Hymne à Sainte Cécile

Certainly the famous Méditation over the first prelude from Bach’s Well-tempered Clavichord – with the subsequent addition of the words to Ave Maria – has become Charles Gounod’s best-known piece. In the 19th Century, however, one of his other compositions was also very popular: Hymne à Sainte Cécile, a ‘Méditation religieuse’ – in the original version with orchestra (1865) dedicated to his friend Jean Delphin Alard. Gounod had already written one work in honour of the Blessed Cecilia, patron saint of church music, a Mass that became very popular. In contrast, this Hymne is instrumental, with the violin ‘singing’ a lovely melody over a harp-like accompaniment of arpeggios. (Gounod subsequently wrote another setting with the text ‘Ave verum’.) Plate no. 19323, published in 1868.