the musical art: but this foundation fails, for the pneumatick organ is supposed to have been of still higher antiquity than this pious lady. There is, however, a tradition that she was a skilful musician, and that the Angel who visited her was drawn from the mansions of the blessed by the charms of her melody; a circumstance to which Dryden has alluded in the conclusion of his Ode." In conformity with this tradition, and that already mentioned, which attributes to her the in flippancy: "A man (says he) may be permitted to blunder in such things, who had never heard of Organs before St. Cecilia's time." 9 So also Hughes in some verses to a Lady playing on the Organ, printed anonymously in Pemberton's Collection: "When famed Cecilia on the Organ play'd, "And fill'd with moving sounds the tuneful frame, "Drawn by the charm to hear the sacred maid, "From heaven, 'tis said, a list'ning Angel came. "Thus ancient legends would our faith abuse; "In vain, for were the bold tradition true, "While your harmonious touch that charm renews, "Again the Seraph would appear to you!" Addison, in his shorter Ode for St. Cecilia's day, gives a new turn to this ancient tradition: "Such were the tuneful notes that hung "And with religious ardour fired: vention of the instrument appropriated to sacred musick, Raffaelle in one of his finest pictures, in the church of S. Giovanni in monte at Bologna, has represented Cecilia playing on a regal or portable organ. By others she is depicted singing and. playing on the harp. Bede relates in his Ecclesiastical History,* that, in the church dedicated to Cecilia at Rome, (which is built on the spot where her house formerly stood,) Vilbrord, an Englishman, was ordained Archbishop of Friesland by Pope Sergius, in 696; and it appears from a Gallican Missal quoted by Mabillon, (as is observed by that very elegant and "No sooner heard the warbling dame, "But, by the sacred influence turn'd, "He felt a new diviner flame, "And with devotion burn'd. "With ravish'd soul, and looks amaz'd, "And chang'd the lover to a saint." 'In the vault under St. Paul's Cathedral is a marble monument, erected in honour of Jane, the only daughter of Sir Christopher Wren; who died in 1702, at the age of 26. She is represented on a bas-relief, in the character of St. Ceclia playing on an Organ, an Angel sustaining her book ;-in allusion to her having been not only pia, benevola, domisida, (as the inscription informs us she was,) but also arte musicâ peritissima. * Lib. v. c. xii. Beda Opera, tom. iii. p. 171. Basil. 1563. judicious historian, Dr. Burney,) that the musical festival in honour of this saint was celebrated before the time of Charlemagne, who was born in 743. Her body having been found at Rome among other relicks, in the year 1595, there was a splendid festival on that occasion, of which a full account is given by Baronius; and at the beginning of the present century, Cardinal Ottoboni celebrated St. Cecilia's Day by a great congress of Musicians, and by various compositions expressly written and composed for the purpose.* When this zeal for the Musical Patroness manifested itself in England, by annual performances on the 22d of November, the day of her birth, has hitherto been undetermined. With the aid, however, of the following notices, it may be nearly ascertained. That musick was in a very low state in this country, even in the middle of the reign of Charles the Second, appears from the humble efforts of John Banister, leader of the King's Band, and the first Englishman who distinguished himself by his performance on the violin. He seems also to have been the first person who In the DRAMMATURGIA of Leoni Allacci (as Dr. Burney informs me,) are recorded thirteen dramas, (tragedies and oratorios,) of which this female saint is the heroine. His salary is ascertained by the following article in the account of the Treasurer of the Chamber in 1660: "John Banister, violin, at 20d. per diem, and £.16. 2. 6. for his livery." Matthew Lock, the celebrated composer, bad the same salary; viz. £.46. 10. 10. per ann. attempted (about the year 1672,) any thing like a publick concert in London, of which the following curious account was extracted by Dr. Burney from Mr. North's manuscript Memoirs of Musick : "Banister, having procured a large room in White Fryers, near the Temple back-gate, and erected an elevated box or gallery for the musicians, whose modesty required curtains, the rest of the room was filled with seats and small tables, ale-house fashion. One shilling, which was the price of admission, entitled the audience to call for what they pleased. There was very good musick; for Banister found means to procure the best hands in London, and some voices to assist him. And there wanted no variety, for Banister, besides playing on the violin, did wonders on the flageolet to a thro' base, and several other masters likewise played solos." Previous to the Restoration, the musicians at the theatres, who sat in an upper side box, were concealed by curtains from the audience. HIST. OF MUSICK, iii. 470.-Dr. Burney adds, "Banister's Concerts were advertised in the London Gazette of the times; and in N° 742, for Dec. 30, 1672, there is the following advertisement: "These are to give notice, that at Mr. John Banister's house, now called the Musick-School, over-against the George Tavern in White Fryers, this present Monday, will be Musick performed by excellent masters, beginning precisely at four of the clock in the afternoon, and every afternoon for the future, precisely at the same hour."-There are other advertisements from Banister, of the same kind, in 1674, 1676, and 1678. In that for December 11th, 1676, his Not long after Banister's death, about the year 1680, the principal masters of musick in London erected and fitted up a room for concerts in Villiers-street, York-Buildings, where the best compositions and performers of the time attracted a numerous and polite audience; and two years afterwards a Musical Society of Gentlemen' ap musical performance is said to be at the Academy in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields; where it was "to begin with a parley of instruments, composed by Mr. Banister, and performed by eminent masters.' The musical club or private concert of Thomas Britton, the celebrated small-coal man, commenced, under the patronage of Sir Roger L'Estrange, and other gentlemen, in 1678.-Lord Orford (ANECDOTES OF PAINTING, iii. 253, 8vo.) from the information of a son of Woolaston the painter, who were both members of Britton's musick-club, says, that " the subscription to this concert was but ten shillings a year: Britton found the instruments, and they had coffee at a penny a dish :" but Sir John Hawkins quotes a memorandum from the manuscript diary of Mr. Thomas Rowe, by which it appears that the company were admitted gratis. The place appropriated to these concerts does not give us a very high idea of the state of musick at this period; for to the musick-room, which was so low that a tall man could scarcely stand in it upright, the company ascended by stairs on the outside of the house! Burney's HIST. OF MUSICK, ubi supra. 'On the authority of Jacob, it might be supposed that there existed in London such a society some years before; for in his POETICAL REGISTER, 8vo. 1719, p. 304, in a list of anonymous plays he enumerates-" ARIADNE, OF the Marriage of Bacchus, an Opera; translated from the |
