"St. Cecilia, or the Power of Music" () is a short story by the German author

Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (; 18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''The Prince of Homburg'', '' Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'' ...

. The story was written on October 27, 1810 as a gift for daughter of his friend

Adam Müller Adam Heinrich Müller (30 June 1779 – 17 January 1829; after 1827 Ritter von Nitterdorf) was a German-Austrian conservative philosopher, literary critic, and political economist, working within the romantic tradition. Biography Early life ...

, and was first published in November 1810 in Kleist's literary journal, the ''Berliner Abendblätter''.

Plot summary

The story begins with the arrival of three brothers and a fourth, a predicant, in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

at the end of the sixteenth century. The brothers, all four of them avowed Bilderstürmer, decide to attack the convent in the city during a festival celebration. When they arrive, however, they are overcome by the music being played by the nuns of the convent, and the attack is aborted. Six years later, the mother of the young men arrives in Aachen. She enquires about the whereabouts of her sons, and is told that four young men meeting their description are in residence in the city's house for the insane. She goes to visit them and discovers that they spend their days dressed as monks, praying in front of a crucifix, and singing the

Gloria in excelsis Deo "" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest") is a Christianity, Christian Hymn#Christian hymnody, hymn known also as the Greater Doxology (as distinguished from the "Minor Doxology" or Gloria Patri) and the Angelic Hymn/Hymn of the Angels. The na ...

. They appear to be severely mentally disturbed and incapable of functioning in normal society; many of the city's residents describe them as insane. Finally, the mother decides to visit the nuns of the convent where her sons' transformation took place, where she learns that the exact circumstances of that day were quite mysterious: the nun who was said to have been conducting the orchestra during the mass on that day had actually been confined to bed with a severe fever during the mass, and no one is quite sure who actually directed the orchestra that played the music that overcame the four men. The nuns attribute this to a work of God, who they believe intervened to save the convent from destruction. In the end of the story, the mother returns home and her sons remain in the madhouse, where they live out their lives and die a peaceful death at an old age.

References

* ''Der Zweikampf, Die heilige Cäcilie, Sämtliche Anekdoten, Über das Marionettentheater, und andere Prosa'', Philipp Reclam: Stuttgart, 2002.

External links

* 1810 short stories Short stories by Heinrich von Kleist Works originally published in German magazines Works originally published in literary magazines {{story-stub