Georg Friedrich Händel: Zadok the Priest
Handel’s coronation anthem entitled ‘Zadok the Priest’ was composed in 1727 for the coronation of George II of Great Britain. Ever since this piece has been performed at every major celebration of the British monarchy. The text of the anthem is based on a passage from the Book of Kings (1:34-45). More specifically, on the passage in which King David orders the coronation of Solomon: “There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ” A partially rewritten version of Handel’s music by Tony Britten may well be familiar to many: the piece is played almost every week before international club football and UEFA matches as the anthem of these events.
Henry Purcell: Come Ye Sons of Art
The ode entitled ‘Come Ye Sons of Art’, written for the birthday of Queen Mary II of England, was composed in 1694 with the piece’s lyrics presumably written by Nahum Tate. It constitutes a bizarre twist of fate that Queen Mary died at the end of 1694, which was followed by Purcell’s death the next year, in 1695. This festive music, some parts of which can also be found in other works by Purcell, became one of the composer’s last major works.
James MacMillan: Who Shall Separate Us?
In 2011 Queen Elizabeth II commissioned composer James MacMillan to write a piece for her funeral service. The text of the work contains a quotation from the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? […] neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The composition was eventually performed on 19th September 2022 at Westminster Abbey.
Hubert Parry: I Was Glad
The text of Psalm 122 (“I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!”) has been sung at Westminster Abbey since the coronation of Charles I of England (1626). The author of the very first music composed for the Psalm is unknown, but in the following years composers such as Thomas Tomkins, Henry Purcell and John Blow were commissioned to write music for the verse. In the 18th century the Psalm was sung several times to Francis Pigott’s music, and in the 19th century to music by a pupil of Mozart called Thomas Attwood. Hubert Parry’s hymn was sung for the first time at the coronation of Edward VII of England (1902), then at the inaugurations of George V and George VI, later at the coronation of Elizabeth II (1953), and most recently at the ceremonial inauguration of Charles III (2023).
William Walton: Cello Concerto
Walton composed three concertos for string instruments and orchestra. His Cello Concerto was the last of these pieces composed in 1956. The music was commissioned by Russian-born cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, and Walton’s work was in fact dedicated to him. It was no one other that Piatigorsky who premiered the work in Boston in 1957. Walton, who did not favour avant-garde experimentation, received mixed reviews for this work: some considered the piece old-fashioned while others regarded it as an indisputable masterpiece. In his composition, Walton avoids sharp dissonances, and the few that are present in the piece “would not astonish even my elderly aunt”. Walton is not an innovator, a critic for The Times noted after the piece’s premiere in England, “but all his works bear the signs of his musical personality characterised by wittiness as well as by brilliant and explosive energy. And yet the piece is characterised, at the same time, by a kind of half-nostalgic and half-resigned romantic melancholy. This work is the product of an aristocratic spirit.”
Benjamin Britten: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Henry Purcell
The piece entitled ‘Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Henry Purcell’ was originally written for a film educating about musical instruments under the title ‘A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.’ The piece presents the instruments of an orchestra in an extremely witty way: The theme is first played by the entire orchestra, then successively by the woodwinds, the brasswind instruments, the strings, the harp, the percussions, and finally by the entire orchestra again. It is only then that the actual variations begin, and during these musical variations each instrument displays its most characteristic features.