With King Charles’ Coronation just round the corner, I thought I would discuss some of the music that will appear during the Coronation service. During the last three days, every year group at school will have witnessed Miss Boon’s amazing assembly talking about the history of the Coronation, finishing with a rousing and highly enthusiastic performance of Handel’s Zadok the Priest by staff choir. Zadok is one of the most popular coronation pieces, and indeed, it is absolutely glorious when the choir comes in with a wall of sound after the long crescendo in the strings. However, there are other pieces that we are expecting to hear tomorrow that will hark to Coronation tradition and new works that pay homage to the late Queen and Prince.

His Majesty, the King has commissioned twelve new pieces of music for his Coronation: six orchestral, five choral and one organ piece, all from world-renowned British composers. We will hear a new coronation anthem by Andrew Lloyd Webber, a coronation march from Patrick Doyle, as well as new works by Judith Weir (Master of the King’s Music), Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Roderick Williams, and Debbie Wiseman.

Mealor’s Coronation Kyrie will be the first Welsh language work to be performed at a Coronation, and Wiseman’s work, Alleluia (O Clap your Hand) and Alleluia (O Sing Praises) will feature a gospel choir, another Coronation first. In tribute to his late father, King Charles has also requested the Byzantine Chant Ensemble to perform Greek Orthodox music during the service. Two well-known hymns will also, feature, Christ is made the sure foundation, and Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, which was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth II.

Music by much-loved English composers, Byrd, Handel, Elgar, Walton, Parry, Vaughan Williams, and Sir Henry Walford Davies, has traditionally featured at coronations over the last four centuries, and will of course be included in the service.

The day after the coronation, on Sunday, a concert will be held on Windsor Castle’s East Lawn and will be featuring a 74-piece orchestra. Alongside the orchestral musicians, the concert will feature a specially created Coronation Choir that will include singers from “refugee choirs, NHS choirs, LGBTQ+ singing groups and deaf signing choirs”, according to a palace statement.

Maki Gajic Murata, Composer in Residence