Georg Friedrich Handel's "Song for Cecilia's Day" HWV 76, composed in 1739, underwent, like many works of genius, revisions and expansions. The new volume in the "Halle Handel Edition" includes all early and late versions, enabling historically informed performance practice based on the latest source evaluation.

How and when Handel became acquainted with the text of the "small" Cecilian Ode, "Song for St Cecilia's Day" (HWV 76, composed in 1739), is not known. John Dryden (1631–1700) had written the "Ode From harmony" in 1687. For the setting of the "grand" Cecilian Ode, "Alexander's Feast" (HWV 75, composed in 1736), Newburgh Hamilton (1691–1761) had slightly expanded Dryden's poem with his own verses but essentially divided it into smaller textual units for recitatives, arias, and choruses. Handel accepted the two-part structure created by Hamilton for the Ode. However, since the London audience was accustomed to performances of three-part operas or oratorios, Handel had to expand the work with three concertos and an Italian cantata to meet the expected length of the musical event. By setting Dryden's shorter Cecilian poem, possibly also instigated by Hamilton, Handel had the opportunity to combine "Alexander's Feast" with a work that not only matched its length but also corresponded to its content, thus creating a complete concert evening with a substantial amount of new music.

Handel likely planned from the beginning to arrange the new Cecilian Ode in a way that would match the length of "Alexander's Feast". However, in its initial stage, the new work turned out to be too short. "The trumpet's loud clangor" was only set as a tenor aria, the March No. 5 did not yet exist, and the final movement, "As from the pow'r of sacred lays," was 42 bars shorter. The exact timing of when Handel expanded the original draft of the Ode is not known, but the expansion most likely took place before the premiere on November 22, 1739, which coincided with the commemoration day in honor of St. Cecilia and took place at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London.

For performances of HWV 76 held after 1739/40, Handel made changes to certain movements, particularly to accommodate the abilities of the new singers in his ensemble. In Accompanied Recitative No. 1, which was intended to be sung by bassist William Savage in 1741, Handel wrote alternative, mostly lower notes for several measures in addition to the original tenor part. The text of Aria No. 7 was translated into Italian to make it singable for the Italian singer Giovanni Battista Andreoni, who performed for Handel in the 1740/41 season (referred to as "Fier' violini san," No. 7a). In the concerts on February 28 and March 11, 1741, Handel combined the Cecilian Ode HWV 76 with the long bilingual English-Italian version of "Acis and Galatea", HWV 49b. He may have eliminated March No. 5 from the Cecilian Ode for this purpose and also shortened the final movement, No. 11, to adhere to the usual concert duration. In 1743, Handel set the text of "The soft complaining flute" once again for the alto singer Susanna Maria Cibber (No. 6a).

A particular issue arises regarding the instrumental introduction of HWV 76, as it is not known which instrumental music Handel performed at the beginning of "Song for St Cecilia's Day" at the premiere in 1739 and in subsequent repetitions of the Ode. In six out of the nine surviving manuscript copies, an introductory music is missing - the work begins with the recitative "From harmony, from heavenly harmony" according to these manuscripts. It is possible that instead of the introductory music (Overture, Menuet I, II) preserved in the autograph, a concerto from the twelve Concerti grossi, Op. 6, was performed.

The new volume of the "Halle Handel Edition" provides both the version of the 1739 premiere and all the surviving early and late versions of individual musical pieces from Handel's "small" Cecilian Ode, "Song for St Cecilia's Day".

Stephan Blaut
(June 2023)