0:00:02 > 0:00:06# I vow to thee my country
0:00:06 > 0:00:09# All earthly things above... #
0:00:09 > 0:00:14I Vow To Thee My Country is one of our greatest national songs,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18heard regularly at royal events throughout the 20th century.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21# The service of my love... #
0:00:21 > 0:00:26It was sung at St Paul's Cathedral for the Silver Jubilee of George V.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Lady Diana Spencer said that it was one of her favourite hymns
0:00:31 > 0:00:35from childhood and requested it be sung here again,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38at her wedding to Prince Charles.
0:00:38 > 0:00:4216 years later, it was performed at her funeral.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46# The love that never falters
0:00:46 > 0:00:48# The love that pays the price... #
0:00:48 > 0:00:54The music, by Gustav Holst, marries an imperial sweep and grandeur,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57with that kind of catch-in-the-throat quality
0:00:57 > 0:01:01so characteristic of the best of English music,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05with its all-pervasive nostalgia.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10# And there's another country... #
0:01:10 > 0:01:14The words fuse a love of country with the love of God.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Qualities which, as I have explored in the course of this series,
0:01:18 > 0:01:23have been the inspiration for much of the best British music.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26Most remarkably of all, though it seems so much part
0:01:26 > 0:01:29of the national fabric, I Vow To Thee My Country
0:01:29 > 0:01:32dates from only from 1921.
0:01:32 > 0:01:38But then, Elgar's Hope And Glory is only 20 years older,
0:01:38 > 0:01:44while the Royal House of Windsor itself was only created in 1917.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48In other words, the 20th century is not a dying fall
0:01:48 > 0:01:53in the history of either the British monarchy or its music.
0:01:53 > 0:01:59Instead, it's a period of triumphant revival in which crown and nation
0:01:59 > 0:02:07find a new unity, a new language, and above all a new music.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11# ..And all her paths are peace! #
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Early in the 19th century,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Britain's monarchy was set on a very different course.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29British music was in the doldrums.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34The Brighton Pavilion is a vision of the path both might have gone down.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38It was built by the Prince Regent, who became King George IV.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Gluttonous, lascivious and extravagant,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44George destroyed public respect for the monarchy.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47At the heart of his personal pleasure palace, however,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50we can see another side of his character.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54This is his music room.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02Sometimes the King's fine singing voice would be accompanied
0:03:02 > 0:03:04by this magnificent organ.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08At other times, he played the cello, rather well.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11And most frequently, he listened to his private military band,
0:03:11 > 0:03:13described as the best in Europe.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18George's most famous musical guest at the Royal Pavilion
0:03:18 > 0:03:22was Giacomo Rossini, the Italian opera composer.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26And the two men, equally vulgar in their way, got on famously.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30George brought Rossini here, into the music room
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and introduced him to members of his band.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34The band, in Rossini's honour,
0:03:34 > 0:03:37played Rossini's own overture to The Thieving Magpie.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46Snobbish aristocratic members of the house party
0:03:46 > 0:03:50were disapproving of Rossini's appearance, describing him as...
0:03:50 > 0:03:54"a fat, sallow squab of a man". And they were outraged
0:03:54 > 0:03:56at his easy familiarity with the King.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00He even dared to sit next to him!
0:04:00 > 0:04:04But George was entranced and, on Rossini's subsequent visits
0:04:04 > 0:04:08to London, the two sang duets together.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15It was, however, a world away from the systematic royal patronage
0:04:15 > 0:04:19which produced the best English music of the past.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23The sacred works of the likes of Tallis, Byrd and Gibbons.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Rossini wrote fashionable light entertainments,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31and made only fleeting visits to these shores.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34The last truly great English musician, Henry Purcell,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37had died over a century before.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43However well-drilled George's band, no new British music of note
0:04:43 > 0:04:46emanated from his palaces, or his reign.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55Music at the Royal Pavilion had become a private passion
0:04:55 > 0:04:57of a royal sybarite.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Much like the monarchy, in fact, which, decadent, mismanaged,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and without visible point or purpose,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07seemed to be heading for irrelevance, or worse.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10In France, the Revolutionaries had cut off the King's head,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12and abolished the monarchy.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15In America, former British colonial subjects were engaged
0:05:15 > 0:05:18in the novel experiment of a kingless republic.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Whilst here in Britain, there were riots, conspiracies
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and clamorous calls for reform.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26If it were to survive,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29the monarchy would have to do better than George IV.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32But what would the model of a modern,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35cleaned-up monarchy look like?
0:05:35 > 0:05:37And what would its music be?
0:05:42 > 0:05:44These questions would be settled
0:05:44 > 0:05:47in the reign of George's niece, Victoria.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52And the monarchy's saviour was the man she married, Prince Albert.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00MUSIC: "Lebewohl" by Prince Albert.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11This is one of Albert's own compositions,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14played in the White Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace
0:06:14 > 0:06:18on a piano Victoria and Albert bought together.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Albert gave this music to Victoria as an engagement gift,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39in a collection of his work called "Lieder und Romanzen",
0:06:39 > 0:06:42songs and ballads.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Victoria and Albert would make music together,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48sometimes taking it in turns to sing to each other,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51sometimes singing duets.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Theirs was a passionate relationship and sharing these moments
0:06:55 > 0:06:58of intense music-making only deepened it.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07David Owen Norris is a pianist and composer who has studied
0:07:07 > 0:07:10the Prince Consort's music.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14With a perfect dying fall!
0:07:14 > 0:07:18This splendid instrument is perfect for those sympathetic little duets!
0:07:18 > 0:07:22Well, and these accompaniments, like the accompaniments in the song
0:07:22 > 0:07:24that we've just heard, when you need to have this sort of...
0:07:24 > 0:07:26The lilt.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30And you can lay down a sort of a bed of sound
0:07:30 > 0:07:32for the singer to relax upon.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37And the decorations. This is very much Albertine, isn't it?
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Well, it's ridiculous, isn't it?
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Well, it's frankly hideous, like most of the things they bought!
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Well, it's this androgynous figure in the middle,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48it's very difficult to keep your eyes off it while you're playing.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50But they loved this decoration so much that, actually,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54they took it off an earlier piano and reapplied it.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Albert, of course, isn't only a consumer of music,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02he's not only a performer of music, he is actually a composer.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05How serious? I mean, how good?
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Well, good, actually. And I think he took it very seriously,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11and he was interested in the new innovations
0:08:11 > 0:08:14that particularly German early romantic music was doing.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18And he was able to do some of the remarkable harmonic things.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21There's a lovely surprise here, which he waits to spring,
0:08:21 > 0:08:22on a new page, which is rather lovely.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26But we've had an E flat chord... HE PLAYS THE CHORD
0:08:26 > 0:08:28..and then it suddenly goes... PLAYS HIGHER NOTE
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Wow! And the way that he gets out of that...
0:08:30 > 0:08:31Very Mendelssohnian.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33- Well, very romantic.- Yes.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35And he's very keen on doing that.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37And, in general, I think he was very good.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42The other song that I've got here, Der Ungeliebten, The Unbeloved,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45has a marvellous introduction which conjures up that sort of,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48oh, I don't know, Weber opera sort of mood, in a way.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51HE PLAYS "DER UNGELIEBTEN"
0:08:56 > 0:08:58Lonely and deserted.
0:08:58 > 0:08:59Exactly.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Lonely and deserted and remote, in both the musical sense,
0:09:02 > 0:09:03and the emotional, yes.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05And he could do that, he could do that.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07HE CONTINUES TO PLAY
0:09:11 > 0:09:12SHE SINGS
0:09:14 > 0:09:19Albert himself was modest about his musical abilities.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22"I consider that persons in our position of life
0:09:22 > 0:09:24"can never be distinguished artists.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27"We have too many other duties to perform.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30"Our business is not so much to create,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35"as to learn to understand and appreciate the work of others."
0:09:41 > 0:09:46His insight led him to champion composers from Bach to Schubert.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51And he shared his excellent taste first with his besotted queen,
0:09:51 > 0:09:52and eventually, the nation.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Albert's taste in music was more serious
0:10:09 > 0:10:12than anything Victoria had been used to hitherto.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16But then, Albert was a serious man.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19There's a yearning, not only in music,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22but in the rest of his life, public and private,
0:10:22 > 0:10:27for something deeper, more earnest, even more sacred
0:10:27 > 0:10:33than the light, bright drawing room entertainment of Victoria's youth.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Albert brought a new sense of moral purpose
0:10:37 > 0:10:39and drive to the British monarchy.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Another of Albert's enthusiasms, which Victoria duly learned
0:10:46 > 0:10:49to share, was for the music of Felix Mendelssohn.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56In 1842, the composer was invited for dinner at Buckingham Palace,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58the first of several visits.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Mendelssohn described it as...
0:11:00 > 0:11:04"The only nice, comfortable house in England."
0:11:06 > 0:11:11All three would make music together, Albert pulling the stops out
0:11:11 > 0:11:13of the Buckingham Palace organ for Felix.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19Victoria singing Mendelssohn's songs, much to his approval.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24"Really quite faultlessly, with much feeling and expression."
0:11:29 > 0:11:33As a gift, Mendelssohn rearranged some of his famous
0:11:33 > 0:11:35"Songs without Words" especially
0:11:35 > 0:11:38for the royal couple, so's that both could play
0:11:38 > 0:11:41side by side at the piano.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Victoria was given the easier part.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49Such domestic pleasures could be viewed as not so far removed
0:11:49 > 0:11:52from the lives of middle class families,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56who also gathered round their parlour pianos at this time.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01The monarchy had regained at least some bourgeois respectability
0:12:01 > 0:12:03by the mid-19th century.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11And the royal couple's moral rectitude was demonstrated again
0:12:11 > 0:12:15when they attended the musical sensation of 1847.
0:12:16 > 0:12:17# Thank the Lord!
0:12:17 > 0:12:19# Thank the Lord!
0:12:19 > 0:12:20# Thank the Lord!
0:12:20 > 0:12:24# Thank the Lord... #
0:12:24 > 0:12:28This is from one of Mendelssohn's English-language oratorios.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31# Thanks be to God!
0:12:31 > 0:12:33# Thanks be to God!
0:12:33 > 0:12:36- # Thanks be to God! - He laveth the thirsty land!
0:12:36 > 0:12:39# The stormy billows are high
0:12:39 > 0:12:42# Their fury is mighty! #
0:12:42 > 0:12:45The Queen and the Prince Consort were deeply impressed
0:12:45 > 0:12:48when they attended one of the very first performances.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Afterwards, Albert sent the composer
0:12:51 > 0:12:54a handwritten note of congratulation.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57"To the noble artist who, like a second Elijah,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01"has freed our ear from the chaos of mindless jingling of tones!
0:13:01 > 0:13:04"In grateful recollection, Albert."
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Elijah marked out Mendelssohn as the natural successor to Handel,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18whose English language oratorios remained wildly popular in Britain.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22The Hanoverian monarchy had found another German composer
0:13:22 > 0:13:25who spoke of Britain's spiritual destiny.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30"Elijah" would go on to be performed with fervent regularity
0:13:30 > 0:13:35at cathedrals, where huge choirs, orchestra and crowds of spectators
0:13:35 > 0:13:37gathered in the ancient naves.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42The Victorian church was rebuilding its musical infrastructure,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46which, in time, would serve the monarchy as well.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52# ..The waters gather They rush along!
0:13:52 > 0:13:55# The waters gather, they rush along!
0:13:55 > 0:13:57# They rush along!
0:13:57 > 0:13:58# They rush along!
0:14:02 > 0:14:04# Thanks be to God!
0:14:04 > 0:14:07# He laveth the thirsty land!
0:14:07 > 0:14:09# Thanks be to God!
0:14:09 > 0:14:11# Thanks be to God... #
0:14:11 > 0:14:15But the first pioneers of Victorian musical greatness
0:14:15 > 0:14:17didn't live to see their visions realised.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Barely a year after Elijah's premiere, Mendelssohn died,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29aged just 38. Among the causes were overwork and nervous exhaustion,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31as they were for Albert,
0:14:31 > 0:14:36who also died shockingly young at 42, in 1861.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41# I am the resurrection
0:14:41 > 0:14:47# And the life saith the Lord... #
0:14:47 > 0:14:51His loss was felt keenly, not just by Queen Victoria,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54but also, in time, by the nation.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57When it came to music, he'd clearly left unfinished business,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00as a closer examination of his monument,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03here in Hyde Park, indicates.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12The frieze of the Albert Memorial shows, in sculptural form,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14the Valhalla of cultural achievement
0:15:14 > 0:15:17as it was seen by the high Victorians.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Now, Brits are hardly under-represented.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24After all, Albert was the great patron of the arts and sciences
0:15:24 > 0:15:26in Victorian Britain.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28But, when it comes to British composers,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33as the dress alone tells you, they belong to the 16th, the 17th,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37just to the 18th and with a single 19th-century figure,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41the justly forgotten Sir Henry Rowley Bishop.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Forgotten, that is, apart from the wonderfully schmaltzy tune
0:15:44 > 0:15:47that he wrote to the even more schmaltzy words
0:15:47 > 0:15:50of "Home, Sweet, Home".
0:15:54 > 0:15:57But, with Albert dead, and Victoria having begun
0:15:57 > 0:16:01her long withdrawal from public life to mourn him,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05who would lead a campaign to improve this sorry state of affairs?
0:16:07 > 0:16:10The answer turned out, still,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13to be Albert, now from beyond the grave.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18His ideas survived him, as did the profits from the Great Exhibition,
0:16:18 > 0:16:20which he'd championed in 1851.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27This financial legacy was spent in ways
0:16:27 > 0:16:30that changed the course of British music and culture.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Some of it helped build the Albert Hall,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35state-of-the-art when it opened,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38and still central to Britain's musical life.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42And just behind it rose an even more important institution,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46one that gave Britain a new musical voice
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and trained great British composers, from Gustav Holst,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52to Benjamin Britten and beyond.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57The Royal College of Music was the direct result of fundraising
0:16:57 > 0:17:02by Victoria's children, including the future Edward VII,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05then known as Albert, Prince of Wales.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09In his opening speech at the Royal College of Music,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13Edward quoted approvingly the dictum that...
0:17:13 > 0:17:15"Music is the only sensual pleasure
0:17:15 > 0:17:20"to which excess cannot be injurious."
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Quite how anybody, including his wife,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26kept a straight face is beyond me,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29for Edward was an expert in excess.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34His sexual appetites led to his being called Edward the Caresser,
0:17:34 > 0:17:39whilst his gluttony and corpulence got him the nickname of "Tum-tum".
0:17:39 > 0:17:43With intellectual pursuits, however, it was quite another matter.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47He never picked up a book, and he never bought a decent picture.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49Even music, which he genuinely liked,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53was acceptable only in small doses.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57One act at the opera was usually quite enough,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01unless the leading lady were very, very attractive.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06The Prince was deadly serious, however,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08about the new college's duty.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12"The object is inspiring, in every part of the empire,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16"those emotions of patriotism which national music
0:18:16 > 0:18:18"is calculated so powerfully to evoke."
0:18:19 > 0:18:23The Royal College of Music was born from a self-conscious attempt
0:18:23 > 0:18:27to re-establish an English national music.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29To go behind Handel,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32to reconnect English music with its glorious past,
0:18:32 > 0:18:37and to enable it to stand alongside its continental peers in Germany,
0:18:37 > 0:18:38Italy and France.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43There was even talk of an English Musical Renaissance,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46with the teachers and pupils of the Royal College of Music
0:18:46 > 0:18:50here in the van. The last time there'd been anything like it
0:18:50 > 0:18:53was in the 16th and 17th centuries,
0:18:53 > 0:18:58when the Chapel Royal was the focus of a thriving English musical life,
0:18:58 > 0:19:03and home to geniuses like Tallis, Byrd and Purcell.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15The connections between College and the Chapel
0:19:15 > 0:19:17went beyond their royal name.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21This piece exudes all the elaborate,
0:19:21 > 0:19:26polyphonic majesty of the golden age of Elizabethan church music.
0:19:26 > 0:19:33# Beati quorum vi
0:19:33 > 0:19:35# A integra est...#
0:19:35 > 0:19:38But it was written in the 1890s,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42by one of the Royal College's founding tutors,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Charles Villiers Stanford, who had spent formative years
0:19:46 > 0:19:49as both a chapel organist and a choir conductor.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09His music was inspired by the great religious revival of the era,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12and would, in turn, further fuel it.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17# Qui ambulant in lege... #
0:20:21 > 0:20:24In the 19th century, the Church was transformed,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27by taking the Protestant Church of England
0:20:27 > 0:20:30back to its Catholic roots.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33It was called the Oxford Movement.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Today, we'd probably call it "High Church".
0:20:36 > 0:20:42So, once more, churches were built in flamboyant colourful Gothic,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46like this. They were filled with stained glass and images.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51The clergy wore lavish vestments, elaborate rituals were reintroduced
0:20:51 > 0:20:56and church music and choirs were revived in all their splendour.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06One person, however, resisted these changes.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Victoria was the "low church" figure she'd been since childhood.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14She also remained largely withdrawn from public life,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18mourning her beloved Albert, decades after his death.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26However, if the so-called "Widow of Windsor"
0:21:26 > 0:21:29wouldn't go to the new religion and new music,
0:21:29 > 0:21:34it would nonetheless come to her, here, in St George's Chapel.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49In 1882, the post of Chief Organist here was taken up by Walter Parratt,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53who was also the inaugural Professor of Organ
0:21:53 > 0:21:55at the Royal College of Music.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Parratt's name isn't as well known today as some of his colleagues',
0:22:03 > 0:22:06because few of his compositions have endured.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10But this piece is still performed at least four times a year
0:22:10 > 0:22:12at St George's Windsor.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33While serving as a church organist in Huddersfield and Wigan,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Parratt experienced the full ceremonial majesty
0:22:36 > 0:22:38of the High Church movement.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Now, he was able to share that experience with Her Majesty.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48When Parratt arrived here, the royal musical diet
0:22:48 > 0:22:52was rather restricted. Mendelssohn's "Hear My Prayer",
0:22:52 > 0:22:55that beautiful cliche of high Victorian piety,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58was performed 18 times in one year,
0:22:58 > 0:23:03whilst the same anthem was also performed twice in one week.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05# O, for the wings
0:23:05 > 0:23:09# For the wings of a dove!
0:23:09 > 0:23:13# Far away, far away
0:23:13 > 0:23:16# Would I rove... #
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Parratt embarked on a vigorous programme of reform.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22He rebuilt the organ in the Private Chapel,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24whose bellows had been gnawed by rats.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28He retrained the choir and he greatly broadened its repertory.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Parratt added pieces by his colleagues
0:23:31 > 0:23:35at the Royal College of Music, like Parry and Stanford,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39together with masterpieces by earlier royal composers,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43like Tallis and Purcell, which had been neglected for centuries.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48Thanks to Parratt, St George's set new standards in music-making,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52exposing Victoria and her family to the breadth
0:23:52 > 0:23:56of the English Musical Renaissance and to its deep roots.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Parratt went on to become the Queen's private organist as well.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06He would sometimes be summoned to play for Victoria alone.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10After so many lonely years in mourning, music was a solace
0:24:10 > 0:24:14and a comfort, and she would listen for hours at a time.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17On Queen Victoria's 80th birthday,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Parratt arranged for her to be greeted by an aubade, or morning concert,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25performed on the terrace of Windsor Castle.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29It included works by Sir Arthur Sullivan, Parratt himself,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33and a certain up-and-coming fellow northerner, Elgar.
0:24:33 > 0:24:39In gratitude, Victoria sent him a gift - this splendid baton.
0:24:39 > 0:24:45It's diamond encrusted, it's got her monogram, VR, in enamel...
0:24:46 > 0:24:49..and surmounted by the Imperial Crown.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55And, just as the High Church approach to music
0:24:55 > 0:25:00revived royal worship, its love of ritual
0:25:00 > 0:25:03would help reinvent royal ceremony.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10# For every heart made glad by thee
0:25:10 > 0:25:15# With thankful praise is swelling... #
0:25:15 > 0:25:19This was the official hymn written for Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
0:25:19 > 0:25:23in 1897. The music's by Sir Arthur Sullivan.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32It was sung at every church across England and Wales to mark
0:25:32 > 0:25:37the occasion, and the words refer specifically to the Queen.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42# Tis thou hast dower'd our queenly throne
0:25:42 > 0:25:49# With sixty years of blessing... #
0:25:55 > 0:26:00The whole nation, singing as one, an anthem for the Queen.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04For the first time in two centuries, music was unapologetically
0:26:04 > 0:26:08proclaiming the quasi-divinity of monarchy.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16On June 22nd, St Paul's Cathedral, rarely used for royal occasions
0:26:16 > 0:26:20since the reign of Queen Anne nearly two centuries earlier,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24was the setting for what the Morning Post called...
0:26:24 > 0:26:27"The central ceremonial act of thanksgiving
0:26:27 > 0:26:32"and rejoicing over the longest and happiest reign in history."
0:26:43 > 0:26:46The Queen had processed through London
0:26:46 > 0:26:49in a deliberate revival of the great public pageants
0:26:49 > 0:26:51mounted by Tudor and Stuart monarchs,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55reinvented for the beginning of the age of the movie camera.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02When Victoria arrived at St Paul's, she didn't go inside.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05She didn't even get out of her carriage, as the effort,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08it has been decided, was simply too great.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Instead, the Queen sat there, as massed choirs,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15arranged on the steps here, sang to her.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Among the 500 singers were all the leading composers of the day,
0:27:24 > 0:27:29including Walter Parratt and Hubert Parry. Accompanying them
0:27:29 > 0:27:32were a full orchestra and two military bands.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42It's a long, long way from the decadence of George IV's
0:27:42 > 0:27:45private music parties at the Brighton Pavilion,
0:27:45 > 0:27:4770-odd years before.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52The Monarchy had not only won back popular support,
0:27:52 > 0:27:56it was now conducting itself in the most public way imaginable.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02One of her sniffy continental relatives was shocked
0:28:02 > 0:28:05that the Queen had given thanks to God in the street.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08In fact, if Victoria had had her way,
0:28:08 > 0:28:12the Jubilee wouldn't have been celebrated at all.
0:28:12 > 0:28:17Throughout her reign, the Queen objected to "ostentatious pomp"
0:28:17 > 0:28:22as "quite unsuitable to, and incompatible with, the present day".
0:28:23 > 0:28:28Only occasionally, and reluctantly, could Victoria be persuaded,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32by ministers and other advisers, of the value of public ceremony.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38Her people turned out in vast numbers again in 1901,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42when the Queen finally bade farewell to her Empire.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48For the first time in over 60 years, Britain had a new monarch,
0:28:48 > 0:28:50Edward VII.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00And for the first time in most people's memory,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02a coronation would be held.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06But what form should it take, in the 20th century?
0:29:06 > 0:29:07And what would it sound like?
0:29:09 > 0:29:12Edward's first instinct was to be radical.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14He even toyed with the idea
0:29:14 > 0:29:18of including a new-fangled motor carriage in the Coronation procession.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22But he was soon persuaded down a very different path.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Shrewd politicians had understood,
0:29:26 > 0:29:31and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations had confirmed, that
0:29:31 > 0:29:37Britain's fledgling democracy had a healthy appetite for royal ceremony.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39Churchmen too, thanks to the Oxford Movement,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43had rediscovered religious ritual and they were learning
0:29:43 > 0:29:46to perform it on an ever grander and more effective scale.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51The result was that Edward's Coronation was presented
0:29:51 > 0:29:55as the embodiment and the culmination of a thousand years
0:29:55 > 0:30:00of royal history, which suited Edward perfectly.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Since, unlike his mother, he really enjoyed public ceremony -
0:30:04 > 0:30:07and he adored dressing up.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15The music too sought to emphasise royal tradition.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18The only permanent musical fixture at previous coronations
0:30:18 > 0:30:21had been Handel's setting of "Zadok The Priest".
0:30:21 > 0:30:251902, however, established the historical canon
0:30:25 > 0:30:31of royal classics, which we now expect to hear at royal occasions.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34The musical conductor in chief was Frederick Bridge,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37yet another Royal College of Music figure.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41He included works by the greatest English composers
0:30:41 > 0:30:44from the previous five centuries.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47He revived, for instance, a 17th century Amen
0:30:47 > 0:30:50by Orlando Gibbons, which would go on to be sung
0:30:50 > 0:30:53at every coronation of the 20th century.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Alongside the greats of the past
0:31:36 > 0:31:39were new works by contemporary composers, amongst them
0:31:39 > 0:31:43Hubert Parry, the head of the Royal College of Music.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46He set the traditional text "I Was Glad".
0:31:47 > 0:31:52Jeremy, we're looking here at Parry's actual autographed score
0:31:52 > 0:31:54that was used in the Abbey itself.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56That's right, yes.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Now this is actually the piece of music that opens the whole
0:32:00 > 0:32:04Coronation service, covering the entry of the King and the Queen
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and their great procession, as they sweep up from the West doors.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Can you explain how this piece works?
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Well, the piece began with an orchestral introduction,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17which largely featured trumpets.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27And the idea of a fanfare really built into
0:32:27 > 0:32:29- the music at the beginning. - So in other words,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32the King is actually coming through the doors, there's no need to
0:32:32 > 0:32:34just have trumpeters going tootle-tootle-too!
0:32:34 > 0:32:37- He's written it.- He's written it. - And it's the ballet.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40It's an integral part of the piece.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44And every movement in the Coronation was to be orchestrated,
0:32:44 > 0:32:46was to be accompanied by music.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56The Westminster Abbey choir are down at the West door
0:32:56 > 0:32:58and they were given the first words, "I Was Glad".
0:33:01 > 0:33:05# I was glad
0:33:05 > 0:33:10- # Glad when they said unto me...- #
0:33:10 > 0:33:15- The choir then face the King and then turn.- Yes.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18- And begin moving up the Abbey, that way.- Indeed. Indeed.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21I think the idea is it is in a way a march, I think
0:33:21 > 0:33:23that Parry conceived it that way.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27And then he had this antiphony
0:33:27 > 0:33:30between the Abbey Choir on the one sense
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and this is answered by the general choir, or second choir.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53And it's building up to the first main climax, which,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57if we step over the page here, our tempo, largamente.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27Queen, followed by King, at this point are due to walk through
0:34:27 > 0:34:32the great choir screen of the Abbey and enter the choir itself,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35with, in front of them, the steps and the platform,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38the theatre, on which they're going to be crowned.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49We turn over, heavens, it all stops and it goes completely blank
0:34:49 > 0:34:54and we've got King's Scholars of Westminster School Vivat,
0:34:54 > 0:34:58long live Regina Alexandria, long live the Queen,
0:34:58 > 0:35:00and then later on long live the King.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11# Vivat Regina
0:35:11 > 0:35:16# Vivat Regina
0:35:19 > 0:35:22# Vivat! # Vivat!
0:35:22 > 0:35:24# Vivat!
0:35:26 > 0:35:29# Vivat... #
0:35:29 > 0:35:33This of course is the moment that goes right back to the first
0:35:33 > 0:35:35coronation in the Abbey, which is William the Conqueror,
0:35:35 > 0:35:40where the people are all supposed to cry out, "Long Live the King!"
0:35:40 > 0:35:42In Latin, "Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!"
0:35:43 > 0:35:47This again has been turned into ballet, into music theatre.
0:35:47 > 0:35:48Absolutely.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59And then we have this wonderful moment, where we move into
0:35:59 > 0:36:04a brand new key and this is undoubtedly to take us
0:36:04 > 0:36:06into another world.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09On the word dolce.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11Gently, yes, sweetly.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16And this is really to accompany this rather beautiful semi chorus,
0:36:16 > 0:36:22or solo quartet, "O Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem."
0:36:22 > 0:36:30# O pray for the peace of Jerusalem... #
0:36:39 > 0:36:42And this would have been a moment of great repose,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45as they moved through and you know, they prepared for prayer
0:36:45 > 0:36:48and so on, much reduced orchestration.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50- Imperial pomp and circumstance cuts off.- Yes.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53- We remember now we're going to consecrate.- Yes.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56- And also swear oaths.- Indeed.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09And then it moves back into the march at this point.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11It's actually marked, isn't it?
0:37:11 > 0:37:12Lento alla Marcia.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19And this is all really in preparation for the drama
0:37:19 > 0:37:21of the last chorus.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42He then takes us back to B flat for the last two or three
0:37:42 > 0:37:48pages of music and for this top B flat, this piercing B flat.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12It's hard to imagine a more majestic start to a religious service than
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Parry's music, which is why it's been revived at every coronation
0:38:16 > 0:38:20since, and is still sung in churches across Britain to this day.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25And yet Edward's crowning inspired
0:38:25 > 0:38:28another, still more iconic, composition.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33It wasn't, however, written for the Abbey.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42The Coronation was also celebrated by the Royal Opera House,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45where the new King was invited to be the guest of honour
0:38:45 > 0:38:50at a gala concert, with music written by a rather different Edward.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Edward Elgar was the son of a shopkeeper,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58a self-taught musician and a Roman Catholic.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03That made him an outsider compared to the Royal College of Music
0:39:03 > 0:39:08establishment, but Elgar understood public taste better than any
0:39:08 > 0:39:11native-born composer for centuries.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Elgar was championed at court by Walter Parratt,
0:39:16 > 0:39:21who suggested the revival of a musical tradition, the royal ode.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26This was a form at which Purcell and Handel had once excelled -
0:39:26 > 0:39:29though they never wrote anything on this scale.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49Rarely heard in its entirety today, Elgar's Coronation Ode was
0:39:49 > 0:39:54wildly popular when it was written and it's not hard to see why.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59A sort of miniature oratorio, in length, if not in forces,
0:39:59 > 0:40:04it's set for choir, soloists, and a huge orchestra.
0:40:07 > 0:40:14The mood veers wildly - bombastic, sentimental, bellicose, expansive.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19They're not very popular qualities today, but they pretty much sum up
0:40:19 > 0:40:24Edwardian England, and the new King who gave his name to the age.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27If you had a hefty dose of melancholy,
0:40:27 > 0:40:31also glimpsed in the music, you've got Elgar, too.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Elgar saw himself as a troubadour,
0:40:35 > 0:40:40giving voice to the spirit of the age, and above all giving it tunes.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58The court's pet poet, AC Benson,
0:40:58 > 0:41:02wrote most of the Ode's words before Elgar started composing.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04But there was one point
0:41:04 > 0:41:08where the music definitely came before the text.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20"Gosh, man, I've got a tune in my head,"
0:41:20 > 0:41:24Elgar wrote to his publisher at the beginning of 1901.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Elgar recognised immediately that he was on to a winner -
0:41:28 > 0:41:32"a damn fine popular tune that will knock 'em flat,"
0:41:32 > 0:41:33as he put it.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38He made it the trio of his Pomp And Circumstance March No 1,
0:41:38 > 0:41:43which, when it was premiered later in 1901, duly knocked 'em flat
0:41:43 > 0:41:49and received standing ovations and an unheard-of triple encore.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00But the tune was just too good not to use again.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04Later, Elgar liked to claim that it was King Edward
0:42:04 > 0:42:06who had come up with the idea.
0:42:06 > 0:42:07But, alas for the legend,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11this is impossible, as the two men hadn't yet met.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Instead it seems certain that it was Elgar himself who
0:42:15 > 0:42:18realised that the tune would make a magnificent finale
0:42:18 > 0:42:22to the Coronation Ode, and asked Benson to come up with words to match.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Elgar's music publishers immediately saw the commercial potential
0:42:45 > 0:42:47of this tune as a standalone song,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51but asked for new lyrics to give it still wider popular appeal.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07This is why Benson penned the most gloriously tub-thumpingly
0:43:07 > 0:43:09jingoistic of his verses.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19"Land Of Hope And Glory" rapidly became our alternative
0:43:19 > 0:43:24national anthem, and it remains such a definitive statement of British
0:43:24 > 0:43:28national identity, that few remember that it was created for a King.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35And it is not just the music of Edward VII's reign that has
0:43:35 > 0:43:39endured - so too has the elaborate ceremony and pageantry
0:43:39 > 0:43:41that he so much adored.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49WILD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:43:58 > 0:44:01George V's coronation, just nine years later,
0:44:01 > 0:44:06followed the same template, but with even more music.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11# We praise thee
0:44:11 > 0:44:15# We bless thee
0:44:15 > 0:44:22# We worship thee... #
0:44:22 > 0:44:26Charles Villiers Stanford wrote this "Gloria" for the occasion,
0:44:26 > 0:44:31which went on to be revived in 1937 and 1953.
0:44:40 > 0:44:41Many years later,
0:44:41 > 0:44:46George V's son still recalled the power of the music.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49"In that gorgeous, glittering assemblage,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52"listening to the fanfares of trumpets,
0:44:52 > 0:44:57"the rich tones of the organ and the voices of the choir, I became
0:44:57 > 0:45:02"aware as never before of the true majesty and solemnity of kingship."
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Yet George found his coronation "a terrible ordeal".
0:45:16 > 0:45:19He hated public appearance, almost as much
0:45:19 > 0:45:21as his grandmother, Queen Victoria.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26He even found that wearing the Crown gave him a splitting headache.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Yet more strikingly,
0:45:28 > 0:45:33he was the first really unmusical monarch for generations.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36He enjoyed catchy tunes from No, No, Nanette,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39but thought that a Covent Garden performance
0:45:39 > 0:45:41of Beethoven's "Fidelio" was
0:45:41 > 0:45:46"damn dull". And he drove the Royalist Elgar to paroxysms of rage
0:45:46 > 0:45:50at the hopelessly and irredeemably vulgar quality of his court.
0:45:52 > 0:45:58So why did he go through with five whole hours of musical pageantry?
0:45:59 > 0:46:02Out of a sense of duty.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06He believed that his people wanted him to.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10Duty was a sort of talisman
0:46:10 > 0:46:14which drew the sting of royal splendour
0:46:14 > 0:46:19and reconciled it to an ever greyer, more democratic age.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Ceremony ceased to be princely self-indulgence, as under
0:46:22 > 0:46:28George IV or Edward VII, and it became instead noble self-sacrifice,
0:46:28 > 0:46:32which bound the King in service to the nation, as unremittingly
0:46:32 > 0:46:37as the factory hand to his work, the agricultural labourer to his toil,
0:46:37 > 0:46:42even the millions who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War.
0:46:44 > 0:46:52# And did those feet In ancient time
0:46:52 > 0:46:59# Walk upon England's mountains green... #
0:46:59 > 0:47:02It was the anti-German feeling of the Great War which led
0:47:02 > 0:47:08George to rename the Hanoverian Monarchy as the House of Windsor
0:47:08 > 0:47:12in 1917, the year after Hubert Parry had written
0:47:12 > 0:47:16that great hymn to England - Jerusalem.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20# And did the countenance divine
0:47:20 > 0:47:26# Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
0:47:26 > 0:47:34# And was Jerusalem builded here
0:47:34 > 0:47:41# Among these dark Satanic Mills? #
0:47:41 > 0:47:44The composers of the English Musical Renaissance
0:47:44 > 0:47:48were now writing for a veritable religion of nationhood,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52of which the monarch was both high priest and sacred head.
0:47:52 > 0:47:59# Bring me my bow of burning gold
0:47:59 > 0:48:06# Bring me my arrows of desire
0:48:06 > 0:48:09# Bring me my spear
0:48:09 > 0:48:11# O clouds unfold... #
0:48:11 > 0:48:16The King recognised the moral value of Parry's song,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20and for the rest of his reign, heard it often, at commemorations
0:48:20 > 0:48:25of the Armistice, and also at vast celebrations of Empire.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41In 1935, for George V's Silver Jubilee command performance
0:48:41 > 0:48:43held in the Royal Albert Hall
0:48:43 > 0:48:48and broadcast across the empire via the BBC.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05"His Majesty, having in mind the values of the pursuit of music,
0:49:05 > 0:49:10"has desired to encourage national music-making in as comprehensive and
0:49:10 > 0:49:12"representative a way as possible."
0:49:25 > 0:49:29The BBC, founded in 1922, would, from this point on,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33play a major role in promoting both the music and the Monarchy
0:49:33 > 0:49:37of Britain, broadcasting the Monarch's annual Christmas Speech,
0:49:37 > 0:49:42as well as a daily diet of British composers, such as Elgar.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47And in 1937, it broadcast the Coronation of the new King,
0:49:47 > 0:49:48George VI.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55For the first time,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58many millions of people could follow the ceremony live.
0:50:00 > 0:50:07'The Archbishop of Canterbury presents King George to the people.'
0:50:07 > 0:50:13'Here I present unto you King George, your undoubted King.'
0:50:13 > 0:50:17It was actually the BBC who commissioned one of the pieces
0:50:17 > 0:50:19which has endured from the occasion -
0:50:19 > 0:50:23William Walton's march, Crown Imperial.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32Walton, like Elgar, was an outsider, an Oldham lad whose
0:50:32 > 0:50:36precocious musical talent had won him a scholarship to Oxford.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Now he was writing for the biggest audience of his career,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44and his music rose to the occasion.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02It's another one of these big tunes. It has lots of these big tunes.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06He looked back at the tradition, of the early part of the 20th century,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08to Elgar, to Parry and others.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20It's also sometimes, perhaps cruelly, described
0:51:20 > 0:51:21as film music, isn't it?
0:51:21 > 0:51:27And maybe the Coronation of '37, now being thought of filmically,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31- rather than operatically. - Yes, I think
0:51:31 > 0:51:34there's certainly a visual element to "Crown Imperial".
0:51:34 > 0:51:38One of the things that I think is so distinctively Walton is
0:51:38 > 0:51:40this rhythmic vibrancy, this energy,
0:51:40 > 0:51:44you know it's Walton immediately because of that rhythmic dynamism.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55The monarchy had clearly adapted to the world of mass media
0:51:55 > 0:51:58and, indeed, mass democracy.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02And it had done so, in part and paradoxically,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05by embracing the tradition, and the music, of the past.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19When George was succeeded by his daughter,
0:52:19 > 0:52:23everyone from the popular press to Winston Churchill,
0:52:23 > 0:52:27hailed the beginning of a new Elizabethan age.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35The Queen's 16th-century namesake
0:52:35 > 0:52:38had resided over a golden age of music,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42so the 1953 Coronation was the perfect opportunity
0:52:42 > 0:52:47to show the deep roots and enduring quality of British music.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51All the recent additions to the canon, such as
0:52:51 > 0:52:54Stanford and Parry, made their reappearance,
0:52:54 > 0:52:59along with new work by Walton again, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03At this stage, the grand old man of English music,
0:53:03 > 0:53:05Vaughan Williams had spent the 20th century
0:53:05 > 0:53:09applying what he had learned at the Royal College of Music.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14Vaughan Williams was firmly on the left politically, and he was
0:53:14 > 0:53:19an assiduous collector of popular music in the form of folk songs.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21So, coming from this kind of background,
0:53:21 > 0:53:25he thought it a great weakness that previous coronations hadn't
0:53:25 > 0:53:28included a hymn for congregational singing.
0:53:29 > 0:53:34But, when he suggested including one in 1953, he split opinion.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38The Musical Advisory Committee was not at all convinced,
0:53:38 > 0:53:41however, the Archbishop of Canterbury was enthusiastic
0:53:41 > 0:53:45and the Queen herself thought well of the idea.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47This was decisive,
0:53:47 > 0:53:52and Vaughan Williams got his way with this democratic musical reform.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05The result was heard at the moment
0:54:05 > 0:54:09when the Queen processed from her throne to the altar.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27It's a piece that has been sung in the Church of England
0:54:27 > 0:54:30since the age of the first Queen Elizabeth,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32the so-called "Old Hundredth".
0:54:34 > 0:54:35The Scot, William Keith,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39wrote this translation of Psalm 100 in the 1550s.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45400 years later, his words were still being sung to the tune
0:54:45 > 0:54:48that it was published with then.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Some of the later verses are embellished by Vaughan Williams.
0:55:10 > 0:55:16Here, he writes a trumpet descant which adds an extra regal dignity
0:55:16 > 0:55:20as well as echoing the fanfares traditional at such occasions.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51Vaughan Williams' own compositions often paid homage
0:55:51 > 0:55:53to the great Elizabethan composers.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57In his Abbey arrangement of the "Old Hundredth", he paid tribute to
0:55:57 > 0:56:02another, John Dowland, who was the author of this beautiful harmony.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19I think there was that sense of historical link
0:56:19 > 0:56:20and embracing of something to say,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25"Look, this is what we are, this is us, we are musical nation."
0:56:35 > 0:56:3860 years have passed since the Coronation of 1953,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42and already it seems a world away.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48So much has changed in the intervening decades.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Elizabeth, of course, still reigns over us to this day.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57But though music is still used to celebrate royal occasions,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00it no longer really serves to sanctify royalty.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04And yet, as I've argued throughout this series,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08it was the idea that monarchy has a sacred role and power
0:57:08 > 0:57:10which inspired the greatest of our music.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15In the reigns of Tudors and Stuarts
0:57:15 > 0:57:16and through, extraordinarily,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19to the first decades of the 20th century,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22it was sacred monarchy which people fought over
0:57:22 > 0:57:25and prayed for and composed for.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27But, do any of us really believe
0:57:27 > 0:57:31that monarchy still has such divine power?
0:57:33 > 0:57:37Now, the sacred monarchy survives only in its music.
0:57:37 > 0:57:43But there at least it remains eternally, magnificently, alive.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50It echoes from these ancient stones, awakens memories,
0:57:50 > 0:57:53and, through the power of music,
0:57:53 > 0:57:57makes them live again!
0:57:57 > 0:58:00MUSIC: Zadok The Priest, by Handel
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd