Among the exciting discoveries I made during the writing of Votaries of Apollowas a long-forgotten piece of music composed by Peter Valton titled Divine Cecilia. Valton (ca. 1740-1784) was an English-trained musician whose formative years were spent as a child scholar at the King’s Chapel, also called the Chapel Royal. After leaving that institution in 1760, he published a few songs and catches (a type of round) in London. He arrived in Charleston in October of 1764 to serve as organist at St. Philip’s Church, and held that position until his death twenty years later. In 1766 Valton was among the earliest-known members of Charleston’s St. Cecilia Society, and no doubt performed in its annual concert series.Besides formal concerts, the St. Cecilia Society also held quarterly business meetings at which the members would socialize, drink, and perform music for each others entertainment. Chief among the music performed at such occasions would have been catches, cannons, and glees—species of gentleman’s vocal music made popular in England by such groups as the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club of London. A few vocal works by Peter Valton were included in the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s annual publications while he resided in London, but at least one appears to have been published by that organization after his move to Charleston. The Noblemen and Gentlemen’s ninth collection of catches, cannons, and glees, edited by Thomas Warren and published in 1770, includes a short three-part catch by Valton titled Divine Cecilia. This piece, intended to be sung as a round by three or more male voices, must have been composed while Valton was in Charleston and then sent back friends in London for publication. In fact, it seems very likely that Valton wrote the piece for the St. Cecilia Society of Charleston, in which he was definitely an active member.
Divine Cecilia Goddess heav’nly Maid
Bless us thy humble Vot’ries with thy Aid
That we to Nations yet unborn may prove
That Music only is the food of Love
Then shall this day for ever sacred be to Thee
Bright Saint to Love and Harmony
I don’t have copyright permission to reproduce a facsimile of the piece here, but an image of the 1770 publication appears in Votaries of Apollo, page 35. In preparation for a performance, however, I have recently made a transcription of this short piece (with a written-out repeat) which I am happy to make available here as a PDF file: divine_cecilia.pdf.
I used an application called Finale PrintMusic to make the transcription. Using my computer’s built-in audio capabilities, PrintMusic also allows me to export an mp3 audio file of this music. Here the like to download the synthesized audio file: divine_cecilia.mp3
