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Music for the Queen

Started by Alan Howe, Friday 09 September 2022, 11:04

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kolaboy

Finzi's Eclogue for Piano & Strings.

eschiss1

20th century collection called iirc Garlands for the Queen that was written for her coronation by some fine composers (if one enjoys music by Rubbra and such) and might be equally fine to use now? (Or I may be thinking of Rubbra's solo vocal cycle with a similar name plus a collection by someone else. Hrm.)

adriano

... and I think back to those brilliant pieces Arthur Bliss wrote for the Queen after he had been nominated, in 1953, "Master of the Queen's Music (as a successor of Arnold Bax) - like:
The March "Welcome to the Queen" (1954) and
"A Song of Welcome" (1954, a short cantata, which was Joan Sutherland's debut in a British recording studio) and the
"Ceremonial Prelude" (written in 1965)

scottevan

Holst's "I Vow to Thee My Country," which, a bit uncannily, came to mind a few days before she passed. At the time I was thinking of next year's coronation. I think it works for either occasion.

"The love that asks no questions
The love that stands the test
That lays upon the altar
The dearest and the best..."

Christopher

In the British Light Music genre - the then Princess Elizabeth on her 18th birthday requested "Dusk" by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) - https://youtu.be/UmyfIqWBUFc

And then of course there is the Elizabethan Serenade by Ronald Binge (1910-1979).  Acc to wikipedia: "When it was first played by the Mantovani orchestra in 1951, it was simply titled "Andante cantabile", although the original orchestral manuscript parts in Ronald Binge's own hand show the title "The Man in the Street" (possibly the title of an early television documentary). The name was altered by the composer to reflect the post-war optimism of a "new Elizabethan Age" that began with the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in February 1952".