HOME

ABOUT

PEOPLE

NEWS

RECORDINGS

SCRAPBOOK

LINKS

CONTACT

Coronation Anthems:

"The Queen, as soon as she enters at the west door of the Church, is to be received with this Anthem."

So began the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the Abbey Church of St Peter, Westminster, on Tuesday, the second day of June, 1953, in a grand flourish of choral music. The anthem in question was the monumental setting of I was glad by Sir Charles Hubert H. Parry (with words from Psalm 122), originally written for the 1902 coronation of the Queen's great-grandfather, King Edward VII, and adapted for his son, George V, in 1911. As it was sung, the Queen processed through the nave and choir to her Chair of Estate. (The "Vivats" inserted in the middle of the piece during the coronation are not included in this recording.)

Just before the anointing with holy oil which preceded the actual crowning, the hymn Veni creator spiritus was sung. This Latin hymn of uncertain authorship originated around the 9th century. The English version, published in 1627, is the work of John Cosin, a prominent High Church cleric who became Bishop of Durham after the Restoration of Charles II. For some coronations, it has been set to music by composers of the day, but it is most often sung to the traditional plainsong tune, which is thought to be even older than the words.

For the anointing itself, the musical mood was once again one of grandeur. Of the four Coronation Anthems composed by George Frideric Handel for the coronation of George II and Queen Caroline in October 1727, Zadok the Priest is the most famous. The Composer to the Chapel Royal, William Croft, had died only months before, but Handel-now court composer and a naturalized British citizen-had apparently been passed over for the job in favour of Maurice Greene. Nevertheless, he offered a suitably lavish setting of some of the traditional coronation texts. Despite the grumbles of the Archbishops, who had wanted different texts to be set, the new King's favour perhaps ensured that his old protégé's music was included in the ceremony. In places reminiscent of the "Hallelujah" chorus from the Messiah, this anthem in particular was such a stunning success (especially after the resourceful Handel inserted it into one of his popular oratorios) that it has-uniquely-been performed at every coronation since.

At the high point of the ceremony-when the crown had at last been placed on the Queen's head, the people had shouted the acclamation "God Save the Queen", and the trumpets and gun salutes had sounded-the Confortare (Be Strong and of Good Courage) was sung to a new and robust setting by Sir George Dyson, recently retired as director of the Royal College of Music (a post earlier held by Parry) and now best known for his settings of the canticles for Evensong.

During the procession of the peers to give homage to the newly-crowned Queen, a number of anthems were appointed to be sung. Among these was Rejoice in the Lord alway, a 16th-century setting of Philippians 4: 4-7. The name of the original composer is lost, although for a long time the anthem was attributed to John Redford. Also on the programme was the densely complex and vigorous eight-part anthem O Clap your Hands (words from Psalm 47). This was presented at the University of Oxford in 1622 for a Doctorate of Music on behalf of William Heather, gentleman of the Chapel Royal, but had in fact been written by the Composer to the Chapel Royal, Orlando Gibbons. The rather more serene Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, by the Victorian composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley (grandson of the Methodist hymn-writer Charles Wesley), is a setting of a selection of Scriptural verses (Isaiah 26: 3, Psalm 139: 11, I John 1: 5, Psalm 119: 175, and Matthew 6: 13).

It seems appropriate, in celebrating the music composed or revived for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, to include something written for her predecessor and namesake, Queen Elizabeth I. O Lord make thy servant Elizabeth, by the foremost composer of the day, William Byrd, provides our link between the worlds of 1559 and 1953. We then include the Trumpet Voluntary by John Stanley, a contemporary and friend of Handel. Whilst not performed at a coronation, this piece has royal connections. From 1779 he was master of the Kings Band, composing many court odes.

After the Homage, the whole congregation joined in the hymn All people that on earth do dwell, specially arranged by the greatest English composer of the day, the 79-year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams. The tune is known as "Old Hundredth", alluding to the fact that the words are a 16th-century translation of Psalm 100; such metrical psalms were popular after the Reformation, especially in Scotland.

The Coronation ceremony proceeded with Holy Communion, beginning with an Introit, Behold O God our Defender, taken from Psalm 84 and set by Herbert Howells, possibly the most important composer of English church music in the 20th century. Vaughan Williams provided the music for both the Sanctus (from his Mass in G minor for double choir) and the Communion anthem, O Taste and See (words from Psalm 34).

At the conclusion of the service, the choir sang the Te Deum, best known in the Church of England as a canticle for Morning Prayer, using the jubilant setting by another of the greatest Victorian composers, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. As it was sung, the Queen descended from the throne and passed to St Edward's Chapel, there to leave St Edward's Crown on the altar, and to take up the Imperial Crown and the Orb for her final procession out of the Abbey and into the midst of the cheering crowds.

We then finish the CD with two organ pieces. Intrada by Grayston Ives, now Director of Music at Magdalen College Oxford, was written for Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and this is followed by the Coronation March Crown Imperial, commissioned by the BBC and written for the coronation of George VI in 1937.