8 April 2021 Music on Thursdays Online: Royal Wedding Music

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Thursday 8th April 2021

Music for Royal Weddings

Available: from Thursday 8th April

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Programme

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
from the opera Lohengrin WWV 75 (1845-48)
Bridal Chorus

Stringspace String Quartet
a collective of musicians in five Australian cities

Richard Wagner
from the opera Lohengrin WWV 75 (1845-48)
Bridal Chorus

Marko Hakanpää at the Grönlund organ
St Michael's Church, Turku, Finland

Jeremiah Clarke (c1670-1707)
from the semi-opera The Island Princess (1699)
Trumpet Tune in D

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, director Arie Vardi

Jeremiah Clarke
Prince of Denmark's March (c1700)

Das Barocktrompeten Ensemble Berlin
Trompetenchor I: Johann Plietzsch (Director) • Christian Ahrens • Ludger Starke • Simon Schunn
Trompetenchor II: Helen Barsby • Julie Bonde • Markus Mokosch • Karl Heinrich Wendorf
Timpani/Pauken: Wolfgang Eger • Olaf Taube • Chamber Organ/Truhenorgel: Klaus Treu Laute
Theorbo: Jan Grüter • Baroque bassoon/Barockfagott: Jochen Schneider
Baroque cello/Barockvioloncello: Alexander Koderisch • Double Bass/Kontrabass: Benjamin Wand

Sir William Neil McKie (1901-1984)
We wait for thy loving kindness, O Lord

Choir of Ely Cathedral. Paul Trepte, Director of Music

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)
I was glad (c1902)

performed at the Golden Jubilee Service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Gentlemen and Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral and of the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace
directed by John Scott, Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's

George Friderick Handel (1685-1759)
from the oratorio Samson (1741)
Let the bright Seraphim

Treble: Aksel Rykkvin
Baroque trumpet/conductor: Mark Bennett
Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Kringkastingsorkesteret / KORK)

Karin Rehnqvist (b1957)
Hymn för Sopran, Kör och Orkester (2010)

Adolf Fredriks Flickkör (girls choir)
Blåsare ur Försvarsmusiken (brass of the Army Band)
Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör (chamber choir)
Storkyrkans Kör (cathedral choir)
Kungliga Filharmonikerna (Royal Philharmonic)
Gustaf Sjökvist, director ♦ Jeanette Köhn, solo soprano

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Adiós Nonino Farewell Grandpa

Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Nederlands Kammerchor and
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Ed Spanjaard

William Boyce (baptised 1711-1799)
Symphony No 1in B-flat major, for
2 oboes, strings & basso continuo (Overture to ode for the New Year, 1756)
1 Allegro

Dorian Baroque, Marina Fragoulis, director

Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)
Sinfonia di Chiesa

Grimoaldo Macchia, organ, in the church of
San Josemaría Escrivá, Rome

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sinfonia in D major BWV 1045 (c1742-1746)

Netherlands Bach Society
Shunske Sato, violin & director

Sir William Walton (1902-1983)
Crown Imperial

Australian Doctors' Orchestra

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
from incidental music to the Shakespeare play
A Midsummer Night's Dream Op 61 (1842)
Wedding March

Dr Osborne H Peasgood at the organ of
Westminster Abbey, recorded by HMV
and played on a Gramophone with Horn

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
from incidental music to the Shakespeare play
A Midsummer Night's Dream Op 61 (1842)
Wedding March

National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Concert duration: 60 minutes approx

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Music for Royal Weddings

Music for Royal Weddings has a habit of becoming music for everyone's weddings. Certainly the hymns I was singing as a 1960s chorister have royal history behind them. Both Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, and The Lord's my Shepherd, sung to the tune Crimond, were sung at the wedding of our present Queen to Philip Mountbatten, in 1947.

Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us, has a local connection I will drop in here. It was written by the London architect and prolific hymn-writer James Edmeston, to be sung at the London Orphan Asylum. That school is now known as Reed's School, Cobham. And by 'prolific' I mean he wrote a hymn a week, and produced over 2000.

Back to the Royals, and back a whole century to the wedding of the oldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Victoria, the Princess Royal, married Prince Frederik William of Prussia in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace in 1858. This was the only marriage of one of their nine children that Prince Albert was to attend. The exit music was provided by the Queen and Albert's much admired Mendelssohn, while the bride entered to the Bridal Chorus from Wagner's Lohengrin. This popular tune has become known as the Bridal March, or Here comes the bride.

I have chosen for our opening item this string quartet version.

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) 1m40
from the opera Lohengrin WWV 75 (1845-48)
Bridal Chorus

performed by Stringspace String Quartet
of Australia, a collective of musicians in five Australian cities

If you would prefer an organ version, which is what we are more likely to hear these days, I hope you will enjoy this:

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) 2m00
from the opera Lohengrin WWV 75 (1845-48)
Bridal Chorus

performed by Marko Hakanpää at the
Grönlund organ of St Michael's Church, Turku, Finland

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At her own wedding, Queen Victoria is believed to have heard this next work. At the time, and until the 1940s it was credited to Purcell, and indeed that was the marking I was seeing on the page in the 1960s as I turned for organists. But the truer credit to Jeremiah Clarke was becoming more popular by then.

Not to be confused with his Trumpet Voluntary, as she entered the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace, Victoria would have heard the sound of trumpets and organ playing Purcell's Trumpet Tune and Airs, which we now call Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Tune in D. The smaller than usual trumpets in this performance are D trumpets, that is tuned to D rather than the modern brass band and orchestral Bb trumpets.

Jeremiah Clarke (c1670-1707) 3m05
from the semi-opera The Island Princess (1699)
Trumpet Tune in D

performed by Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
director Arie Vardi

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When I said 'not to be confused with' I had already planned to confuse us all with the next piece. We called it Purcell's Trumpet Voluntary, but once you have heard it I hope you will agree that it suits its proper title far more: Prince of Denmark's March.

Jeremiah Clarke 2m00
Prince of Denmark's March (c1700)

performed in Berlin Cathedral, August 2015, by
Das Barocktrompeten Ensemble Berlin
Trompetenchor I: Johann Plietzsch (Director)
Christian Ahrens, Ludger Starke, Simon Schunn Trompetenchor II: Helen Barsby, Julie Bonde, Markus Mokosch, Karl Heinrich Wendorf
Timpani/Pauken: Wolfgang Eger & Olaf Taube
Chamber Organ/Truhenorgel: Klaus Treu Laute
Theorbo: Jan Grüter
Baroque bassoon/Barockfagott: Jochen Schneider Baroque cello/Barockvioloncello: Alexander Koderisch
Double Bass/Kontrabass: Benjamin Wand

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I shall leave you to undertake your own searches for other possible entrance music, such as Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.

The beautiful We wait for thy loving kindness, o God, was written for the Royal Wedding of 1947. Written for Westminster Abbey, the piece also works well in more modest spaces. William McKie was Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Abbey for both the Royal Wedding and the subsequent Coronation, holding the post from 1941 to 1963. He was a son of the Vicar of Collingwood, (also William) in Melbourne, Australia where he grew up.

This is the choir of Ely Cathedral.

Sir William Neil McKie (1901-1984) 2m50
We wait for thy loving kindness, O Lord

Choir of Ely Cathedral
Paul Trepte, Director of Music

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This next anthem was written for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, and was sung at the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. The recording I am choosing has less than perfect visual quality. However, it is a 'full' recording with 'Vivats*'. Imagine Chapel Royal choristers being told to actually shout! No, I mean shout! Said Gordon Reynolds. Eventually we did. But it felt strange in our small spaces.

Here then is Parry's I was glad, sung, with Vivats*, at the Queen's Golden Jubilee service in St Paul's Cathedral in 2002.

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) 6m40
I was glad (c1902)

performed at the Golden Jubilee Service of
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
in St Paul's Cathedral, London
Gentlemen and Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral and of the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, directed by
John Scott, Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's.

* = Vivat Regina - Long live the Queen

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Now we have come to our National Cathedral of St Paul's, rather than the Royal Peculiars of Westminster Abbey, St George's Windsor or the Chapels Royal, I have chosen a piece of Handel that was sung at the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer.

George Friderick Handel (1685-1759) 5m55
from the oratorio Samson (1741)
Let the bright Seraphim

Treble: Aksel Rykkvin
Baroque trumpet/conductor: Mark Bennett
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra
(Kringkastingsorkesteret / KORK)
recorded live in NRK Store Studio, 13th January 2017

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A wedding I suspect only one of our members followed was that of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden to Mr Daniel Westling. This took place in June 2010, in Stockholm's Lutheran Cathedral, or Storkyrkan, the oldest of the city's churches. Karin Rehnqvist wrote a beautiful piece of music for the occasion, Hymn (2010). You will hear soprano soloist, choir, harp, and orchestra.

Karin Rehnqvist is the first female professor of composition appointed to the Swedish Royal College of Music.

Karin Rehnqvist (b1957) 5m10
Hymn för Sopran, Kör och Orkester (2010)

Adolf Fredriks Flickkör (girls choir)
Blåsare ur Försvarsmusiken (brass of the military band)
Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör (chamber choir)
Storkyrkans Kör (cathedral choir)
Kungliga Filharmonikerna (Royal Philharmonic)
Gustaf Sjökvist, director ♦ Jeanette Köhn, solo soprano

The Swedish Royal Academy of Music commissioned Hymn as a gift to the bride and groom.

Magnificent choral parts, colorful orchestral score full of joyous trills interspersed with the occasional musical bird chirp, and concluding with the voice of a soprano soaring to unimaginable heights.

Vakna, min själ,
vakna, harpa och lyra,
jag vill väcka morgonrodnaden.

Jag vill tacka dig, Herre, bland folken,
jag vill sjunga ditt lov bland alla folk.
Ty till himlen når din godhet,
till skyarna din trofasthet.
Visa din höghet i himlen, o Gud,
och din härlighet över hela jorden!

(Psaltaren 57: 9-12)

Bär mig som ett sigill vid ditt hjärta,
som ett sigill vid din arm –

(Höga visan 8:6)

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Awake, my soul,
awake, harp and lyre,
I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens,
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
let your glory be over all the earth!

(Psalm 57: 9-12)

Place me like a seal over your heart,
Like a seal on your arm –

(Song of Songs 8:10)

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We have heard some of the anthems which have been sung during the signing of the registers.

For their wedding in the Nieuw Kerk, Amsterdam in February 2002, Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand, Prince of Orange, and Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti chose a piece of music that would honour her parents - who were not present.

Although her mother was invited, the Netherlands state felt they could not invite her father as he, Jorge Zorreguieta, had been as member of the Argentinian cabinet during the National Reorganisation Process, a period during which some 10,000 to 30,000 people were 'disappeared'. Máxima's mother decided she would not attend without her husband.

The unusual piece, to European ears, chosen for this royal wedding was by the Argentinian tango composer Piazzolla.

Willem-Alexander is now King of the Netherlands.

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921-1992) 5m00
Adiós Nonino Farewell Grandpa

performed by Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
with the Nederlands Kammerchor and the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
conducted by Ed Spanjaard

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William Boyce is an English composer who is often overlooked. Let us listen to the first movement of his first Symphony which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose as their going out music.

As you listen to these next pieces of music you may find yourself leaving the church, and then popping back in so that you can leave again with the music that follows.

William Boyce (baptised 1711-1799) 2m05
Symphony No 1in B-flat major, for 2 oboes, strings & basso continuo (Overture to ode for the New Year, 1756)
1 Allegro
(2 Moderato e dolce 3 Allegro) (1, 2, 3 = 5m40)

Dorian Baroque, Marina Fragoulis, director
in the Church of the Epiphany, New York City, April 2015

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Generally we turn to the organ after the singers and instrumental soloists have finished their performances. This is probably because organists are expected to know how to close or prolong a piece of music, or are thought to have something 'up their sleeve', when timings fail to go to plan.

The first organ item I shall offer is this piece by 'the father of Swedish music', the 'Swedish Handel', Baroque composer Johan Helmich Roman. This bright Church Symphony was played for the wedding of King Karl XVI Gustav of Sweden to Sylvia Sommerlath, also at the Storkyrkan in Stockholm.

Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758) 5m20
Sinfonia di Chiesa

performed by Grimoaldo Macchia, in the church of
San Josemaría Escrivá, Rome

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Carl Gustaf and Sylvia chose another cheerful piece as their recessional music. It is the only Bach item in today's concert selection. Wikipedia informs us that the Sinfonia in D major, BWV 1045, also known as 'violin concerto movement', is an orchestral work for solo violin, three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings and continuo, written down by Johann Sebastian Bach. A late work composed in Leipzig between c1742 and 1746, surviving only as a fragment, this movement is a sinfonia of an otherwise lost cantata.

I am sure you will enjoy this fragment as much as the royal couple clearly did. The recording itself is a product of the Netherlands Bach Society's project to record 'All of Bach'.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) 6m25
Sinfonia in D major BWV 1045 (c1742-1746)

Netherlands Bach Society
Shunske Sato, violin & director
in the Waalse (Walloon) Kerk, Amsterdam

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You haven't really left yet, I hope. You see, William and Kate chose something quite different for their recessional. They turned to William Walton and his magnificent march Crown Imperial.

Being Royals, they didn't stint on the instruments, so they did not make do with an organ, they added an orchestra too. Here is a similar full orchestral performance by the Australian Doctors' Orchestra. If you think some of their entries are a little lack-lustre, I'd remind you they are Doctors, and who wouldn't prefer a Doctor who delays their hand before plunging in?

Sir William Walton (1902-1983) 7m15
Crown Imperial

Australian Doctors' Orchestra
in Sydney Town Hall, September 2011

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Here comes the true ending of this week's Royal Wedding selection. I apologise for making you leave and return so frequently, but this is positively the final time. And it is probably the most famous of all the recessional pieces since it was first chosen by Victoria, the Princess Royal in 1858. Remember her father's friendship with a German composer?

Here we have an historic recording of Dr Osborne 'Ossie' Harold Peasgood CVO on a pre-war (apparently) HMV recording of the Westminster Abbey organ. It is played using equipment of the time. Peasgood was a sub-organist at the Abbey from 1921 until 1954, including a period as Acting Organist from 1941-1945. He taught organ at the Royal College of Music.

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
(1809-1847) 4m00
from incidental music to the Shakespeare play
A Midsummer Night's Dream Op 61 (1842)
Wedding March

Dr Osborne H Peasgood at the organ of
Westminster Abbey, recorded by HMV

Here is the full orchestra treatment, all the way from a shopping centre in Singapore.

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy 5m40
from incidental music to the Shakespeare play
A Midsummer Night's Dream Op 61 (1842)
Wedding March

National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra
at the VivoCity Rooftop Amphitheatre in 2014

Are the royals still the trendsetters they were when Victoria, Princess Royal chose Mendelssohn, or our present queen opted for Crimond? It may take a few years yet to learn whether the choices of today's younger royals catch on with their public, at home and abroad.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief exploration of music written for or played at Royal Weddings. If your favourites were not in my selection, they are almost certain to be found somewhere on youtube.

Peter Steadman

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We hope you have enjoyed Peter Steadman's
Music for Royal Weddings Selection Concert for Music on Thursdays

Watch your email and this website
for news of next Thursday's Albinoni 350 Selection

meanwhile, please click on last week's date for our lates 'as live' recording
from viols player Ibrahaim Aziz

1 April: Ibrahim Aziz, recorded 'as live' - the viols

15 April: Albinoni 350

We continue with weekly video selection concerts until the end of June, with hopes of going live at Leatherhead Methodist Church from July 1st.

The first Thursdays in May and June will be further special recordings for
Music on Thursdays

6 May: Buck Brass Trio ♦ 3 June: accordionist Iñigo Mikeleiz Berrade

comments welcome: musiconthursdays@gmail.com

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