Next Concert
Concert postponed. Rearranged date t.b.c.
St James's Church, Louth
CROWNING GLORY
Music for Coronations
CORONATION TE DEUM, Antonio Salieri
In 1790, Salieri composed his Kronungs-Te Deum as an offering for the coronation that took place in Frankfurt, of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor. Salieri and Mozart were not arch- enemies, as the popular film, Amadeus suggests. Salieri held Mozart’s work in high regard.
CORONATION MASS, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's Mass in C major is one of his most popular and enduring works. Known as the 'Coronation Mass' – a nickname it acquired following a performance conducted by Antonio Salieri in 1791 in Prague at the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. (Mozart wrote the opera La clemenza di Tito for these same celebrations.) The Mass was originally written, it seems, for a special festive service commemorating amiraculous image of the Virgin in the church of Maria Plain above Salzburg.
ZADOK THE PRIEST, George Frederik Handel
Composed in 1727 for the coronation of King George II, and performed at every coronation since then.
SIX CHORAL DANCES FROM ‘GLORIANA’, Benjamin Britten
Britten’s opera Gloriana, Op 53, was first performed at a gala event at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 8 June 1953 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, in honour of whose coronation (which had taken place just six days before) the work had been composed.
CROWN IMPERIAL, William Walton (organ solo)
Scottish poet, William Dunbar wrote the following about London: ‘Empress of townes, exalt in homour, in beawtie beryng the crone imperiall, swete paradise percelling in pleasure, London, thou art the flour of cities all.’ This is where Walton took his idea for the title of his famous 1937 work. He wrote it for the coronation of Edward VIII, but in the end used it for the coronation of George VI. It has been said to be modelled on the Pomp and Circumstance Marches of Elgar. It was later performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
INHERITANCE, Herbert Howells
‘A Garland For The Queen’ was commissioned by 10 British composers and 10 British Poets to celebrate the coronation in 1953 of Queen Elizabeth II, written as a counterpart to ‘The Triumphs Of Oriana’ which celebrated the reign of the first Elizabeth. Performed at a concert in London's Royal Festival Hall on the eve of Coronation Day, it comprised new works written for unaccompanied choir. Herbert Howells’s Inheritance sets poetry by Walter de la Mare.
I WAS GLAD, Hubert Parry
I was Glad was written for the coronation of Edward VII in Westminster Abbey on 9 August 1902. Parry’s setting of the words from Psalm 122, which is sung at the entrance of the Sovereign, incorporated the traditional acclamation ‘Vivat Rex Edwardus’, sung by the King’s Scholars of Westminster School. Due to a mix up with the King’s procession, it had to be performed twice.
