Happy St Cecilia Day!
Well, I expect that went down like a persecuted martyr in the reign of Alexander Severus. After all, who really knows that today is Saint Cecilia’s Day? Apart, that is, from listeners to Radio 3 who are regularly reminded of this important anniversary throughout the day? Oh, and sorry about the poorly chosen simile, because there weren’t any persecuted Christian martyrs in the reign of Alexander Severus. Silly me. I must have got the story wrong about one of the most revered martyrs of the Christian Church.
Saint Cecilia, patron saint of Music; object of various pieces of music celebrating the power of Music: the well known martyr not killed during the reign of Alexander Severus. Why is she the patron saint of music? Apparently she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married. Was that her marriage to Valerianus or her betrothal to an angel, which she mentioned to her new husband when they entered their wedding-chamber after the ceremony? The previous betrothal of the angel precluded the possibility of any impurity with her new husband, of course. Don’t worry though, it does have a happy ending, a crowning with lilies and roses and then death. Such an improving story! You’ve got to hand it to Christians; they never impose on faith do they?
The one thing that this story does show is that the process of becoming a patron saint is simplicity itself. All you have to do is think about something in your heart and it’s yours: your own sainted possession.
It certainly is a more civilized approach than the usual way of saints being linked to their area of patronage. The normal method is to look at the way that the saint has been bloodily killed and then in a witty and cheerfully callous sort of way link the method of death with a profession or product or aspiration. So, following that sort of approach, if a person was killed by being, say, burnt to death while being crushed by plates of red hot iron, then the person could become the Patron Saint of George Foreman Lean Cooking Machines!
I’m not going to continue in this vein because I have just been to a web site which has a calendar of saints and it’s far funnier than anything that I can write I do urge you to visit it at: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexsnt.htm
I really wanted to fume about music. It is too easy for someone of my age to rant about the quality of music that I sometimes hear on the radio. I am not going to be a part of the continuum of persons of a certain age decrying the decline in music evinced by the quality of recordings that youth admire and acquire. Though, God knows, it’s bloody awful. Don’t start me on that homophobic, misogynistic, drug advocating, anti-musical adulation of violence known as rap.
No, I will (with a visible effort) rise above such easy posturings and (after a few deep breaths) merely confine my thoughts to the quantity of music ‘consumed’ by people today.
When I was young, growing up in Cathays in Cardiff, we did not have a television set. I must be one of the last generations to grow up without a television from birth. The most important entertainment element within the house was the radio and the stations on the radio were confined to the Home Service (the present radio 4) and the Light Service (the present radio 2). We did not have a gramophone player. I eventually acquired a wind up gramophone and a limited number of records (my parents came to hate with a vengeance ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’) which were 78s. We eventually got a black and white telly and, on my 10th (?) birthday I got a selection of LPs and we got a record player. LPs were relatively expensive in the very early 60s and it was only when I was into my teens that the cheap classical music LP became the basis of my music collection with, I remember Marble Arch Records being 9/11 (nine shillings and eleven pence or almost 50p.) So my access to music was basically via the radio and eventually via cheap LPs. My first tape recorder was second hand and hardly portable, so my music was confined to the radio and a few records.
Today, from the point of birth the child is surrounded by music: portable and adjustable music! The number of radio stations which are easily available (without pointing aerials and orientating radio sets) is growing daily. The use of ipods and other portable music devices, up to and including telephones means that music is available on demand at all times. Access to the whole range of music is available on the internet (at a price) and can be downloaded.
How I this all affecting people? The ease with which music can be owned and rejected is amazing. On my ipod I carry my entire CD collection of well over 900 CDs. I find this astonishing. On the latest version of the ipod this music collection is searchable so music can be found almost instantly. Obscure tracks which are part of a compilation can be fond by typing in a few letters of the track title; all composers’ works can be listed. ~This is a revolution in access to music and it must be having a profound effect and I’m damned if I know what it is.
It’s late, and Toni has overtime tomorrow. I’m for bed, but this theme must be developed by a fresher and more literate hand!
Well, I expect that went down like a persecuted martyr in the reign of Alexander Severus. After all, who really knows that today is Saint Cecilia’s Day? Apart, that is, from listeners to Radio 3 who are regularly reminded of this important anniversary throughout the day? Oh, and sorry about the poorly chosen simile, because there weren’t any persecuted Christian martyrs in the reign of Alexander Severus. Silly me. I must have got the story wrong about one of the most revered martyrs of the Christian Church.
Saint Cecilia, patron saint of Music; object of various pieces of music celebrating the power of Music: the well known martyr not killed during the reign of Alexander Severus. Why is she the patron saint of music? Apparently she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married. Was that her marriage to Valerianus or her betrothal to an angel, which she mentioned to her new husband when they entered their wedding-chamber after the ceremony? The previous betrothal of the angel precluded the possibility of any impurity with her new husband, of course. Don’t worry though, it does have a happy ending, a crowning with lilies and roses and then death. Such an improving story! You’ve got to hand it to Christians; they never impose on faith do they?
The one thing that this story does show is that the process of becoming a patron saint is simplicity itself. All you have to do is think about something in your heart and it’s yours: your own sainted possession.
It certainly is a more civilized approach than the usual way of saints being linked to their area of patronage. The normal method is to look at the way that the saint has been bloodily killed and then in a witty and cheerfully callous sort of way link the method of death with a profession or product or aspiration. So, following that sort of approach, if a person was killed by being, say, burnt to death while being crushed by plates of red hot iron, then the person could become the Patron Saint of George Foreman Lean Cooking Machines!
I’m not going to continue in this vein because I have just been to a web site which has a calendar of saints and it’s far funnier than anything that I can write I do urge you to visit it at: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexsnt.htm
I really wanted to fume about music. It is too easy for someone of my age to rant about the quality of music that I sometimes hear on the radio. I am not going to be a part of the continuum of persons of a certain age decrying the decline in music evinced by the quality of recordings that youth admire and acquire. Though, God knows, it’s bloody awful. Don’t start me on that homophobic, misogynistic, drug advocating, anti-musical adulation of violence known as rap.
No, I will (with a visible effort) rise above such easy posturings and (after a few deep breaths) merely confine my thoughts to the quantity of music ‘consumed’ by people today.
When I was young, growing up in Cathays in Cardiff, we did not have a television set. I must be one of the last generations to grow up without a television from birth. The most important entertainment element within the house was the radio and the stations on the radio were confined to the Home Service (the present radio 4) and the Light Service (the present radio 2). We did not have a gramophone player. I eventually acquired a wind up gramophone and a limited number of records (my parents came to hate with a vengeance ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’) which were 78s. We eventually got a black and white telly and, on my 10th (?) birthday I got a selection of LPs and we got a record player. LPs were relatively expensive in the very early 60s and it was only when I was into my teens that the cheap classical music LP became the basis of my music collection with, I remember Marble Arch Records being 9/11 (nine shillings and eleven pence or almost 50p.) So my access to music was basically via the radio and eventually via cheap LPs. My first tape recorder was second hand and hardly portable, so my music was confined to the radio and a few records.
Today, from the point of birth the child is surrounded by music: portable and adjustable music! The number of radio stations which are easily available (without pointing aerials and orientating radio sets) is growing daily. The use of ipods and other portable music devices, up to and including telephones means that music is available on demand at all times. Access to the whole range of music is available on the internet (at a price) and can be downloaded.
How I this all affecting people? The ease with which music can be owned and rejected is amazing. On my ipod I carry my entire CD collection of well over 900 CDs. I find this astonishing. On the latest version of the ipod this music collection is searchable so music can be found almost instantly. Obscure tracks which are part of a compilation can be fond by typing in a few letters of the track title; all composers’ works can be listed. ~This is a revolution in access to music and it must be having a profound effect and I’m damned if I know what it is.
It’s late, and Toni has overtime tomorrow. I’m for bed, but this theme must be developed by a fresher and more literate hand!
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