Among the music for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, two works had never been heard before: a setting of the Psalm 42 by Judith Weir and the anthem Who Shall Separate Us ? by James McMillan. How did the choice fall on these two musicians?
The request made to Judith Weir is logical and formal. The 68-year-old composer is Master of the Queen’s Music since 2014. She replaced Peter Maxwell Davies in this position attached to the crown. His setting to music of the first seven verses of Psalm 42 bears the title of his first words: “ Like As the Hart “. the Psalm 42 experienced in the history of music its most glorious setting under the pen of Felix Mendelssohn, under the title Wie der Hirsch schreit (Like the deer bellows).
For the creative musical ‘headliner’ of the ceremony, the councilors of Westminster Abbey and protocol had a choice, for the times were auspicious. Several British composers enjoy an immense international aura: Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and James MacMillan.
An obvious choice
Thomas Adès was offside. He built his career on Powder her Facean opera with a strong sexual connotation based on the saga of the sulphurous Duchess of Argyll which hit the headlines in the 1950s. The story was also the subject of a television miniseries in 2021: A Very British Scandal.
The prestige of Benjamin, 62, and MacMillan, 63, is roughly equal, but the work of MacMillan, a Roman Catholic Scot, is much more associated with the sacred and religion. MacMillan rose to prominence in 1992 with Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, a percussion concerto written for Evelyn Glennie, performed by her all over the world. Since the turn of the century, MacMillan has been balancing orchestral works (his 3e Symphony“ Silence ”, was admirably recorded by Chandos) and religious compositions which place it clearly in a post-Britten vein, for example mass for choir and organ (2000). evoking massit should be noted that MacMillan has been associated with Westminster for a long time since the first recording was made for Hyperion by the Westminster Cathedral Choir.
In his compositions, MacMillan fits into a long tradition of liturgical music that goes back to Renaissance models, as shown by his motet O bone Jesu (2002) or the Miserere (2009). He does not seek, like John Tavener (1944-2013), to generate mystical atmospheres to the detriment of form.
James MacMillan’s recent big gamble has been the composition of a Christmas oratorio 1h45 for soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra. Written in 2019, it was finally premiered at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in January 2021. The composer combined it with “assorted poems, liturgical texts and scriptures drawn from various sources, all relating to the birth of Jesus”.
MacMillan has glorious predecessors. For the Queen’s coronation, the composer mainly involved had been William Walton with Orb and Scepterwhile Ralph Vaughan Williams had arranged his Old Hundredth Psalm. The coronation foreseeing a longer term, on the eve of D-Day, a vocal bouquet of ten vocal and choral compositions had been created, commissioned by the Arts Council of Great Britain to honor the new monarch. Arthur Bliss, Arnold Bax, Michael Tippett, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, Alan Rawsthorne and Edmund Rubbra had been the ten chosen. The notable absentee, Benjamin Britten, split himself downright from an opera: Gloriana.