Of this Annual Festival the following account is given by a friend of our author:

"The 22d of November, being St. Cecilia's day, is observed throughout all Europe by the

AUTHORS.

COMPOSERS.

Stationers' Hall; yet neither in the Wardens' Account of that year, nor any following year, is it noticed.

1708. POPE.

It does not appear that Pope's Ode was set to musick in 1708.

An Ode was performed at Oxford in 1707,,set to musick by Daniel Purcell; and another in 1708, set by Blow; and both performed at St. Mary Hall.

From the total silence of the newspapers concerning this festival after 1703, it may be presumed, that after that time her anniversary ceased to be regularly celebrated at Stationers' Hall by " the Lovers of Musick," in the same manner in which it had been solemnized for twenty years. That the practice of writing an Ode for the day was discontinued in 1711, is ascertained by the following Advertisement in THE SPECTATOR, (original edition) No. 229; Thursday, Nov. 22:

"For the benefit of Mr. Anthony Young, Organist of St. Clement's-Danes, at Stationers' Hall, this present Thursday, the 22d instant, being St. Cecilia's day, will be performed a Consort of vocal and instrumental musick, most of which will be entirely new; and Mr. Leveridge sings that celebrated song, beginning at-Genius of England. Tickets at 5s. each," &c.

On St. Cecilia's day, 1723, was performed at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields," an Entertainment of Musick, called THE UNION OF THE THREE SISTER ARTS;" set to musick by Dr. Pepusch. In this Enter

lovers of musick. In Italy, Germany, France, and other countries, prizes are distributed on that day, in some of the most considerable towns, to such as make the best anthem in her praise.

On that day, or the next, when it falls on a Sunday,- -- most of the lovers of musick, whereof many are persons of the first rank, meet at Stationers' Hall in London, not through a principle of superstition, but to propagate the advancement of that divine science. A splendid entertainment is provided, and before it is always a performance of

tainment (which more nearly resembles the performances in foreign countries in honour of this saint, than any of the Musick-Odes at Stationers' Hall,) Cecilia was represented by Mrs. Chambers, Homer by Mr. Leveridge, and Apelles by Mr. Le Gare.

In 1730, Pope's Ode was set to musick by Dr. Greene, as an exercise on taking his degree of Doctor of Musick, in the University of Cambridge. On this occasion, some alterations were made in it, and a new stanza added by Pope. Some time between that year and 1740, an Ode for St. Cecilia's day, written (as I learn from a MS. note) by Mr. Vidal, one of the ushers of Westminster School, and set to musick by Mr. Boyce, was performed by the Academy of Musick, in the great room called the Apollo, in the Devil Tavern. Another Ode, written by Mr. John Lockman, and set also by Boyce, was performed by the same Academy, within the period above mentioned: they were both printed in 8vo. in 1740, in a volume entitled "A Miscellany of Lyrick Poems," &c. and are the latest instances which I have found, of any new musical performance in honour of Cecilia. Dryden's first Ode, as has been already mentioned, was performed at the theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, November 22, 1739.

musick by the best voices and hands in town: the words, which are always in the patronesses praise, are set by some of the greatest masters. This year [1691] Dr. John Blow, that famous musician, composed the musick; and Mr. D'Urfey, whose skill in things of that nature is well known, made the words. Six Stewards are chosen for each ensuing year; four of which are either persons of quality or gentlemen of note, and the two last either gentlemen of their Majesties' musick, or some of the chief masters in town. - feast is one of the genteelest in the world: there are no formalities nor gatherings, as at others, and the appearance there is always very splendid. Whilst the company is at table, the hautboys and trumpets play successively."

This

Previous to the performance of the Ode written

7 GENT. JOURNAL for January 1692, p. 6. Motteux adds, "that Mr. Showers [Shore] hath taught the latter of late years to sound with all the softness ima ginable; they play'd us some flat tunes made by Mr. Finger, with a general applause, it being a thing formerly thought impossible upon an instrument designed for a sharp key."

Mathias Shore, the person here spoken of, was Serjeant Trumpeter in the reign of William III. and father of Colley Ciber's wife, who was a scholar of Purcell, and won her husband's heart by singing and playing on the harpsichord. Purcell, being connected with this family, and a great admirer of her brother John Shore's performance on the trumpet, took every opportunity (says Dr. Burney) of introducing that martial and field instrument, even when the subject of the poetry was pacifick.

for the day, a sermon was preached by some eminent divine at St. Bride's church; and an anthem, or some other piece of sacred musick, composed for the occasion, was performed by the gentlemen of his Majesty's chapel and of the choirs of Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, who regularly attended for this purpose; after which the company repaired to Stationers' Hall. Thus, in the King's manuscript collection of Purcell's Odes and Miscellaneous Compositions, we find "A Latin song made upon St. Cecilia, whose day

8 On the 22d of November, 1693, the sermon was preached by Dr. Battell, Sub-Dean of their Majesties' Chapel-Royal, and published in quarto in the following month, at the request of the Stewards of St. Cecilia's feast, under the title of "The lawfulness and expediency of Church Musick, a Sermon preached at St. Bride's, at the Anniversary Meeting of Gentlemen, lovers of musick." Dr. Hickman published a Sermon preached on the same occasion in 1695. In 1697, Nicholas Brady, M. A. who had furnished the Ode in 1692, and afterwards translated Virgil, was the preacher, and printed his Sermon at the request of the Stewards, under the title of" Church Musick vindicated." I have been informed, there is also in print a sermon preached on St. Cecilia's day, by Dr. Holder; but I do not know its date. In the London Gazette, N° 1243, Thursday, Dec. 10, 1696, notice is given of the publication of a Sermon "preached at Christ-Church, Oxford, November 27th, 1696, upon occasion of the Anniversary Meeting of the Lovers of Musick on St. Cecilia's day, by S. Esturk, [Estwick,] B. D. and Chaplain of Christ-Church." The meeting in London, however, in 1696, was on the 23d of Nov.

is commemorated yearly by all musicians: Laudate Ceciliam," &c. It is set for three voices, and is dated 1683. That this was only a prelude, and not the principal performance of that year, is ascertained by "the Musical Entertainment" of the same composer, already mentioned. In like manner we shall find ALEXANDER'S FEAST preceded by an anthem; and it appears from a manuscript title to a printed copy of Purcell's TE DEUM and JUBILATE, in the library of ChristChurch in Oxford, that this celebrated composition, which was adapted for voices and instruments, was made for St. Cecilia's day, 1694 :' on which occasion, as in former years, an Ode was afterwards sung, set to musick probably by the same composer.-I have only to add, that the ingenious writer who has ascertained the true date and occasion of Purcell's TE DEUM, observes to me, that in his younger days the lovers of harmony used not only to celebrate this festival in the country, as well as in London, but even the octave of the day; as a double testimony of reverence for the saint and the most perfect concord in musick.

Scarcely had our author delivered his Virgil to the publick, when he was solicited by the Stewards

9 Communicated by Dr. Burney.

Purcell's TE DEUM and JUBILATE have been erroneously thought to have been originally composed for the Annual Feast of the Sons of the Clergy.