1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:05,520 # I vow to thee my country 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:09,520 # All earthly things above... # 3 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,800 I Vow To Thee My Country is one of our greatest national songs, 4 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:18,200 heard regularly at royal events throughout the 20th century. 5 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,080 # The service of my love... # 6 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:25,440 It was sung at St Paul's Cathedral for the Silver Jubilee of George V. 7 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:31,400 Lady Diana Spencer said that it was one of her favourite hymns 8 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:35,040 from childhood and requested it be sung here again, 9 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,840 at her wedding to Prince Charles. 10 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,880 16 years later, it was performed at her funeral. 11 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:46,080 # The love that never falters 12 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,280 # The love that pays the price... # 13 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:53,720 The music, by Gustav Holst, marries an imperial sweep and grandeur, 14 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,320 with that kind of catch-in-the-throat quality 15 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,720 so characteristic of the best of English music, 16 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,640 with its all-pervasive nostalgia. 17 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:09,520 # And there's another country... # 18 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:13,960 The words fuse a love of country with the love of God. 19 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:17,680 Qualities which, as I have explored in the course of this series, 20 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,920 have been the inspiration for much of the best British music. 21 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,320 Most remarkably of all, though it seems so much part 22 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:29,040 of the national fabric, I Vow To Thee My Country 23 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,280 dates from only from 1921. 24 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:37,600 But then, Elgar's Hope And Glory is only 20 years older, 25 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:43,600 while the Royal House of Windsor itself was only created in 1917. 26 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,920 In other words, the 20th century is not a dying fall 27 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:53,000 in the history of either the British monarchy or its music. 28 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,720 Instead, it's a period of triumphant revival in which crown and nation 29 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:06,480 find a new unity, a new language, and above all a new music. 30 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:11,000 # ..And all her paths are peace! # 31 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:22,800 Early in the 19th century, 32 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:26,120 Britain's monarchy was set on a very different course. 33 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:29,280 British music was in the doldrums. 34 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,640 The Brighton Pavilion is a vision of the path both might have gone down. 35 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:37,720 It was built by the Prince Regent, who became King George IV. 36 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,760 Gluttonous, lascivious and extravagant, 37 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:44,280 George destroyed public respect for the monarchy. 38 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,440 At the heart of his personal pleasure palace, however, 39 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,440 we can see another side of his character. 40 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,720 This is his music room. 41 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:02,440 Sometimes the King's fine singing voice would be accompanied 42 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,440 by this magnificent organ. 43 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,560 At other times, he played the cello, rather well. 44 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,200 And most frequently, he listened to his private military band, 45 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:13,400 described as the best in Europe. 46 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,560 George's most famous musical guest at the Royal Pavilion 47 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:21,560 was Giacomo Rossini, the Italian opera composer. 48 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:25,920 And the two men, equally vulgar in their way, got on famously. 49 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:29,680 George brought Rossini here, into the music room 50 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,120 and introduced him to members of his band. 51 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:33,840 The band, in Rossini's honour, 52 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,720 played Rossini's own overture to The Thieving Magpie. 53 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,640 Snobbish aristocratic members of the house party 54 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,680 were disapproving of Rossini's appearance, describing him as... 55 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:54,000 "a fat, sallow squab of a man". And they were outraged 56 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,400 at his easy familiarity with the King. 57 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,720 He even dared to sit next to him! 58 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:04,000 But George was entranced and, on Rossini's subsequent visits 59 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,560 to London, the two sang duets together. 60 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:15,360 It was, however, a world away from the systematic royal patronage 61 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,120 which produced the best English music of the past. 62 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:23,000 The sacred works of the likes of Tallis, Byrd and Gibbons. 63 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,560 Rossini wrote fashionable light entertainments, 64 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,960 and made only fleeting visits to these shores. 65 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:34,120 The last truly great English musician, Henry Purcell, 66 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,800 had died over a century before. 67 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:42,640 However well-drilled George's band, no new British music of note 68 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,480 emanated from his palaces, or his reign. 69 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,480 Music at the Royal Pavilion had become a private passion 70 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:56,480 of a royal sybarite. 71 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:00,440 Much like the monarchy, in fact, which, decadent, mismanaged, 72 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:02,680 and without visible point or purpose, 73 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:06,720 seemed to be heading for irrelevance, or worse. 74 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,920 In France, the Revolutionaries had cut off the King's head, 75 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:11,560 and abolished the monarchy. 76 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,000 In America, former British colonial subjects were engaged 77 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,080 in the novel experiment of a kingless republic. 78 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:21,280 Whilst here in Britain, there were riots, conspiracies 79 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:24,200 and clamorous calls for reform. 80 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:26,120 If it were to survive, 81 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:29,560 the monarchy would have to do better than George IV. 82 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:31,920 But what would the model of a modern, 83 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:34,560 cleaned-up monarchy look like? 84 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:36,800 And what would its music be? 85 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:43,680 These questions would be settled 86 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,280 in the reign of George's niece, Victoria. 87 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:51,800 And the monarchy's saviour was the man she married, Prince Albert. 88 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,120 MUSIC: "Lebewohl" by Prince Albert. 89 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:10,680 This is one of Albert's own compositions, 90 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,280 played in the White Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace 91 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:17,920 on a piano Victoria and Albert bought together. 92 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:35,320 Albert gave this music to Victoria as an engagement gift, 93 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:39,360 in a collection of his work called "Lieder und Romanzen", 94 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:41,960 songs and ballads. 95 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:44,880 Victoria and Albert would make music together, 96 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,520 sometimes taking it in turns to sing to each other, 97 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:51,000 sometimes singing duets. 98 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,960 Theirs was a passionate relationship and sharing these moments 99 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,320 of intense music-making only deepened it. 100 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:07,280 David Owen Norris is a pianist and composer who has studied 101 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:09,720 the Prince Consort's music. 102 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:13,520 With a perfect dying fall! 103 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,320 This splendid instrument is perfect for those sympathetic little duets! 104 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,680 Well, and these accompaniments, like the accompaniments in the song 105 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:24,160 that we've just heard, when you need to have this sort of... 106 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:25,880 The lilt. 107 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:30,120 And you can lay down a sort of a bed of sound 108 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:31,640 for the singer to relax upon. 109 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:37,360 And the decorations. This is very much Albertine, isn't it? 110 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:40,040 Well, it's ridiculous, isn't it? 111 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:42,800 Well, it's frankly hideous, like most of the things they bought! 112 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:44,960 Well, it's this androgynous figure in the middle, 113 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,760 it's very difficult to keep your eyes off it while you're playing. 114 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:50,120 But they loved this decoration so much that, actually, 115 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,800 they took it off an earlier piano and reapplied it. 116 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,560 Albert, of course, isn't only a consumer of music, 117 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:01,880 he's not only a performer of music, he is actually a composer. 118 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,320 How serious? I mean, how good? 119 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:07,920 Well, good, actually. And I think he took it very seriously, 120 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,240 and he was interested in the new innovations 121 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:14,400 that particularly German early romantic music was doing. 122 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:17,920 And he was able to do some of the remarkable harmonic things. 123 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,520 There's a lovely surprise here, which he waits to spring, 124 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:22,400 on a new page, which is rather lovely. 125 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,480 But we've had an E flat chord... HE PLAYS THE CHORD 126 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,280 ..and then it suddenly goes... PLAYS HIGHER NOTE 127 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:30,000 Wow! And the way that he gets out of that... 128 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:31,160 Very Mendelssohnian. 129 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:32,520 Well, very romantic. Yes. 130 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:34,640 And he's very keen on doing that. 131 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:36,760 And, in general, I think he was very good. 132 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:41,840 The other song that I've got here, Der Ungeliebten, The Unbeloved, 133 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:45,280 has a marvellous introduction which conjures up that sort of, 134 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:48,160 oh, I don't know, Weber opera sort of mood, in a way. 135 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:51,040 HE PLAYS "DER UNGELIEBTEN" 136 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:57,880 Lonely and deserted. 137 00:08:57,880 --> 00:08:58,960 Exactly. 138 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:01,560 Lonely and deserted and remote, in both the musical sense, 139 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:02,800 and the emotional, yes. 140 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:04,920 And he could do that, he could do that. 141 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,480 HE CONTINUES TO PLAY 142 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:12,400 SHE SINGS 143 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:18,520 Albert himself was modest about his musical abilities. 144 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,640 "I consider that persons in our position of life 145 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:23,840 "can never be distinguished artists. 146 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:27,000 "We have too many other duties to perform. 147 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,000 "Our business is not so much to create, 148 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,640 "as to learn to understand and appreciate the work of others." 149 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:46,040 His insight led him to champion composers from Bach to Schubert. 150 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:50,520 And he shared his excellent taste first with his besotted queen, 151 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:52,200 and eventually, the nation. 152 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,720 Albert's taste in music was more serious 153 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:12,160 than anything Victoria had been used to hitherto. 154 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:15,680 But then, Albert was a serious man. 155 00:10:15,680 --> 00:10:19,280 There's a yearning, not only in music, 156 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,000 but in the rest of his life, public and private, 157 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:27,000 for something deeper, more earnest, even more sacred 158 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:33,000 than the light, bright drawing room entertainment of Victoria's youth. 159 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:37,080 Albert brought a new sense of moral purpose 160 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:38,880 and drive to the British monarchy. 161 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,360 Another of Albert's enthusiasms, which Victoria duly learned 162 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,520 to share, was for the music of Felix Mendelssohn. 163 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:56,080 In 1842, the composer was invited for dinner at Buckingham Palace, 164 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:58,160 the first of several visits. 165 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:00,200 Mendelssohn described it as... 166 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:03,680 "The only nice, comfortable house in England." 167 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:10,480 All three would make music together, Albert pulling the stops out 168 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:12,920 of the Buckingham Palace organ for Felix. 169 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:19,080 Victoria singing Mendelssohn's songs, much to his approval. 170 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:23,880 "Really quite faultlessly, with much feeling and expression." 171 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:32,920 As a gift, Mendelssohn rearranged some of his famous 172 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:35,040 "Songs without Words" especially 173 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:38,000 for the royal couple, so's that both could play 174 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,520 side by side at the piano. 175 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:45,000 Victoria was given the easier part. 176 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:49,280 Such domestic pleasures could be viewed as not so far removed 177 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:51,520 from the lives of middle class families, 178 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:55,720 who also gathered round their parlour pianos at this time. 179 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:01,360 The monarchy had regained at least some bourgeois respectability 180 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:03,040 by the mid-19th century. 181 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,880 And the royal couple's moral rectitude was demonstrated again 182 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,480 when they attended the musical sensation of 1847. 183 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:16,920 # Thank the Lord! 184 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:18,560 # Thank the Lord! 185 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:20,280 # Thank the Lord! 186 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,520 # Thank the Lord... # 187 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:28,000 This is from one of Mendelssohn's English-language oratorios. 188 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,480 # Thanks be to God! 189 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:32,880 # Thanks be to God! 190 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:35,600 # Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty land! 191 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:38,640 # The stormy billows are high 192 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:41,840 # Their fury is mighty! # 193 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:44,800 The Queen and the Prince Consort were deeply impressed 194 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,200 when they attended one of the very first performances. 195 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:50,520 Afterwards, Albert sent the composer 196 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:53,720 a handwritten note of congratulation. 197 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:56,880 "To the noble artist who, like a second Elijah, 198 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:01,440 "has freed our ear from the chaos of mindless jingling of tones! 199 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,040 "In grateful recollection, Albert." 200 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:13,480 Elijah marked out Mendelssohn as the natural successor to Handel, 201 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:18,160 whose English language oratorios remained wildly popular in Britain. 202 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:21,840 The Hanoverian monarchy had found another German composer 203 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:25,040 who spoke of Britain's spiritual destiny. 204 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,840 "Elijah" would go on to be performed with fervent regularity 205 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:35,000 at cathedrals, where huge choirs, orchestra and crowds of spectators 206 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:36,920 gathered in the ancient naves. 207 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:42,200 The Victorian church was rebuilding its musical infrastructure, 208 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,160 which, in time, would serve the monarchy as well. 209 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:51,920 # ..The waters gather They rush along! 210 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:55,000 # The waters gather, they rush along! 211 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:58,280 # They rush along! 212 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:04,000 # Thanks be to God! 213 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,280 # He laveth the thirsty land! 214 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,160 # Thanks be to God! 215 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:11,160 # Thanks be to God... # 216 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:14,600 But the first pioneers of Victorian musical greatness 217 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,400 didn't live to see their visions realised. 218 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,640 Barely a year after Elijah's premiere, Mendelssohn died, 219 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:29,040 aged just 38. Among the causes were overwork and nervous exhaustion, 220 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:30,640 as they were for Albert, 221 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:35,640 who also died shockingly young at 42, in 1861. 222 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:41,240 # I am the resurrection 223 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:47,280 # And the life saith the Lord... # 224 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:50,640 His loss was felt keenly, not just by Queen Victoria, 225 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:53,920 but also, in time, by the nation. 226 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:57,200 When it came to music, he'd clearly left unfinished business, 227 00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:00,320 as a closer examination of his monument, 228 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:02,640 here in Hyde Park, indicates. 229 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:12,080 The frieze of the Albert Memorial shows, in sculptural form, 230 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,280 the Valhalla of cultural achievement 231 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:16,920 as it was seen by the high Victorians. 232 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:19,840 Now, Brits are hardly under-represented. 233 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:24,320 After all, Albert was the great patron of the arts and sciences 234 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:25,960 in Victorian Britain. 235 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:28,160 But, when it comes to British composers, 236 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:33,200 as the dress alone tells you, they belong to the 16th, the 17th, 237 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:37,280 just to the 18th and with a single 19th-century figure, 238 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:41,160 the justly forgotten Sir Henry Rowley Bishop. 239 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:44,320 Forgotten, that is, apart from the wonderfully schmaltzy tune 240 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,280 that he wrote to the even more schmaltzy words 241 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:49,520 of "Home, Sweet, Home". 242 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,720 But, with Albert dead, and Victoria having begun 243 00:15:56,720 --> 00:16:00,560 her long withdrawal from public life to mourn him, 244 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:04,520 who would lead a campaign to improve this sorry state of affairs? 245 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:09,600 The answer turned out, still, 246 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:13,200 to be Albert, now from beyond the grave. 247 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:17,800 His ideas survived him, as did the profits from the Great Exhibition, 248 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,120 which he'd championed in 1851. 249 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:26,720 This financial legacy was spent in ways 250 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,400 that changed the course of British music and culture. 251 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:33,200 Some of it helped build the Albert Hall, 252 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,000 state-of-the-art when it opened, 253 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,360 and still central to Britain's musical life. 254 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:42,320 And just behind it rose an even more important institution, 255 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,760 one that gave Britain a new musical voice 256 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:49,360 and trained great British composers, from Gustav Holst, 257 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:51,560 to Benjamin Britten and beyond. 258 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:57,000 The Royal College of Music was the direct result of fundraising 259 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,600 by Victoria's children, including the future Edward VII, 260 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,560 then known as Albert, Prince of Wales. 261 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,280 In his opening speech at the Royal College of Music, 262 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,480 Edward quoted approvingly the dictum that... 263 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,360 "Music is the only sensual pleasure 264 00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:20,160 "to which excess cannot be injurious." 265 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,480 Quite how anybody, including his wife, 266 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,560 kept a straight face is beyond me, 267 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:28,920 for Edward was an expert in excess. 268 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:34,080 His sexual appetites led to his being called Edward the Caresser, 269 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:39,240 whilst his gluttony and corpulence got him the nickname of "Tum-tum". 270 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:43,280 With intellectual pursuits, however, it was quite another matter. 271 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:47,000 He never picked up a book, and he never bought a decent picture. 272 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,440 Even music, which he genuinely liked, 273 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,960 was acceptable only in small doses. 274 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:56,640 One act at the opera was usually quite enough, 275 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,840 unless the leading lady were very, very attractive. 276 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:05,560 The Prince was deadly serious, however, 277 00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:08,440 about the new college's duty. 278 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,200 "The object is inspiring, in every part of the empire, 279 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,520 "those emotions of patriotism which national music 280 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,120 "is calculated so powerfully to evoke." 281 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:23,040 The Royal College of Music was born from a self-conscious attempt 282 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:26,800 to re-establish an English national music. 283 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:28,560 To go behind Handel, 284 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:32,040 to reconnect English music with its glorious past, 285 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:36,800 and to enable it to stand alongside its continental peers in Germany, 286 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:38,280 Italy and France. 287 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:42,720 There was even talk of an English Musical Renaissance, 288 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:46,280 with the teachers and pupils of the Royal College of Music 289 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:50,320 here in the van. The last time there'd been anything like it 290 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,800 was in the 16th and 17th centuries, 291 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:57,960 when the Chapel Royal was the focus of a thriving English musical life, 292 00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:02,640 and home to geniuses like Tallis, Byrd and Purcell. 293 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:14,760 The connections between College and the Chapel 294 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,000 went beyond their royal name. 295 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,240 This piece exudes all the elaborate, 296 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:26,240 polyphonic majesty of the golden age of Elizabethan church music. 297 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:33,440 # Beati quorum vi 298 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:35,440 # A integra est...# 299 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,320 But it was written in the 1890s, 300 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,600 by one of the Royal College's founding tutors, 301 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:45,760 Charles Villiers Stanford, who had spent formative years 302 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,080 as both a chapel organist and a choir conductor. 303 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,600 His music was inspired by the great religious revival of the era, 304 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:11,560 and would, in turn, further fuel it. 305 00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:16,520 # Qui ambulant in lege... # 306 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:24,000 In the 19th century, the Church was transformed, 307 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000 by taking the Protestant Church of England 308 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,000 back to its Catholic roots. 309 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,600 It was called the Oxford Movement. 310 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,920 Today, we'd probably call it "High Church". 311 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:41,520 So, once more, churches were built in flamboyant colourful Gothic, 312 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:45,960 like this. They were filled with stained glass and images. 313 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,480 The clergy wore lavish vestments, elaborate rituals were reintroduced 314 00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:56,040 and church music and choirs were revived in all their splendour. 315 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,920 One person, however, resisted these changes. 316 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,600 Victoria was the "low church" figure she'd been since childhood. 317 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:13,560 She also remained largely withdrawn from public life, 318 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:18,360 mourning her beloved Albert, decades after his death. 319 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,080 However, if the so-called "Widow of Windsor" 320 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,080 wouldn't go to the new religion and new music, 321 00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:33,520 it would nonetheless come to her, here, in St George's Chapel. 322 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:49,280 In 1882, the post of Chief Organist here was taken up by Walter Parratt, 323 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:52,600 who was also the inaugural Professor of Organ 324 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:54,600 at the Royal College of Music. 325 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:03,160 Parratt's name isn't as well known today as some of his colleagues', 326 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:05,800 because few of his compositions have endured. 327 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,880 But this piece is still performed at least four times a year 328 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:11,920 at St George's Windsor. 329 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:32,520 While serving as a church organist in Huddersfield and Wigan, 330 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:36,120 Parratt experienced the full ceremonial majesty 331 00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,240 of the High Church movement. 332 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,400 Now, he was able to share that experience with Her Majesty. 333 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,920 When Parratt arrived here, the royal musical diet 334 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:52,040 was rather restricted. Mendelssohn's "Hear My Prayer", 335 00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,440 that beautiful cliche of high Victorian piety, 336 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,320 was performed 18 times in one year, 337 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:02,480 whilst the same anthem was also performed twice in one week. 338 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:05,200 # O, for the wings 339 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:08,880 # For the wings of a dove! 340 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,680 # Far away, far away 341 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,800 # Would I rove... # 342 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,280 Parratt embarked on a vigorous programme of reform. 343 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,880 He rebuilt the organ in the Private Chapel, 344 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,160 whose bellows had been gnawed by rats. 345 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:28,120 He retrained the choir and he greatly broadened its repertory. 346 00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:31,080 Parratt added pieces by his colleagues 347 00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,720 at the Royal College of Music, like Parry and Stanford, 348 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:38,600 together with masterpieces by earlier royal composers, 349 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:43,440 like Tallis and Purcell, which had been neglected for centuries. 350 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,960 Thanks to Parratt, St George's set new standards in music-making, 351 00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,480 exposing Victoria and her family to the breadth 352 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:55,600 of the English Musical Renaissance and to its deep roots. 353 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,800 Parratt went on to become the Queen's private organist as well. 354 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,920 He would sometimes be summoned to play for Victoria alone. 355 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,800 After so many lonely years in mourning, music was a solace 356 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,760 and a comfort, and she would listen for hours at a time. 357 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:16,960 On Queen Victoria's 80th birthday, 358 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:22,120 Parratt arranged for her to be greeted by an aubade, or morning concert, 359 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:24,560 performed on the terrace of Windsor Castle. 360 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:28,640 It included works by Sir Arthur Sullivan, Parratt himself, 361 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:33,080 and a certain up-and-coming fellow northerner, Elgar. 362 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:39,160 In gratitude, Victoria sent him a gift - this splendid baton. 363 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:45,040 It's diamond encrusted, it's got her monogram, VR, in enamel... 364 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:48,560 ..and surmounted by the Imperial Crown. 365 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,440 And, just as the High Church approach to music 366 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,840 revived royal worship, its love of ritual 367 00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:02,720 would help reinvent royal ceremony. 368 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:09,920 # For every heart made glad by thee 369 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:14,680 # With thankful praise is swelling... # 370 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:19,280 This was the official hymn written for Victoria's Diamond Jubilee 371 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,440 in 1897. The music's by Sir Arthur Sullivan. 372 00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:31,920 It was sung at every church across England and Wales to mark 373 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:36,520 the occasion, and the words refer specifically to the Queen. 374 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,880 # Tis thou hast dower'd our queenly throne 375 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:48,520 # With sixty years of blessing... # 376 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:59,520 The whole nation, singing as one, an anthem for the Queen. 377 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:04,360 For the first time in two centuries, music was unapologetically 378 00:26:04,360 --> 00:26:07,840 proclaiming the quasi-divinity of monarchy. 379 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:16,080 On June 22nd, St Paul's Cathedral, rarely used for royal occasions 380 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,960 since the reign of Queen Anne nearly two centuries earlier, 381 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:23,720 was the setting for what the Morning Post called... 382 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,960 "The central ceremonial act of thanksgiving 383 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:32,040 "and rejoicing over the longest and happiest reign in history." 384 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:45,560 The Queen had processed through London 385 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,520 in a deliberate revival of the great public pageants 386 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,080 mounted by Tudor and Stuart monarchs, 387 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,440 reinvented for the beginning of the age of the movie camera. 388 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:02,320 When Victoria arrived at St Paul's, she didn't go inside. 389 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,160 She didn't even get out of her carriage, as the effort, 390 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,360 it has been decided, was simply too great. 391 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:11,720 Instead, the Queen sat there, as massed choirs, 392 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,800 arranged on the steps here, sang to her. 393 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:24,000 Among the 500 singers were all the leading composers of the day, 394 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,520 including Walter Parratt and Hubert Parry. Accompanying them 395 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,240 were a full orchestra and two military bands. 396 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:41,720 It's a long, long way from the decadence of George IV's 397 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,720 private music parties at the Brighton Pavilion, 398 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:46,800 70-odd years before. 399 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,720 The Monarchy had not only won back popular support, 400 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,920 it was now conducting itself in the most public way imaginable. 401 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,680 One of her sniffy continental relatives was shocked 402 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,320 that the Queen had given thanks to God in the street. 403 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:07,960 In fact, if Victoria had had her way, 404 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,640 the Jubilee wouldn't have been celebrated at all. 405 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:17,000 Throughout her reign, the Queen objected to "ostentatious pomp" 406 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,720 as "quite unsuitable to, and incompatible with, the present day". 407 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:27,600 Only occasionally, and reluctantly, could Victoria be persuaded, 408 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:31,800 by ministers and other advisers, of the value of public ceremony. 409 00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:38,040 Her people turned out in vast numbers again in 1901, 410 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,600 when the Queen finally bade farewell to her Empire. 411 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:48,120 For the first time in over 60 years, Britain had a new monarch, 412 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:49,960 Edward VII. 413 00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,840 And for the first time in most people's memory, 414 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,320 a coronation would be held. 415 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,480 But what form should it take, in the 20th century? 416 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,360 And what would it sound like? 417 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,920 Edward's first instinct was to be radical. 418 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,640 He even toyed with the idea 419 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:18,200 of including a new-fangled motor carriage in the Coronation procession. 420 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:22,280 But he was soon persuaded down a very different path. 421 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,120 Shrewd politicians had understood, 422 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:30,920 and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations had confirmed, that 423 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:36,720 Britain's fledgling democracy had a healthy appetite for royal ceremony. 424 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,320 Churchmen too, thanks to the Oxford Movement, 425 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,720 had rediscovered religious ritual and they were learning 426 00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,200 to perform it on an ever grander and more effective scale. 427 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,320 The result was that Edward's Coronation was presented 428 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,840 as the embodiment and the culmination of a thousand years 429 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:59,600 of royal history, which suited Edward perfectly. 430 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,760 Since, unlike his mother, he really enjoyed public ceremony - 431 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,600 and he adored dressing up. 432 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,520 The music too sought to emphasise royal tradition. 433 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,960 The only permanent musical fixture at previous coronations 434 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:21,560 had been Handel's setting of "Zadok The Priest". 435 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,440 1902, however, established the historical canon 436 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:30,840 of royal classics, which we now expect to hear at royal occasions. 437 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,120 The musical conductor in chief was Frederick Bridge, 438 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,440 yet another Royal College of Music figure. 439 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,440 He included works by the greatest English composers 440 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,680 from the previous five centuries. 441 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,960 He revived, for instance, a 17th century Amen 442 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,360 by Orlando Gibbons, which would go on to be sung 443 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,880 at every coronation of the 20th century. 444 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:35,480 Alongside the greats of the past 445 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,320 were new works by contemporary composers, amongst them 446 00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,600 Hubert Parry, the head of the Royal College of Music. 447 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:46,200 He set the traditional text "I Was Glad". 448 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,800 Jeremy, we're looking here at Parry's actual autographed score 449 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,160 that was used in the Abbey itself. 450 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:55,760 That's right, yes. 451 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,920 Now this is actually the piece of music that opens the whole 452 00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:03,560 Coronation service, covering the entry of the King and the Queen 453 00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:07,360 and their great procession, as they sweep up from the West doors. 454 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,600 Can you explain how this piece works? 455 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:13,800 Well, the piece began with an orchestral introduction, 456 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,760 which largely featured trumpets. 457 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:26,800 And the idea of a fanfare really built into 458 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:28,920 the music at the beginning. So in other words, 459 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,800 the King is actually coming through the doors, there's no need to 460 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:34,000 just have trumpeters going tootle-tootle-too! 461 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,000 He's written it. He's written it. And it's the ballet. 462 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,760 It's an integral part of the piece. 463 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:44,360 And every movement in the Coronation was to be orchestrated, 464 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,400 was to be accompanied by music. 465 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,560 The Westminster Abbey choir are down at the West door 466 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,320 and they were given the first words, "I Was Glad". 467 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:05,360 # I was glad 468 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:10,400 # Glad when they said unto me... # 469 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,720 The choir then face the King and then turn. Yes. 470 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:17,800 And begin moving up the Abbey, that way. Indeed. Indeed. 471 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,160 I think the idea is it is in a way a march, I think 472 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,040 that Parry conceived it that way. 473 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:26,640 And then he had this antiphony 474 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,480 between the Abbey Choir on the one sense 475 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:33,760 and this is answered by the general choir, or second choir. 476 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:53,320 And it's building up to the first main climax, which, 477 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,960 if we step over the page here, our tempo, largamente. 478 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:27,440 Queen, followed by King, at this point are due to walk through 479 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:32,360 the great choir screen of the Abbey and enter the choir itself, 480 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,400 with, in front of them, the steps and the platform, 481 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,240 the theatre, on which they're going to be crowned. 482 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:49,080 We turn over, heavens, it all stops and it goes completely blank 483 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:53,480 and we've got King's Scholars of Westminster School Vivat, 484 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:58,040 long live Regina Alexandria, long live the Queen, 485 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,120 and then later on long live the King. 486 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:15,880 # Vivat Regina 487 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,760 # Vivat! # Vivat! 488 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:23,680 # Vivat! 489 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,480 # Vivat... # 490 00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:32,600 This of course is the moment that goes right back to the first 491 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,400 coronation in the Abbey, which is William the Conqueror, 492 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,600 where the people are all supposed to cry out, "Long Live the King!" 493 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:41,880 In Latin, "Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!" 494 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,640 This again has been turned into ballet, into music theatre. 495 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:48,360 Absolutely. 496 00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,080 And then we have this wonderful moment, where we move into 497 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:04,240 a brand new key and this is undoubtedly to take us 498 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:05,760 into another world. 499 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,720 On the word dolce. 500 00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:11,080 Gently, yes, sweetly. 501 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:16,200 And this is really to accompany this rather beautiful semi chorus, 502 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:21,600 or solo quartet, "O Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem." 503 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:30,040 # O pray for the peace of Jerusalem... # 504 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,040 And this would have been a moment of great repose, 505 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,440 as they moved through and you know, they prepared for prayer 506 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,560 and so on, much reduced orchestration. 507 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,440 Imperial pomp and circumstance cuts off. Yes. 508 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:53,200 We remember now we're going to consecrate. Yes. 509 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,440 And also swear oaths. Indeed. 510 00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:09,240 And then it moves back into the march at this point. 511 00:37:09,240 --> 00:37:11,320 It's actually marked, isn't it? 512 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:12,400 Lento alla Marcia. 513 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,320 And this is all really in preparation for the drama 514 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:20,920 of the last chorus. 515 00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:42,360 He then takes us back to B flat for the last two or three 516 00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:47,720 pages of music and for this top B flat, this piercing B flat. 517 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,520 It's hard to imagine a more majestic start to a religious service than 518 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,840 Parry's music, which is why it's been revived at every coronation 519 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,040 since, and is still sung in churches across Britain to this day. 520 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,200 And yet Edward's crowning inspired 521 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:28,040 another, still more iconic, composition. 522 00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:33,160 It wasn't, however, written for the Abbey. 523 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:41,480 The Coronation was also celebrated by the Royal Opera House, 524 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,640 where the new King was invited to be the guest of honour 525 00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:49,720 at a gala concert, with music written by a rather different Edward. 526 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,880 Edward Elgar was the son of a shopkeeper, 527 00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:58,200 a self-taught musician and a Roman Catholic. 528 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:02,920 That made him an outsider compared to the Royal College of Music 529 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:08,280 establishment, but Elgar understood public taste better than any 530 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:10,880 native-born composer for centuries. 531 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,840 Elgar was championed at court by Walter Parratt, 532 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:21,400 who suggested the revival of a musical tradition, the royal ode. 533 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:25,680 This was a form at which Purcell and Handel had once excelled - 534 00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,680 though they never wrote anything on this scale. 535 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:49,000 Rarely heard in its entirety today, Elgar's Coronation Ode was 536 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:54,240 wildly popular when it was written and it's not hard to see why. 537 00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:58,640 A sort of miniature oratorio, in length, if not in forces, 538 00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:03,680 it's set for choir, soloists, and a huge orchestra. 539 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:14,320 The mood veers wildly - bombastic, sentimental, bellicose, expansive. 540 00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:19,240 They're not very popular qualities today, but they pretty much sum up 541 00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:23,800 Edwardian England, and the new King who gave his name to the age. 542 00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:27,440 If you had a hefty dose of melancholy, 543 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,560 also glimpsed in the music, you've got Elgar, too. 544 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:34,600 Elgar saw himself as a troubadour, 545 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:39,800 giving voice to the spirit of the age, and above all giving it tunes. 546 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,400 The court's pet poet, AC Benson, 547 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:02,320 wrote most of the Ode's words before Elgar started composing. 548 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:04,000 But there was one point 549 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,960 where the music definitely came before the text. 550 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:20,320 "Gosh, man, I've got a tune in my head," 551 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:24,120 Elgar wrote to his publisher at the beginning of 1901. 552 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:28,000 Elgar recognised immediately that he was on to a winner - 553 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:31,840 "a damn fine popular tune that will knock 'em flat," 554 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:33,240 as he put it. 555 00:41:33,240 --> 00:41:37,920 He made it the trio of his Pomp And Circumstance March No 1, 556 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:43,320 which, when it was premiered later in 1901, duly knocked 'em flat 557 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:48,480 and received standing ovations and an unheard-of triple encore. 558 00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:00,040 But the tune was just too good not to use again. 559 00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:03,560 Later, Elgar liked to claim that it was King Edward 560 00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:05,600 who had come up with the idea. 561 00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:06,880 But, alas for the legend, 562 00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:10,720 this is impossible, as the two men hadn't yet met. 563 00:42:10,720 --> 00:42:14,520 Instead it seems certain that it was Elgar himself who 564 00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:18,000 realised that the tune would make a magnificent finale 565 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:22,400 to the Coronation Ode, and asked Benson to come up with words to match. 566 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,880 Elgar's music publishers immediately saw the commercial potential 567 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,040 of this tune as a standalone song, 568 00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:50,760 but asked for new lyrics to give it still wider popular appeal. 569 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,720 This is why Benson penned the most gloriously tub-thumpingly 570 00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:08,760 jingoistic of his verses. 571 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:19,360 "Land Of Hope And Glory" rapidly became our alternative 572 00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:24,200 national anthem, and it remains such a definitive statement of British 573 00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,160 national identity, that few remember that it was created for a King. 574 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:35,480 And it is not just the music of Edward VII's reign that has 575 00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,360 endured - so too has the elaborate ceremony and pageantry 576 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:40,920 that he so much adored. 577 00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:49,280 WILD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 578 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:01,200 George V's coronation, just nine years later, 579 00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:06,040 followed the same template, but with even more music. 580 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,200 # We praise thee 581 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:14,600 # We bless thee 582 00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:22,400 # We worship thee... # 583 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:26,080 Charles Villiers Stanford wrote this "Gloria" for the occasion, 584 00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:31,120 which went on to be revived in 1937 and 1953. 585 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:40,920 Many years later, 586 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:46,240 George V's son still recalled the power of the music. 587 00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:49,200 "In that gorgeous, glittering assemblage, 588 00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:51,680 "listening to the fanfares of trumpets, 589 00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:56,760 "the rich tones of the organ and the voices of the choir, I became 590 00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:02,400 "aware as never before of the true majesty and solemnity of kingship." 591 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:16,040 Yet George found his coronation "a terrible ordeal". 592 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:18,840 He hated public appearance, almost as much 593 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:21,440 as his grandmother, Queen Victoria. 594 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:25,640 He even found that wearing the Crown gave him a splitting headache. 595 00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:27,720 Yet more strikingly, 596 00:45:27,720 --> 00:45:32,560 he was the first really unmusical monarch for generations. 597 00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:35,560 He enjoyed catchy tunes from No, No, Nanette, 598 00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,680 but thought that a Covent Garden performance 599 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:40,840 of Beethoven's "Fidelio" was 600 00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:45,880 "damn dull". And he drove the Royalist Elgar to paroxysms of rage 601 00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:50,280 at the hopelessly and irredeemably vulgar quality of his court. 602 00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:57,640 So why did he go through with five whole hours of musical pageantry? 603 00:45:59,240 --> 00:46:01,480 Out of a sense of duty. 604 00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:05,840 He believed that his people wanted him to. 605 00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:10,040 Duty was a sort of talisman 606 00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:13,480 which drew the sting of royal splendour 607 00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:18,600 and reconciled it to an ever greyer, more democratic age. 608 00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:22,400 Ceremony ceased to be princely self-indulgence, as under 609 00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:28,040 George IV or Edward VII, and it became instead noble self-sacrifice, 610 00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:32,040 which bound the King in service to the nation, as unremittingly 611 00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:37,320 as the factory hand to his work, the agricultural labourer to his toil, 612 00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:41,560 even the millions who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War. 613 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:51,560 # And did those feet In ancient time 614 00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:58,720 # Walk upon England's mountains green... # 615 00:46:58,720 --> 00:47:02,320 It was the anti-German feeling of the Great War which led 616 00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:07,920 George to rename the Hanoverian Monarchy as the House of Windsor 617 00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:12,440 in 1917, the year after Hubert Parry had written 618 00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:15,680 that great hymn to England - Jerusalem. 619 00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:20,000 # And did the countenance divine 620 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:26,360 # Shine forth upon our clouded hills? 621 00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:33,600 # And was Jerusalem builded here 622 00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:40,960 # Among these dark Satanic Mills? # 623 00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:43,960 The composers of the English Musical Renaissance 624 00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:47,520 were now writing for a veritable religion of nationhood, 625 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:52,320 of which the monarch was both high priest and sacred head. 626 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:59,400 # Bring me my bow of burning gold 627 00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:05,720 # Bring me my arrows of desire 628 00:48:05,720 --> 00:48:08,520 # Bring me my spear 629 00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:11,240 # O clouds unfold... # 630 00:48:11,240 --> 00:48:15,520 The King recognised the moral value of Parry's song, 631 00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:19,520 and for the rest of his reign, heard it often, at commemorations 632 00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:24,520 of the Armistice, and also at vast celebrations of Empire. 633 00:48:35,240 --> 00:48:40,600 In 1935, for George V's Silver Jubilee command performance 634 00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:43,240 held in the Royal Albert Hall 635 00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:47,440 and broadcast across the empire via the BBC. 636 00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:05,320 "His Majesty, having in mind the values of the pursuit of music, 637 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:10,240 "has desired to encourage national music-making in as comprehensive and 638 00:49:10,240 --> 00:49:11,840 "representative a way as possible." 639 00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:29,040 The BBC, founded in 1922, would, from this point on, 640 00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:32,960 play a major role in promoting both the music and the Monarchy 641 00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:37,040 of Britain, broadcasting the Monarch's annual Christmas Speech, 642 00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:41,480 as well as a daily diet of British composers, such as Elgar. 643 00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:46,880 And in 1937, it broadcast the Coronation of the new King, 644 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:48,320 George VI. 645 00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:54,480 For the first time, 646 00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,880 many millions of people could follow the ceremony live. 647 00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:07,240 'The Archbishop of Canterbury presents King George to the people.' 648 00:50:07,240 --> 00:50:12,680 'Here I present unto you King George, your undoubted King.' 649 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:17,040 It was actually the BBC who commissioned one of the pieces 650 00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:19,240 which has endured from the occasion - 651 00:50:19,240 --> 00:50:22,480 William Walton's march, Crown Imperial. 652 00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:32,120 Walton, like Elgar, was an outsider, an Oldham lad whose 653 00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:35,920 precocious musical talent had won him a scholarship to Oxford. 654 00:50:37,240 --> 00:50:40,480 Now he was writing for the biggest audience of his career, 655 00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:43,600 and his music rose to the occasion. 656 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:01,840 It's another one of these big tunes. It has lots of these big tunes. 657 00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:06,440 He looked back at the tradition, of the early part of the 20th century, 658 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:08,480 to Elgar, to Parry and others. 659 00:51:15,720 --> 00:51:19,440 It's also sometimes, perhaps cruelly, described 660 00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:21,320 as film music, isn't it? 661 00:51:21,320 --> 00:51:26,840 And maybe the Coronation of '37, now being thought of filmically, 662 00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:30,600 rather than operatically. Yes, I think 663 00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:34,120 there's certainly a visual element to "Crown Imperial". 664 00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,640 One of the things that I think is so distinctively Walton is 665 00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:39,720 this rhythmic vibrancy, this energy, 666 00:51:39,720 --> 00:51:43,600 you know it's Walton immediately because of that rhythmic dynamism. 667 00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:55,080 The monarchy had clearly adapted to the world of mass media 668 00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:58,400 and, indeed, mass democracy. 669 00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:01,760 And it had done so, in part and paradoxically, 670 00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:05,240 by embracing the tradition, and the music, of the past. 671 00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:19,200 When George was succeeded by his daughter, 672 00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,640 everyone from the popular press to Winston Churchill, 673 00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:27,200 hailed the beginning of a new Elizabethan age. 674 00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,160 The Queen's 16th-century namesake 675 00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:38,120 had resided over a golden age of music, 676 00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:42,040 so the 1953 Coronation was the perfect opportunity 677 00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:46,640 to show the deep roots and enduring quality of British music. 678 00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:51,160 All the recent additions to the canon, such as 679 00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,000 Stanford and Parry, made their reappearance, 680 00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:58,640 along with new work by Walton again, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. 681 00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:02,800 At this stage, the grand old man of English music, 682 00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:05,400 Vaughan Williams had spent the 20th century 683 00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:09,080 applying what he had learned at the Royal College of Music. 684 00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:14,040 Vaughan Williams was firmly on the left politically, and he was 685 00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:18,560 an assiduous collector of popular music in the form of folk songs. 686 00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:20,960 So, coming from this kind of background, 687 00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:25,040 he thought it a great weakness that previous coronations hadn't 688 00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:27,480 included a hymn for congregational singing. 689 00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:34,040 But, when he suggested including one in 1953, he split opinion. 690 00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:37,560 The Musical Advisory Committee was not at all convinced, 691 00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:41,440 however, the Archbishop of Canterbury was enthusiastic 692 00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:45,240 and the Queen herself thought well of the idea. 693 00:53:45,240 --> 00:53:46,960 This was decisive, 694 00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:51,520 and Vaughan Williams got his way with this democratic musical reform. 695 00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:05,320 The result was heard at the moment 696 00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:08,960 when the Queen processed from her throne to the altar. 697 00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:27,160 It's a piece that has been sung in the Church of England 698 00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:29,760 since the age of the first Queen Elizabeth, 699 00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:31,720 the so-called "Old Hundredth". 700 00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:35,080 The Scot, William Keith, 701 00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:39,320 wrote this translation of Psalm 100 in the 1550s. 702 00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:45,320 400 years later, his words were still being sung to the tune 703 00:54:45,320 --> 00:54:47,720 that it was published with then. 704 00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:09,280 Some of the later verses are embellished by Vaughan Williams. 705 00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:15,840 Here, he writes a trumpet descant which adds an extra regal dignity 706 00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:19,520 as well as echoing the fanfares traditional at such occasions. 707 00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:50,640 Vaughan Williams' own compositions often paid homage 708 00:55:50,640 --> 00:55:53,240 to the great Elizabethan composers. 709 00:55:53,240 --> 00:55:56,960 In his Abbey arrangement of the "Old Hundredth", he paid tribute to 710 00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:01,600 another, John Dowland, who was the author of this beautiful harmony. 711 00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:18,680 I think there was that sense of historical link 712 00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:20,400 and embracing of something to say, 713 00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:24,640 "Look, this is what we are, this is us, we are musical nation." 714 00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:38,280 60 years have passed since the Coronation of 1953, 715 00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:42,320 and already it seems a world away. 716 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:47,840 So much has changed in the intervening decades. 717 00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:51,000 Elizabeth, of course, still reigns over us to this day. 718 00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:56,960 But though music is still used to celebrate royal occasions, 719 00:56:56,960 --> 00:56:59,920 it no longer really serves to sanctify royalty. 720 00:57:01,120 --> 00:57:03,880 And yet, as I've argued throughout this series, 721 00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:07,560 it was the idea that monarchy has a sacred role and power 722 00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:10,360 which inspired the greatest of our music. 723 00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:14,840 In the reigns of Tudors and Stuarts 724 00:57:14,840 --> 00:57:16,360 and through, extraordinarily, 725 00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:18,760 to the first decades of the 20th century, 726 00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:21,800 it was sacred monarchy which people fought over 727 00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:24,640 and prayed for and composed for. 728 00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:27,320 But, do any of us really believe 729 00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:31,120 that monarchy still has such divine power? 730 00:57:32,880 --> 00:57:37,360 Now, the sacred monarchy survives only in its music. 731 00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:43,080 But there at least it remains eternally, magnificently, alive. 732 00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:50,120 It echoes from these ancient stones, awakens memories, 733 00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:53,160 and, through the power of music, 734 00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:57,400 makes them live again! 735 00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,160 MUSIC: Zadok The Priest, by Handel 736 00:58:32,600 --> 00:58:00,160 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd