0:00:03 > 0:00:07# Hallelujah!
0:00:07 > 0:00:09# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:00:09 > 0:00:11# Hallelujah... #
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, performed in the place where
0:00:15 > 0:00:20monarchy and music have met for over a millennium - Westminster Abbey.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26It's been performed here at royal occasions,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29including Coronations, since the 18th century.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:00:31 > 0:00:33# Hallelujah, hallelujah... #
0:00:33 > 0:00:39I first heard it in my childhood, sung by northern massed choirs.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43# Hallelujah, hallelujah
0:00:43 > 0:00:46# Hallelujah, hallelujah... #
0:00:46 > 0:00:47Then, in my early 20s
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and on the threshold of my academic career,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53I heard it again here...
0:00:55 > 0:00:58..in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03Now, the music and the building together hit me like a revelation.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05# King of kings... #
0:01:05 > 0:01:09The walls, with their crowns and coats of arms.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13The words, thick with kings and lords.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17The music with its thunderous rhythm.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20# He shall reign for ever and ever... #
0:01:20 > 0:01:22All were royal.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This was the music of monarchy
0:01:26 > 0:01:29in a shrine to monarchy.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37This series is the story of how, over six centuries,
0:01:37 > 0:01:42successive kings and queens have shaped the history of British music
0:01:42 > 0:01:44as patrons and tastemakers,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and even as composers and performers.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Music takes you both into the most intimate,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55personal aspects of monarchs' lives.
0:01:57 > 0:01:58And then, of course,
0:01:58 > 0:02:03the most public and triumphant, grand ceremonious face of monarchy.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07I'll explore the monarchy's crucial role in the careers
0:02:07 > 0:02:09of our greatest composers,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11from Purcell and Handel,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13to Parry and Elgar.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15I'll be hearing their music
0:02:15 > 0:02:18in some of Britain's most historic locations.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Performing this music in the places for which it was written,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25you get a sense of that world in depth.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Because of the way music operates, I think it bursts out of time.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39And I'll uncover why and when the music of today's Royal Family
0:02:39 > 0:02:43was first created for their ancestors.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46I'm beginning with the golden age of English music
0:02:46 > 0:02:50which culminated in the genius of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54It's the story of the kings who made English music the envy
0:02:54 > 0:02:58of Europe, and then brought it to the brink of destruction.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00And of the queen we have to thank
0:03:00 > 0:03:04for the continuing glories of English choral music.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08# Halle...
0:03:08 > 0:03:11# Lu...
0:03:11 > 0:03:15# Jah! #
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Our story begins with King Henry.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27The man who was our greatest king and finest general.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29Who made the name of England feared,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and who reshaped the English church for his own purposes.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37Who employed an unprecedented number of musicians
0:03:37 > 0:03:41and who was even a composer himself.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43I mean, of course,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45King Henry V.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50MUSIC: "Agincourt Carol" sung by Alamire
0:03:56 > 0:04:00I'm listening to an English song that's nearly 600 years old.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Not only was this song heard in King Henry's lifetime,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07it also takes HIM as its subject.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20This is a musical account of Henry V's overwhelming
0:04:20 > 0:04:24defeat of the French at Agincourt in 1415,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29when Henry's much smaller army overcame a far bigger one.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32It's perhaps the moment at which the English came nearest
0:04:32 > 0:04:36to achieving the centuries old ambition of conquering France.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41And it quickly became the stuff of legend, as in this carol here.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Nowadays we think of carols as only for Christmas.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08But then they were used to celebrate any joyful event.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Mostly the sacred, like the birth of Christ, but sometimes
0:05:12 > 0:05:16the apparently secular, like this great military victory.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30To our ears, the English verses, with their uninhibited glorying
0:05:30 > 0:05:31in battle and bloodshed,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36and the refrain, with the solemn liturgical phrase "Deo Gracias",
0:05:36 > 0:05:39"thanks be to God", belong to different worlds.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45# Deo Gracias... #
0:05:45 > 0:05:49But, to Henry V and his people, they were one and the same.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54And their combination of military ambition
0:05:54 > 0:05:56and the church militant
0:05:56 > 0:06:00is the foundation of royal music in England.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08By the time the King went into battle on that famous
0:06:08 > 0:06:10St Crispin's Day, he'd already heard Mass.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15And not a hurried, makeshift service but a beautifully sung one.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20For, alongside the knights, archers and horses,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24the King had also brought with him to Agincourt his own mobile choir.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28These were the most important military supplies of all.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30The dozens of priests,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34singing men and choirboys of Henry's Chapel Royal,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38along with all their equipment. The rich vestments, the altar plate
0:06:38 > 0:06:41of massive gold, the relics,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43the choir books and the sacred banners.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48Henry's cannons were there to batter down the walls of Harfleur.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51His Chapel Royal had a more vital task -
0:06:51 > 0:06:54to bombard the gates of heaven with praise,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58so's that God smiled favourably on his enterprise
0:06:58 > 0:07:00and gave him the victory.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06# Gloria in excelsis deo... #
0:07:06 > 0:07:08This was a holy war to be fought
0:07:08 > 0:07:13with the sacred weapons of prayer, and song, and music.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15MUSIC: "Gloria" by Henry V
0:07:27 > 0:07:31The year after Agincourt, Henry's forces again triumphed
0:07:31 > 0:07:34against the French. This time, at the Battle of the Seine.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Henry celebrated the news immediately,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44at the heart of English Christianity - Canterbury.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48He offered thanks to God with magnificent music.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51And in the company of a most distinguished guest.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55In a diplomatic coup, equal to Henry's military victories,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund, was in England
0:07:59 > 0:08:02and about to sign a treaty with the King.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08I am standing where king and emperor stood 600 years ago.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12And I am hearing the kind of English royal music they heard.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26For me, it's one of those moments
0:08:26 > 0:08:28when the centuries dissolve
0:08:28 > 0:08:31and a window opens into the past.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44Sigismund, on the other hand, despite his Europe-wide travels,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47would never have heard anything so fine.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06The Emperor would have been treated to a pioneering new style
0:09:06 > 0:09:11called "La Contenance Angloise" - the English sound.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14It went on to conquer Europe even more effectively
0:09:14 > 0:09:16than Henry's armies.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Its leading proponents worked for the Royal Family.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Chief among them, the first great English composer whose name
0:09:26 > 0:09:29has come down to us - John Dunstable.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33This piece by him, Preco Preheminence,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36could be one that was sung on that very day,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and a contemporary copy remains at Canterbury.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Continental church music of the time often sounded rather angular,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49intellectual and hollow.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54Dunstable's music, by contrast, was smooth and sweet.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58He underpinned strong melodies with rich harmonies.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12It's wonderfully incantatory.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15And you've just heard chords that last for a long time,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18so that he's extending all the wonderful vocal lines
0:10:18 > 0:10:19in the same sonority.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25So, this is why this sense, almost of a languor,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27a lingering on the note.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Some of the parts that they're singing are very florid
0:10:30 > 0:10:34and are rhythmically very intricate, and something that would have been remarkable in the time.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37So, this is really professional music of the highest calibre.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It certainly is, and he's making demands that he must have
0:10:40 > 0:10:42been able to teach these people and demand from them even more
0:10:42 > 0:10:46than they'd done before because what he's doing is new.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55The victory celebrations for the Battle of the Seine
0:10:55 > 0:10:59weren't just an opportunity to show off England's musical splendours
0:10:59 > 0:11:02to one of the most powerful rulers in Europe.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07They were also a turning point in the history of royal music.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12The victory took place on 15th August, 1416,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21For Henry, the coincidence of the victory and the holy day,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25was proof positive of divine intervention in English affairs.
0:11:25 > 0:11:31And proof also that his prayers and sacred music worked.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38So, immediately, he decided to multiply the already
0:11:38 > 0:11:41elaborate devotions of his Chapel Royal.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44He added three antiphons - that is sung anthems -
0:11:44 > 0:11:47to the daily high mass sung in his chapel,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51and no fewer than six antiphons to the evening service.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01Never had there been such profusion of praise and thanksgiving.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Never such demand for music.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11The Chapel Royal was expanded to meet that demand.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14In earlier centuries it had a dozen or so singers.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Under Henry, there were 50,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20three times the size of any cathedral choir.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25They travelled with the King from palace to palace
0:12:25 > 0:12:29and in each there was a place of worship where they sang,
0:12:29 > 0:12:30called the Chapel Royal, too.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35And this is one of the books they would have used,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39which includes compositions by four of the chapel's gentlemen.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46But the most surprising composer of all is this -
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Le Roi Henri,
0:12:49 > 0:12:54King Henry himself, who composed this Sanctus and another
0:12:54 > 0:12:59part of the Ordinary of the Mass, a Gloria, elsewhere in the book.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01Henry led his armies from the front
0:13:01 > 0:13:05because that was how he inspired his men to win victories.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09He was equally hands on as a composer and liturgist
0:13:09 > 0:13:14because that was how he believed you won God over to your side.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17And that was the most important victory of all.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Barely heard in the intervening centuries,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35this is music that came from Henry V's soul.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37It's a simple, harmonised chant,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39very much in the style of its time.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Musically competent, spiritually impeccable.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Such piety wasn't enough to save Henry
0:13:52 > 0:13:57from death at the age of only 35 in 1422,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59on another of his French campaigns.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04He was succeeded by his infant son, Henry VI.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11During his disastrous reign,
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Henry VI lost all of his father's gains in France, and more.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19He was a worthier heir, however,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22to his commitment to England's music.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25He maintained the Chapel Royal in its full splendour,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and he gave his kingdom a more permanent legacy
0:14:28 > 0:14:32than his father's military victories, in two great institutions.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37One was Eton College.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42Today, it's the most famous school in the world.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46When established, however, its chief purpose was not to educate,
0:14:46 > 0:14:51but to pray and to sing for the souls of Henry and his family.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55In the late middle ages, a college was first and foremost
0:14:55 > 0:14:59a non-monastic community of priests.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03The collective worship of the chapel and its music
0:15:03 > 0:15:07was most important, as can be seen from this early charter.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11The official title of the college is
0:15:11 > 0:15:15"The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Windsor."
0:15:17 > 0:15:22And here is Henry VI, and the Blessed Virgin Mary,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25whom Henry VI believed, like his father,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28was the special protectress of England.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33And here, and here, and here are the "choirs of angels"
0:15:33 > 0:15:37who "sing praises to the glory of God".
0:15:37 > 0:15:42Henry's intention was that the clerks, or singing men,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44and choirboys of the foundation,
0:15:44 > 0:15:49would echo the heavenly choirs here on Earth in his college.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Henry's Chapel is still in daily use by the school.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01The college has also preserved the kind of music that he intended
0:16:01 > 0:16:04to be sung there in the pages of a choir book.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Written at the end of the 15th century, it's the most important
0:16:09 > 0:16:14collection of English sacred music to survive from the period,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17having miraculously escaped the mass book-burnings
0:16:17 > 0:16:20of the Reformation.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23'Dr David Skinner is an early music specialist,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26'who is here to advise Eton's present day choirmaster,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30'Tim Johnson, on how the book would originally have been used.'
0:16:30 > 0:16:34It's extraordinary how different this is from the style of notation
0:16:34 > 0:16:37that we would be used to using in the choir.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40The other thing that's immediately apparent is how difficult
0:16:40 > 0:16:42a lot of this music is and they must have been extremely good.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44It's virtuosic. It's virtuosic, it really is.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49I mean, you can see how the notation just speeds up towards the end,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52it's like fireworks there, and then, again, it slows down.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54So this is showing off music?
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Yeah. This is music designed to show off the quality of the boys.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00And really, only in England do you find this.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Continental choirs primarily are made up of three types of boys,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07a treble line, a tenor line, and a bass line.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11In England, there's one, two, three, four, five,
0:17:11 > 0:17:12so you have the full spectrum.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16The layout of the choir book really does determine
0:17:16 > 0:17:18where the boys would stand in front of it.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23So, the trebles, right up on the upper left hand portion
0:17:23 > 0:17:28of this page, would you come, come through, boys?
0:17:28 > 0:17:31And if you could position yourself quite centrally...
0:17:32 > 0:17:35..so you have a good view of that part.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Um, and then altos, you need to be able to see your part here.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Then let's bring in the high tenors,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45and baritones, and then the low basses.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49And the thing to remember is that this book
0:17:49 > 0:17:54would have been much higher and on a lectern, about here,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56so that you all could see your parts very clearly.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00And, of course, the reason each one of them doesn't have a part,
0:18:00 > 0:18:02as you would now, is there's no printing,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04or there's no printing of music yet.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09Books are unbelievably expensive. They are luxury objects.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Far too good for the likes of choirboys!
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Right, Tim, are you going to take them forward?
0:18:13 > 0:18:14Absolutely.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19BOYS SING
0:18:31 > 0:18:35'This is typical late medieval polyphony.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39'Each of the five types of voice is singing an individual melody,
0:18:39 > 0:18:41'which harmonises into a whole.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48'Thanks to royal ambition, and royal investment, music was achieving
0:18:48 > 0:18:52'unparalleled heights of complexity in late medieval England.'
0:18:56 > 0:18:58That royal infrastructure remains central
0:18:58 > 0:19:02to British musical life, even today.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05King's College, Cambridge was founded by Henry VI,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09as Eton's twin, was completed by his successors,
0:19:09 > 0:19:13and is still world-famous for the quality of its choir.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17CHOIR SINGS
0:19:33 > 0:19:35Look. Listen.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40What the music and the architecture have in common.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42It's a sense of proportion.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46A perfect balance between extremes of simplicity and elaboration.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53And the achievement of almost impossible effects
0:19:53 > 0:19:56with seemingly effortless technical skill.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00In the architecture, it's the fan vaulting.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03It looks almost gossamer light.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06In fact, it's held in place by its very weight,
0:20:06 > 0:20:11which locks the voussoir, or the shape stones, into place.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15In the music, it's the multitude of different lines
0:20:15 > 0:20:18which weave together, just like the ribs in the vault.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Each separate, each interlocking with the other,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29into a solid structure of miraculous sound.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Above all, both the music and the architecture
0:20:48 > 0:20:51are uniquely, archetypically English.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56And they're almost as exclusively royal,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58because only kings could afford them.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Others did aspire to them, however.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Across England, wealthy and noble families emulated the royal model,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15and founded colleges of their own.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18By the 16th century. they numbered in the hundreds,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22providing musical employment on an unparalleled scale.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Monastic music-making had been restricted to those who'd taken
0:21:29 > 0:21:33holy orders, but colleges were open to the outside world,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36and able to pay for the best musicians.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40Composers in turn took advantage of improvements
0:21:40 > 0:21:42in both the skill and the size of choirs.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50So a piece like this from the early 1500s is built round eight
0:21:50 > 0:21:54individual parts, even more complex than the five-part polyphony
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I heard at Eton.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12It was a moment to savour,
0:22:12 > 0:22:17for the reputation of English music would never be so high again.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21The responsibility for that lay with the monarch
0:22:21 > 0:22:24who finally completed King's College Chapel.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Henry VIII loved the music that King's was built for.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31He grew up with it.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34He patronised its best performers and composers.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38He even, like his namesake and role model, Henry V,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41composed such music himself.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43But there's a difference.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Henry V, the story goes,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49got his bad behaviour out of the way as a young man.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53Henry VIII's character, on the other hand, darkened and deteriorated
0:22:53 > 0:22:58as he got older, and as it did so, it threatened to bring down
0:22:58 > 0:23:04everything that this building stood for. Choirs, church, the lot.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11And both sides of his character, the profane as well as the sacred,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13could be found in the music he composed.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18# Pastime with good company
0:23:18 > 0:23:23# I love and shall until I die... #
0:23:23 > 0:23:26This is the so-called Henry VIII manuscript, produced for
0:23:26 > 0:23:31Henry's court in the first half dozen or so years of the reign.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34It gets its name from the fact that Henry is by far the most
0:23:34 > 0:23:38frequently named composer in the book, with some 30-odd pieces.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43And this is his masterpiece - Pastime With Good Company.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05First sight, it seems pretty straightforward,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09all about youth having its fling, etc.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12But listen again a bit more carefully.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20"Who shall me let?" That is, who's going to stop me?
0:24:20 > 0:24:24This reflects the fact that Henry had just been stopped indeed,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28by his council, from relaunching Henry V's war against France,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31which he'd come to the throne determined to do.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35In revenge, as it were, Henry spent the second summer of his reign
0:24:35 > 0:24:40in a kind of internal exile, enjoying himself and writing music.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50And it was then, in 1510, that most, maybe all,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53the songs in this book would have been written.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09But how can we be sure that Henry didn't simply put his name
0:25:09 > 0:25:12to music that other people had written for him?
0:25:20 > 0:25:25You can really tell that Pastime is, primarily, must be by the king,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28because there are certain errors in the part-writing
0:25:28 > 0:25:31that just would not have happened by one of his court composers,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33it just wouldn't have happened.
0:25:33 > 0:25:34He liked what he heard and it stayed in.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37And everybody else, because the king had written it, liked it, too!
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Yes.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42On the other hand, Pastime is hugely popular. It is, yes.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Outside court circles where the King couldn't say, you know,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47"You will like this, or else."
0:25:47 > 0:25:49The simple fact is, is that the tunes really draw us in -
0:25:49 > 0:25:51they're good tunes.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55This is very different from the kind of liturgical music of Henry V,
0:25:55 > 0:25:57in which the King exposes his faith.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Here we've got Henry exposing his heart.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03It's autobiography in music and words.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Well, Henry's writing about the chase, isn't he?
0:26:06 > 0:26:08About the hunt, about love.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Of women, especially! Love! Yeah, exactly.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13I mean, this is a king as pop star, isn't it?
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Yes. It's not the Henry that we see in Holbein, is it?
0:26:15 > 0:26:18No, he's slim and handsome. Slim, good looking, tall.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Completely different man.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Henry employed nearly a hundred musicians by the end of his reign.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Not only the sacred singers of his chapel,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33but the secular musicians of the court.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36The range and number of his instrumentalists
0:26:36 > 0:26:39would have made for a splendid orchestra.
0:26:39 > 0:26:40At this point in history, however,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44they weren't yet playing together in a single group.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Instead, there were a number of smaller bands,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51each playing a different kind of instrument.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55The string consort, for instance, specialised in violins,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58and the instrument played here, the viol,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01which was first heard in England at Henry's court.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Further distinctions were made according to function, status,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08and even volume.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13TRUMPETS PLAY
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Some instruments were classed as being "haut", meaning loud.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Chief amongst them were the trumpeters,
0:27:31 > 0:27:36who blasted out fanfares for royal entrances and processions.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48This instrument is also loud.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53INSTRUMENT PLAYS
0:27:53 > 0:27:54It's called a shawm.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59The shawm players, unlike the drummers and trumpeters,
0:27:59 > 0:28:04could read music, and played "art" - that is to say, composed music,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07like this piece by Henry VIII.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09SHAWM PLAYS
0:28:09 > 0:28:12With music like this, they accompanied the dances and revels
0:28:12 > 0:28:14of the ladies and gentlemen of the court.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18They were the court dance band.
0:28:19 > 0:28:25SHAWM PLAYS
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Other instruments were classified as "bas", or soft,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40and the musicians who played them were often the most highly-skilled
0:28:40 > 0:28:44and highly-paid virtuosi, including the lutenists.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48This is music for royal love-making,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51or to entice the King to repose.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55The King played the lute himself,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58along with the harp, recorder and keyboard.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02But he also loved to listen to his favourite performers,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04for hours at a time.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Music was more than a personal passion, however.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14Henry's ambition was to have the grandest,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17the most magnificent court in Europe.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22A court to cow his enemies, to impress his rivals,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25and to convey to everyone that England and the English monarchy
0:29:25 > 0:29:27was glorious once more.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32Henry was a master of the politics of splendour,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36and the brightest jewel and the most effective instrument
0:29:36 > 0:29:38was his Chapel Royal.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43# Henrico Octavo... #
0:29:43 > 0:29:48This is a prayer for Henry VIII, rendered, in Latin, Henrico Octavo.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54# Henrico Octavo... #
0:30:05 > 0:30:08It was composed by a prominent gentleman of the Chapel Royal,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11early in Henry's reign, Robert Fairfax,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14and it's the kind of showpiece that was intended to give
0:30:14 > 0:30:18visiting diplomats something to write home about, literally.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23"His Majesty invited the Ambassador to hear Mass
0:30:23 > 0:30:26"sung by his Majesty's choristers,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30"whose voices were really rather divine than human.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34"They did not chant, but sang like angels,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37"and as for the counter-bass voices,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39"I don't think they have their equals in the world."
0:30:42 > 0:30:44One can only imagine Henry's displeasure when,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49during the Christmas celebrations of 1517, he learned of a choir
0:30:49 > 0:30:52that could sing even better than the Chapel Royal.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59What was worse, it served the King's own Chief Minister,
0:30:59 > 0:31:00Cardinal Wolsey.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09To even the field, Henry took a gift from Wolsey -
0:31:09 > 0:31:14the best treble from the Cardinal's choir, a young lad named Robin,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18praised in letters for his "sure and cleanly singing",
0:31:18 > 0:31:22and also "his good and crafty descant".
0:31:26 > 0:31:30Descant was a very noble art form, which is now sadly lost,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32and that's the idea of improvisation.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35# Gloria tibi... #
0:31:38 > 0:31:41The master would sing a chant melody that was well known...
0:31:42 > 0:31:47# Gloria... #
0:31:48 > 0:31:52And the boy would know which notes he could actually sing
0:31:52 > 0:31:53against the plainchant notes.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10And what is created is, hopefully a beautiful, seamless melody.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21The extraordinary thing here, I think,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24is that we're dealing with a 13/14-year old and the level
0:32:24 > 0:32:26of training that you must achieve
0:32:26 > 0:32:28in order to be able to do this is extremely high,
0:32:28 > 0:32:31so Robin must have been at the top of his trade.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42Henry went on to take more than a chorister off Wolsey.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49He'd go on to confiscate the Cardinal's palace, Hampton Court,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52and then all his possessions, and all his power.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58All because of the Cardinal's failure to persuade the Pope
0:32:58 > 0:33:01to allow Henry to marry Anne Boleyn.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04# O, My Heart
0:33:04 > 0:33:10# And O, my heart... #
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Anne was highly musical. She played the lute and harp,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20and sang and danced well, which must surely have been
0:33:20 > 0:33:24part of her attraction to a man as musical as Henry.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29It was the love story that led to English Reformation.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34To make Anne his Queen, Henry had to break with the Roman Church
0:33:34 > 0:33:35and set England on a path
0:33:35 > 0:33:38that would lead it to become a Protestant nation.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54Henry made himself Head of the Church of England,
0:33:54 > 0:33:59for the narrowest and most self-interested of motives.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01But there was a powerful sting in the tail
0:34:01 > 0:34:05of the new approaches to religion he'd decided to embrace.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10In the old faith, especially as we've seen it practiced
0:34:10 > 0:34:15by the English kings, music was inseparable from religion.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20Mass was rarely said, it was sung, with every variety of skill,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23elaboration and instrumental accompaniment.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29But, for the new faith, the word was there to be spoken,
0:34:29 > 0:34:32clearly, simply, directly.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Words were to be understood,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and anything that got in the way of understanding,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43like a foreign language or ritual or music, was wrong.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47It did not matter if it moved the emotions
0:34:47 > 0:34:51or plucked the heart strings, those were the wiles of the devil,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55to be swept aside by the pure redeeming word of God.
0:35:03 > 0:35:04It was the start of a war
0:35:04 > 0:35:08that would change the sound of England for ever.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Music was a central battleground
0:35:11 > 0:35:14in the religious conflict which took centuries to be settled.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25The case against music was mockingly put
0:35:25 > 0:35:27by the scholar Erasmus.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31"The English think God is pleased
0:35:31 > 0:35:34"with ornamental neighings and agile throats.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37"The whole day is now spent in endless singing.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41"Yet one worthwhile sermon exciting true piety
0:35:41 > 0:35:43"is hardly heard in six months."
0:35:48 > 0:35:53Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, agreed.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58Traditional music was too "full of notes", he complained.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02He wanted English music to be more like the spoken word,
0:36:02 > 0:36:07"Sung distinctly and devoutly. For every syllable, one note".
0:36:10 > 0:36:13Music still had one very powerful defender -
0:36:13 > 0:36:17the head of the Church of England himself.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24This is Henry VIII's Psalter or book of psalms.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29It's specially written and illuminated for him, and it's
0:36:29 > 0:36:33annotated in Henry's own bold and unmistakeable handwriting.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39It's a profoundly personal book that reflects the ageing Henry's vision
0:36:39 > 0:36:45of himself and his kingship, and both of them focus on music.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52As here, in the illumination to Psalm 52, which shows Henry
0:36:52 > 0:36:56playing on his harp, just like the old testament to King David.
0:36:56 > 0:37:03Or here, with musicians making "a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob",
0:37:03 > 0:37:07just as Henry VIII's Chapel Royal continued to do.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11Again and again, Henry's personal annotations
0:37:11 > 0:37:15approve of the central role of music in this Biblical text.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19"NB, praise on the psaltery", he writes at one point -
0:37:19 > 0:37:21that's the instrument pictured here.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26And when the psalmist says, "Praise the Lord upon the harp",
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Henry writes simply "of worship".
0:37:29 > 0:37:33Music is worship and worship is music,
0:37:33 > 0:37:35just as it had been for Henry V and Henry VI.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43Henry fervently believed that he, too, was leading his people
0:37:43 > 0:37:46in the true, melodious worship of God.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51CHOIR SINGS
0:37:56 > 0:38:00And so, in spite of the suspicions of zealous Reformers,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Henry's Chapel Royal remained as musically magnificent as ever.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23In 1543, the King's choir was made even more glorious still,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27when one of the greatest English composers of all was admitted
0:38:27 > 0:38:30to its ranks - Thomas Tallis.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37Like so many musicians of this period,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40we know next to nothing about his character. We can't even be sure
0:38:40 > 0:38:44exactly when he was born, though we think it was around 1505.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49What we do know about Tallis, however, is that during
0:38:49 > 0:38:53his extraordinarily long life - he lived some 80 years -
0:38:53 > 0:38:56he served four successive monarchs
0:38:56 > 0:38:58of wildly different religious opinions.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03The great changes prompted by Henry's assumption of the headship
0:39:03 > 0:39:07of the church not only affected Tallis's professional career.
0:39:07 > 0:39:13More importantly, they shaped and reshaped the very style and form
0:39:13 > 0:39:14of the notes he wrote.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28Tallis began his career as organist and singing man in monasteries,
0:39:28 > 0:39:30until Henry abolished them.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34This luxurious piece is typical of the music he composed
0:39:34 > 0:39:37in his younger, monastic years.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41CHOIR SINGS
0:39:57 > 0:40:01So that's what Latin church music sounds like under Henry VIII.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04In other words, Latin, polyphony,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06the voluptuousness of the English sound.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10Absolutely so, and it's important to remember than music served
0:40:10 > 0:40:14no other purpose than, say, a stained glass window or a tapestry.
0:40:14 > 0:40:15It was meant as a...
0:40:15 > 0:40:16Incense. Exactly. Meditation.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18It was aural incense. Yes.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Meditation. A backdrop for a prayer.
0:40:21 > 0:40:22Then, the change.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31The "change" was Henry's death in 1547.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36He was succeeded by his son, Edward VI, who, even at the age of nine,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39burned with Protestant zeal.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44To him, the sacred music loved by his father
0:40:44 > 0:40:48was a Popeish corruption that should be rooted out.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50With Edward's enthusiastic approval,
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Cranmer issued the first version of the English Book of Common Prayer.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Latin was no longer to be the language of the church,
0:41:00 > 0:41:02nor of its music.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09Thomas Tallis would now have to change his tune.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12The introduction of the English prayer book changed everything.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15The walls are whitewashed, the stained glass is removed,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19no longer is the Latin polyphony appropriate.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22What is appropriate is a text that can be clear,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24transparent, and heard.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28It's in English, and it makes completely new demands on music,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30and could we have an example?
0:41:30 > 0:41:33With the closure of choir schools and the new prayer book,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35there was no need for a boys' line,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38so, boys, you can go, you're no longer needed.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45All that remains, the bass, baritone and tenors -
0:41:45 > 0:41:46the clerks, the men of the choir.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Practically every note is imprinted with reform,
0:43:06 > 0:43:08and Tallis uses certain devices
0:43:08 > 0:43:11to ensure that the listener can understand the words.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14He gets the voices to sing together in what's called homophony,
0:43:14 > 0:43:16or chordal writing, and then you'll find the upper voices
0:43:16 > 0:43:19singing together, the lower voices singing together.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22So what they're doing is, if you like,
0:43:22 > 0:43:27a kind of sermon in music, and the word dominates everything.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Tallis proved as gifted writing in this new style
0:43:36 > 0:43:38as in the one he'd grown up with.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Almost overnight, he had reinvented English sacred music.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47Even this was not enough to satisfy the radical reformers.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52Henry had dissolved the monasteries,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55which employed large numbers of musicians.
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Now Edward oversaw the closure of many other religious institutions,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03including most of the colleges which had, for so long,
0:44:03 > 0:44:05been central to English music.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14By 1551, even the choir at King's, Cambridge, had been silenced.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16And still worse was to come.
0:44:18 > 0:44:23In 1552, Edward's council published a second
0:44:23 > 0:44:26and much more radical prayer book here.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31In this, references to music are few and dismissive.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35"There shall be lessons sung in a plain tune,
0:44:35 > 0:44:37"after the manner of distinct reading."
0:44:37 > 0:44:40In other words, don't bother.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44Music is a hindrance, not a help, to devotion.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49Only five years before, the great tradition of English music had been
0:44:49 > 0:44:54central to Henry VIII's vision of his kingship and his church.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58Now, under his son, it hung by a thread.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03The choirs and the organs had gone, and even the memory of the music
0:45:03 > 0:45:08risked disappearing entirely, as thousands of choir books
0:45:08 > 0:45:14were burned or cut up for scrap,
0:45:14 > 0:45:20like these few stained, chopped fragments here,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23leaving only a hundred or two intact pages
0:45:23 > 0:45:28to preserve the memory of the entire body of medieval English music.
0:45:34 > 0:45:41CHOIR SINGS
0:45:44 > 0:45:47And yet, within a couple of generations,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50this was the kind of music being produced for the Church of England.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11It's by a gentleman of the Chapel Royal,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13and the only man who rivalled Thomas Tallis
0:46:13 > 0:46:18for the title of the greatest English composer of the 16th century
0:46:18 > 0:46:20- Tallis's pupil, William Byrd.'
0:46:24 > 0:46:29Musically, it displays clear links to the rich, sweet polyphony
0:46:29 > 0:46:30of the Catholic past.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37And yet, this verse anthem is definitely Protestant music,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39and it's in English.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52So how did music like this take root
0:46:52 > 0:46:54in the Protestant Church of England?
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Just as English music had been on the point of total annihilation,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05in 1553, Edward had died, at the age of just 15.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13His sister, "Bloody" Mary, had then returned England
0:47:13 > 0:47:17back to the worship, and music, of Catholicism.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Her reign, like her brother's, lasted barely five years.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28So the musical future of England came down to the power
0:47:28 > 0:47:31and preference, and exceptionally long reign,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34of Henry's last surviving child.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50Elizabeth was Henry VIII's daughter by his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
0:47:50 > 0:47:56In spite, or perhaps because of, her mother's disgrace and execution,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00Elizabeth was wholly her father's daughter,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03in her love of music, of which she was a connoisseur,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07and was herself a very skilful keyboard player,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11and in her idiosyncratic approach to religion.
0:48:11 > 0:48:16Elizabeth rejected both the austere Protestantism of her brother Edward,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20and the fervent Catholicism of her sister Mary.
0:48:20 > 0:48:25Instead, like Henry VIII, Elizabeth, too, wanted a middle way.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29Most of her subjects however, did not,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32and were soon set on the road to radical reform.
0:48:34 > 0:48:40# All people that on earth Do dwell... #
0:48:42 > 0:48:45In the majority of churches, their colourful walls
0:48:45 > 0:48:49were whitewashed over, as in this Gloucestershire chapel.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54Instead of an altar at the east end of the church,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57there was now a communion table, surrounded by seats.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01The only music likely to have been heard
0:49:01 > 0:49:04was the unaccompanied singing of psalms.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08# ..and rejoice
0:49:10 > 0:49:16# The Lord, he knowest God indeed... #
0:49:16 > 0:49:23This is a translation of Psalm 100, by a Scot - William Kethe.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26It was published early in Elizabeth's reign,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30along with English language versions of the other psalms,
0:49:30 > 0:49:35and a handful of standard tunes that the words could be sung to.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39This one has been sung with Kethe's words, ever since,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43which is why it's now known as the "Old Hundredth".
0:49:45 > 0:49:48This is as good as it got in most Elizabethan churches,
0:49:48 > 0:49:53and after decades of reformation and counter-reformation,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55all the music that most aspired to.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01And yet, there was one notable exception. Very elaborate works by
0:50:01 > 0:50:05Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were regularly and magnificently sung.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11The royal household.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21At Hampton Court, we can still see where Elizabeth would have heard
0:50:21 > 0:50:24her beloved music - the space known,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28like the choir that sung there, as the Chapel Royal.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45This was the Queen's personal religious space, and she treated it
0:50:45 > 0:50:50with all the possessiveness worthy of the greatest of her ancestors.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53The result was that the Reformation had less impact here
0:50:53 > 0:50:55than anywhere else in England.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01Here, the clergy still wore rich vestments, the organs played,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03and the choir still sung, often in Latin,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06music by the great William Byrd.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16Outside, it was the cold winter of Protestant austerity.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Inside, it was indeed the warm summer
0:51:19 > 0:51:23of the golden age of English church music.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30Elizabeth was too astute to attempt to impose her preferred style
0:51:30 > 0:51:35of worship on a country still riven by religious division.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38William Byrd was a case in point.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Openly, flamboyantly Catholic, he was frequently fined
0:51:42 > 0:51:46for refusing to attend his parish church. By the 1580s,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51he was even writing protest songs about religious persecution.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54It says much about Elizabeth's powers of patronage that a recusant
0:51:54 > 0:51:58like him could remain a gentleman of her Chapel Royal.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04I think there's no doubt whatever
0:52:04 > 0:52:07that Elizabeth was driven by personal taste,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10but that, after all, is what a personal monarch should be.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15Their wishes are what drive it.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18Nowadays, it's what we talk about if we talk about somebody
0:52:18 > 0:52:22as a conviction politician - it is their wish, their will.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Elizabeth's personal taste for the music also reflected
0:52:31 > 0:52:36the fact that she understood the nature of royal ceremony.
0:52:38 > 0:52:44Almost all royal ceremony before the Reformation was religious.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49What Elizabeth does is to stop that disappearing.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52And this means, then,
0:52:52 > 0:52:56that you have a fully ceremonialised Protestant monarchy.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05She composed a kind of personal oratorio of monarchy,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10in which she supplied the words, she supplied the performance
0:53:10 > 0:53:16and then others took what she'd begun and carried it to further and
0:53:16 > 0:53:20fresh heights, and this, I think, is why she is such an inspiration.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26# Say, love, if ever thou dids't find
0:53:26 > 0:53:28# A woman with a constant mind?
0:53:28 > 0:53:30# None but one
0:53:32 > 0:53:35# And what should That rare mirror be?
0:53:35 > 0:53:38# Some goddess or some queen is she
0:53:38 > 0:53:42# She, she, she, she, she
0:53:42 > 0:53:45# She and only she
0:53:45 > 0:53:50# She only queen Of love and beauty... #
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Though this is not a sacred song,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56it too celebrates Elizabeth and her reign.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01It's by John Dowland, who composed the greatest secular music
0:54:01 > 0:54:07of the era. His love songs were popular across the whole of Europe.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10This song, however, he's paying an elaborate compliment
0:54:10 > 0:54:12to his monarch.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15Like much of the art of Elizabeth's reign,
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Dowland's song mythologises the Queen,
0:54:17 > 0:54:21and presents her to the listener as the embodiment of virtue.
0:55:12 > 0:55:18Elizabeth died in 1603, after a reign of nearly 45 years.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35There's a 17th century account of her death which, though medically
0:55:35 > 0:55:40implausible, tells us how much her reign was associated with music.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43The story goes that, in her last days,
0:55:43 > 0:55:47she called for the royal musicians to gather round her deathbed.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53"..so that, she said, she might die as gaily as she had lived,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57"and that the horrors of death might be lessened."
0:56:01 > 0:56:05"She heard the music tranquilly until her last breath."
0:56:10 > 0:56:16And music, more than anything else, was to be her personal legacy.
0:56:16 > 0:56:22# O Lord, make thy servant
0:56:24 > 0:56:30# Elizabeth our Queen... #
0:56:37 > 0:56:40Elizabeth stands at the crossroads of English music.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46Not only did she save the musical traditions of the English monarchy
0:56:46 > 0:56:48and the English church,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52she also offered a model to succeeding generations.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01The kind of worship she preferred and patronised, in English,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05but accompanied with rich ceremony and richer music,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09became the ideal which her Stuart successors tried to impose
0:57:09 > 0:57:11on the whole of the English church.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23It was rediscovered in the 19th century,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25and it triumphed in the early 20th.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36No-one today would question that music was central
0:57:36 > 0:57:38to the Church of England.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42No-one today could imagine royal ceremony without music.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46We are all Elizabethans now.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03'Before Elizabeth's vision could triumph, however,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06'Protestant hostility to church music had to be overcome.'
0:58:11 > 0:58:15Next time, I'll explore just how much of a struggle
0:58:15 > 0:58:18that was to be in the 17th century.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22It was the era of civil war, regicide and revolution,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26but it also produced the greatest musical genius
0:58:26 > 0:58:29to have been born on British soil - Henry Purcell.
0:58:54 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:01 > 0:59:02You might get the impression that history
0:59:02 > 0:59:04is just a history of what happened.
0:59:04 > 0:59:07Actually, it's not like that at all.