CECILIAN MOVEMENT. – An organization of scholars and supporters of ecclesiastical music; it took its name from St. Cecilia, commonly invoked and venerated as the patroness of music. In Rome, there exist the Accademia di S. Cecilia and the Conservatorio di S. Cecilia, which are two musical training institutions. The Cecilian Movement originated as a reaction against the abuses and profanations of the style and performance of sacred music, which in the 19th century no longer distinguished itself from secular theatrical music, having completely lost the spirit of the Catholic liturgy. Gregorian chant was either forgotten or poorly executed, and ancient polyphonic music had given way to new forms of religious music characterized by a lyrical style, with extensive accompaniment by every musical instrument, in a worldly manner unworthy of the solemnity of the liturgy and the temple. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic period (1789–1815) dealt the final blow to the classical tradition by destroying monasteries, chapters, and musical chapels, and fostering the artistic profanation of the temple.
In 1783, the Anglican Caecilian Society was founded in London, but it was an academy aimed at promoting the appreciation of music through public concerts. The first Società di S. Cecilia was established in Munich with the musical school of G. Ett (1788–1847) and G. Aiblinger (1779–1867), which was later continued in Regensburg by C. Pioscke (1794–1861) and his collaborators Haberl, Haller, Renner, and others. From Bavaria, the reform movement spread to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium, particularly through the efforts of F. X. Witt (1834–88), who in 1868 founded the Cäcilien-Verband in Bamberg for German-speaking countries. The extensive program of reform in sacred music advocated by these national societies received full approval from the Holy See, though it encountered many and serious difficulties. Nevertheless, the artistic and disciplinary campaign was promoted through numerous periodicals that exhumed and illustrated ancient classical music, provided practical instructions and rules, organized meetings and discussions, and disseminated much new music inspired by the dignity and requirements of worship.
In the Netherlands, Belgium, England, France, and the Americas, the Cecilian Movement also saw significant development, and the revival of Benedictine monasteries led to a strong resurgence in the study and practice of Gregorian chant. In this field, the school of the Benedictines of Solesmes (France) distinguished itself by undertaking a critical revision of all the musical texts in liturgical books. In Italy, the reform of sacred music encountered greater difficulties than elsewhere; its first bold advocate was the Milanese Ambrogio M. Amelli (1848–1930; v.), doctor of the Ambrosiana Library, later a monk (1885) and Benedictine abbot. He promoted the reform in Catholic congresses (1874–77); in 1877, he founded and directed the journal *Musica sacra*, and in the same year, together with a few friends, the Italian Association of St. Cecilia, which held its first congress in Milan in 1880 and, in 1882, the famous Congress of Arezzo for Gregorian chant. In 1884, the first Regulations for Sacred Music of the Sacred Congregation of Rites was published, which became the juridical foundation of the Cecilian Movement.
After Amelli, who became a Cassinese monk, the Jesuit Angelo De Santi (1847–1922) took over, serving as president from 1909 of the revived Italian Association of St. Cecilia, which has as its official organ the *Bollettino ceciliano*. In 1910, he promoted the establishment in Rome of a higher school of sacred music, now the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, as well as national congresses in Milan, Turin, Bergamo, Vicenza, and Rome, which greatly advanced the movement’s propagation.