The Festival of St. Cecilia
St Cecilia is the patroness of music and musicians and her feast day is celebrated annually on 22 November. A feature of early celebrations included the composition of a piece especially for the occasion, which usually took the form of an Ode. Authors included Purcell, Dryden, Pope and Handel.
The Festival was revived in 1946 through the initiative of Frank Thistleton, then Secretary of the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, with the first event attracting the support of many well-known musicians including Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Myra Hess, Adrian Boult, Arnold Bax and George Thalbern-Ball. For many years after that, the Festival was opened with a Festival Service held at the Church of St Sepulchre without Newgate (The National Musicians’ Church). Throughout the UK, other cathedrals, churches and music colleges also held services and concerts in association with the Festival. These included Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; Christ Church, Chelsea; Gloucester Cathedral; King’s College, Cambridge; Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral; Newcastle Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral; Royal College of Music; St Alban’s Abbey; St Margaret Lothbury; University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. Since 1990, the Service has rotated between the three major places of worship in central London – Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Cathedral, with the combined choirs of each church performing at each event.
A Royal Concert also formed part of the Festival celebrations – a gala occasion held at various venues across London, including the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall. The event was organised by an Annual Festival Committee comprising representatives from a number of organisations including RSM. The events were honoured by the presence of members of The Royal Family. Each Concert raised money for The Royal Concert Fund, proceeds from which were distributed to national music charities including RSM, the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, Musicians’ Union, benevolent fund of the ISM, as well as the benevolent funds of the orchestras performing in the Concert. Performers contributed their broadcast fees to the Royal Concert Fund and the venue and programme notes were given free of charge. Tickets were also sold commission-free by Box Office agencies. Many musical and commercial firms also contributed by taking advertising space for the souvenir programme, by making a donation or by providing goods or services for the event. Due to the generosity of audience members at The Royal Concert substantial distributions were able to be made from the Fund.
With this concert no longer taking place, the Festival Service now forms the central part of the annual St Cecilia celebrations and RSM attends every year to give thanks to the dedication and commitment of all musicians and to celebrate the pleasure their music-making gives to everyone. This year’s Service will take place at 11am on Wednesday 22 November at Westminster Cathedral. For more information and to book tickets, click here (Help Musicians | Festival of St. Cecilia).
If you would like to make a donation to RSM to celebrate this year’s Festival, or perhaps set up an annual standing order on St Cecilia’s Day, please click here.
