Choirboy who sang his heart out steals the show
A CHOIRBOY at the Queen’s funeral was lauded as a ‘superstar’ yesterday after his passionate singing caught the eye of social media users.
Viewers were charmed by the theatrics of the unknown boy as he sang to the 2,000strong congregation, saying he was ‘living his best life’.
The red-haired boy, who stood next to Westminster Abbey choirmaster James O’Donnell, appeared several times on the broadcast moving expressively.
One social media user said that the singer, who was one of 30 boys in the choir, had ‘stolen my heart with his earnestness’.
Another said: ‘The one choirboy on the end is really putting his heart and soul into his performance. 10/10 for effort.’
Poignantly, many of the pieces performed at the funeral were chosen because of their special significance to the Queen and the Royal Wedding.
Among the hymns chosen were The Lord’s My Shepherd, which was sung at her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947, and O Taste And See, which was composed for her coronation in 1953.
Another hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling was sung in an arrangement first heard for the Prince and Princess of Wales’s wedding in 2011. The Queen’s piper, Pipe Major Paul Burns, helped close the funeral with a rendition of the traditional lament Sleep, Dearie, Sleep.
Major Burns, who is the 17th person to hold the role since it was established inn 1843, was the monarch’s personal piper at the time of her death.
This was then followed by J. S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor on the organ as her coffin left the Abbey and travelled on to Windsor. Other pieces performed by the Abbey’s assistant organist, Matthew Jorysz, included Elegy Op 58 by Edward Elgar, Reliqui Domum Meum by Peter Maxwell Davies and Fantasy On O Paradise by Malcolm Williamson.