, they heard from high:
And to their stations leap,
And Music's power obey.

From heavenly harmony this universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony.
Through all the compass of notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.

What passion cannot Music raise or 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.

Text Authorship:

  • by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008) [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

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

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

  • by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008), "To Saint Cecilia", 1958 [chorus and brass], cantata [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-19
Line count: 19
Word count: 112

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