The music before the Service will begin with a selection of organ pieces: Fantasia in G (Piéce d’orgue 5) by Johann Sebastian Bach, followed by Veni Creator Spiritus by the Master of The Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies; Prelude on St. Columba Op. 28 by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Sonata for Organ Op. 28 (Allegro maestoso and Allegretto) by Edward Elgar.
Following this will be seven orchestral pieces:
Serenade for Strings in E minor Op. 20 (Allegro piacevole, Larghetto and Allegretto) by Edward Elgar
Courtly Dance V: Galliard from Gloriana (Symphonic Suite) Op. 53a no. 7 by Benjamin Britten
Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Farewell to Stromness by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring by Frederick Delius
Touch Her Soft Lips and Part from Henry V Suite by William Walton
Romance for String Orchestra Op. 11 by Gerald Finzi
Three of these pieces - Farewell to Stromness, Touch Her Soft Lips and Part and Romance for String Orchestra Op. 11 - were played at the Service of Prayer and Dedication for The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2005.
The final piece of music before the Service begins continues the broadly British theme: Canzona from Organ Sonata in C minor by Percy Whitlock.
Processional Music
The Service will begin with a Fanfare by The State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry to mark the arrival of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. The Fanfare will be followed by three Processionals. For the Procession of The Queen, Prince William and Miss Middleton have chosen March from The Birds by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. Prelude on Rhosymedre by Ralph Vaughan Williams will accompany the Procession of the Clergy, and was chosen for its Welsh echoes. The Couple have selected I was Glad, also by Parry, for the Procession of the Bride.
Hymns
Prince William and Miss Middleton have chosen three hymns for the Service: Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer, words by William Williams, translated by Peter Williams and others, and music by John Hughes. The second will be Love Divine All Love Excelling, words by Charles Wesley and music by William Penfro Rowlands. The third will be Jerusalem, by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, words by William Blake. All three hymns have been chosen because they are favourites of the Couple.
The Anthem and Motet
The Anthem, This is the day which the Lord hath made, has been composed specially for the occasion by John Rutter. It was commissioned by Westminster Abbey as a wedding present for Prince William and Miss Middleton and will be performed by both the Choir of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal Choir. Mr. Rutter is a British composer, conductor, editor and arranger who specialises in choral music.
The Anthem will be followed by the Motet Ubi caritas by Paul Mealor, a Welsh composer, who is currently Reader in Composition at The University of Aberdeen.
Mr. Mealor’s composing studio is on the Isle of Anglesey, where Prince William and Miss Middleton live. This version of Ubi caritas was written on Anglesey and premiered at the University of St. Andrews in November 2010.
The National Anthem will be sung immediately before the Signing of the Registers.
The Signing of the Registers and the Recessional
During the Signing of the Registers, the choirs will sing Blest pair of Sirens, words by John Milton from At a Solemn Musick, music by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.
Following the Signing, there will be a Fanfare by the Fanfare Team from the Central Band of the Royal Air Force. The Fanfare, called Valiant and Brave, after the motto of No. 22 Squadron (Search and Rescue Force) was specially composed for this Service by Wing Commander Duncan Stubbs, Principal Director of Music in the Royal Air Force.
The Recessional, for the Procession of the Bride and Bridegroom, will be Crown Imperial by William Walton. Toccata from Symphonie V by Charles-Marie Widor and Pomp and Circumstance March no. 5 by Edward Elgar will follow the Service
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Monday, 25 April 2011
"Give us more hymns we know!"
Annual meeting at church concluded with the usual request for "more hymns we know".
I do wonder if any analysis has been done on the approximate hours of research any incumbent or volunteer organist would need to conduct, thoroughly to understand which songs would be known to any given congregation? And how frequently that would need to be updated in order to remain current. It seems to me one would have to be the Professor Higgins of of the Hymnal in order to read the educational and social history and the Christian journey that informs the songs any individual will know.
We have a very very small group of children but even so they attend three different schools, which are all teaching them a different selection of worship songs. We are a very broad church and have welcomed defectors from Anglo-Catholic churches locally as well as those estranged from methodist, reformed and pentecostal churches. Biological age is a lesser determinate of the music one will be familiar with than the age and environment in which one was converted.... And even if we could come up with a list of well known songs I'm not sure I agree with the principle that we should stick with it and pass up the chance of learning unfamiliar liturgy and music contained in hymns of the past and contemporary worship songs.
I do wonder if any analysis has been done on the approximate hours of research any incumbent or volunteer organist would need to conduct, thoroughly to understand which songs would be known to any given congregation? And how frequently that would need to be updated in order to remain current. It seems to me one would have to be the Professor Higgins of of the Hymnal in order to read the educational and social history and the Christian journey that informs the songs any individual will know.
We have a very very small group of children but even so they attend three different schools, which are all teaching them a different selection of worship songs. We are a very broad church and have welcomed defectors from Anglo-Catholic churches locally as well as those estranged from methodist, reformed and pentecostal churches. Biological age is a lesser determinate of the music one will be familiar with than the age and environment in which one was converted.... And even if we could come up with a list of well known songs I'm not sure I agree with the principle that we should stick with it and pass up the chance of learning unfamiliar liturgy and music contained in hymns of the past and contemporary worship songs.
Friday, 22 April 2011
If a tree falls in the forest....
..and no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? *
Musing on this question at the meeting point of physics and philosophy, while playing background piano music for an audience as it gathered and settled before a conference meeting. I had spent some considerable time selecting and rehearsing a programme for this gig. I wasn't being paid for it. And while it was a pleasure to get to know the remarkably expressive Roland instrument at the venue, for more than half the set the chatter was so loud I quite literally could not hear myself play. This is a dangerous situation for a pianist, because of course your performance is being amplified into the hall and sometimes even the bar and the loo, and without any auditory feedback loop you feel powerless to control the sounds you are making.
I wish this were an isolated incident but it isn't. Increasingly, even in churches, the organ prelude and voluntary - often carefully chosen to prepare a spirit of reflection and prayer, or to celebrate a setting of the scripture heard during the service - are drowned out by the chatter of the congregation, the bells and the coffee cups.
I think we are all too groomed to expect background music, adding an constant emotional undertow to radio and TV documentaries on every subject. Some of this music is excellent - I loved Will Gregory's compositions for "Spy on the Ice" for example. But all too much of it is formulaic, predictable and lazy. As well as interfering with the understanding of speech programmes for the hearing impaired, the ubiquity of background music may just be training audiences to see almost all music as background. This makes it unnecessary to listen to it properly, or even to hear it at all. And I think this is dangerous for more than just the performers.
*Correctly the answer to the question in the title is no, in that sound is a trick our brain does with the vibrations on our ear drums.
Musing on this question at the meeting point of physics and philosophy, while playing background piano music for an audience as it gathered and settled before a conference meeting. I had spent some considerable time selecting and rehearsing a programme for this gig. I wasn't being paid for it. And while it was a pleasure to get to know the remarkably expressive Roland instrument at the venue, for more than half the set the chatter was so loud I quite literally could not hear myself play. This is a dangerous situation for a pianist, because of course your performance is being amplified into the hall and sometimes even the bar and the loo, and without any auditory feedback loop you feel powerless to control the sounds you are making.
I wish this were an isolated incident but it isn't. Increasingly, even in churches, the organ prelude and voluntary - often carefully chosen to prepare a spirit of reflection and prayer, or to celebrate a setting of the scripture heard during the service - are drowned out by the chatter of the congregation, the bells and the coffee cups.
I think we are all too groomed to expect background music, adding an constant emotional undertow to radio and TV documentaries on every subject. Some of this music is excellent - I loved Will Gregory's compositions for "Spy on the Ice" for example. But all too much of it is formulaic, predictable and lazy. As well as interfering with the understanding of speech programmes for the hearing impaired, the ubiquity of background music may just be training audiences to see almost all music as background. This makes it unnecessary to listen to it properly, or even to hear it at all. And I think this is dangerous for more than just the performers.
*Correctly the answer to the question in the title is no, in that sound is a trick our brain does with the vibrations on our ear drums.
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