St. Cecilia, or the Power of Music

The story was written on October 27, 1810 as a gift for daughter of his friend Adam Müller, and was first published in November 1810 in Kleist's literary journal, the Berliner Abendblätter.

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.

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.