In the autograph, the “little Cecilia Ode”, composed in September 1739, is superscribed with “Song”; the title used in contemporary sources, such as the textual source by John Dryden, and taken over by the Halle Handel Edition is “Song for St Cecilia’s Day”. With this work Handel contributed to a tradition which prevailed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries and which entailed regular commissions of works in the honour of the ancient martyr and patron saint as well as socially effective per...