Handel’s setting of John Dryden’s 1687 Ode for St Cecilia’s Day was first performed in 1739 on the appropriate feast day, 22nd November. Although Handel relied to some extent on borrowed material, he incorporates a variety of colourful instrumental effects in vivid illustration of the text. The Ode ends with one of Handel’s noblest final choruses, and one of Dryden’s most visionary verses, celebrating together the all-embracing glory of music itself. It is easily the most substantial movement of the Ode, and reminds us that the composition of The Messiah was only two years away.