Royal appointments
Music for the coronations
Timeless traditions are often modern inventions. The coronation of Edward VII in 1902, with its spectacular ceremony, grand marches and spine-stiffening choral music, reflected myths of Britain’s heroic past and glorious present. It contained freshly commissioned works by, among others, Elgar and Sullivan, anthems and amens by Purcell, Tallis and Gibbons, ‘ancient Plain-song’ and Handel’s Zadok the Priest. And it marked a break with the ramshackle coronations of William IV and Victoria: the latter, observes historian David Cannadine, ‘was completely unrehearsed; the clergy lost their place in the order of service; the choir was pitifully inadequate; the Archbishop of Canterbury put the ring on a finger that was too big for it; and two of the trainbearers talked throughout the entire ceremony.’ Edward’s coronation set the benchmark for royal ritual. The form and order of the service, reprised for George V in 1911 and George VI in 1937, had become a national institution by the time Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953. Each of the last century’s coronations found room for new British music: Parry’s Te Deum and Stanford’s Gloria, for example, flattered George V’s imperial majesty with symphonic splendour, and marches by
Walton and Howells propelled the 1937 coronation. Walton’s Te Deum, written for the last coronation, captured the spirit of the Elizabethan age in its swagger and brilliance, while Vaughan Williams’s motet O Taste and See, another jewel from 1953, sounded a gentle reminder of God’s supreme sovereignty.