EXPENSIVE CORONATIONS

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 7

EXPENSIVE CORONATIONS

It may be of interest to point out at this time that the most expensive Coronatjona on record was that of the present Czar of Russia. Upwards of £3,000,000 was spent by the Government alone, and fully another £1.000.000 by the public authorities of various Russian towns. The representatives of other Powers vied! with each other in lavish outlays, and, counting the sums spent by other persons* the Coronation of Nicholas 11. cannot have cost much less than £5,000,000. The Coronation of Czar Nicholas I. wa» "' also 3 very expensive affair. The tbea Duke of Devonshire was the British representative, and he spent fully £30,000 of hia own money in connection with it. The Coronation of George IV. was the most expensive in our annals, £25,000 being spent on the Coronation robe and £46,000 on tha crown.

LONDON, June 27. Through the crfurteoos invitation ef Si* Frederick Bridge, organist and choirmaster of Westminster Abbey, I "had ths privilege of being present at the final rehearsal, by the associated choirs of the oboral | music to he used at the Coroaation ser- ! vice. It war held in the great Hall of tiie Church House at Westminster. Sir ff. Bridge, of course, conducted generally, acting in consultation with Sir Walter Parratt, Master of tbe King's Music and j Organist of St. George's Chapel, Windsor ' Castle, who occasionally offered a fewhints. Mr Alcock, Assistant Organist of Westminster Abbey, presided at the organ. Sir Geo. Martin, of St. Paul's Cathedral, Mr " Chester " Bridge, Sir C. Viliiers Stanford, Sir Hubert Parry, and other distinguished musicians were present. | With reference to the choice of music, the following announcement was officially made:—'"The music to be sung at the Coronation of their Majesties King Edward VTI. and Queen Alexandra, in the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, !on June 26th, 1902, embraces a period of five centuries of English Church music, from sixteenth century Tallis to composers of the present day. The seventeenth century is represented by the honoured cames of Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell, . the eighteenth by -Handel-with the most imposing of his masterly Coronation anthems —and the nineteenth by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, John Stainer, and Charles Viliiers Stanford. Following the precedent of former Coronations, anthems have been specially composed by contemporary musicians—on the present occasion by Sir Frederick Br.dgp, Director of the Music at the Coronation, Sir Hubert Pany, and Sir Walter Parratt, Master of the Kings Musick." In addition, the following note has been published as to the programme:—"The processional anthem, 'I was glad when they said unto mc, We will go into the House of the Lcrd,' contributed by Sir Hubert Parry, is laid out upon lines ct>udktoned by the ceremony. Its opening strains are sung by the choir of Westminster Abbey, but the entire choral forca is subsequently employed in antiphcnal response to the smaller choir. _J.idr.-ay in the anthem a break is mad# in orciir that the boys of Westminster School may exercise their ancient, privilege of greet iiig their Majesties with ' Vivat Regie. Alexandra !" and 'Vivat Rex Edwardus'' lhea» vociferous exclamations have bi-tin porated by the composer into his anthem in a somewhat novel manner, a* the Westminster boys, stationed aloft, sing their enthusiastic manifestations of loyalty, «nd are answered by the "full-voiced choir below ' in mighty unison. "The celebrated Litany of Thomas Tail's (or Tallys, as he himself wrote his name! was in all probability composed soon aftei the issue of the second Prayer Book ai Edward VL in 1552. It is not knowi whether Tallis wrote the music in foul parts or in five; but the five-part version, from Boyee's Cathedral Music, sung ot this occasion. This time-honoured sped, men of old Church music possesses a beauty which cannot fade, and, a* the late Canon Jebb has so well observed, ' Nothing can be more deeply religious than the effect of this sublime composition.' "The words of the Introit, sung at the beginning of the Communion Service— '0 hearken thou unto the voice of my calling, my King, and my God*—have been adapted by Sir Frederick Bridge to an extract from the late Sir Artirar Sullivan's oratoria, * The Light of the World,' the' concluding bars of the chorus, 'Men and Brethren,' in that work. "The service in E by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, from which the Creed is taken, raised a storm cf indignation when it first appeared to the year 1845. This was not only das to the new idiom of the music, tut" in a large measure to the remarkable Prefacereally a manifesto—issued with the Service. In this he refers to tbe ' unvarying syllabic accentuation' and tho 'monotonous undescriptive expression' of the centrapuutal music of the dry-as-dust school. compared -with the more natural styl«» f>f poetic treatment, of which latter, it is hardly necessary to say Wesley v:ns so sonsummate a master. " The Veni Creator Spiritus, ' Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire," is ,6uns to tha Ancient Plain-song—the voices in unison. with organ accompaniment—a treatment admirably befitting its old-wcrld character ' Zadok the Priest' forms one cf that nob 19 chain of four anthems composed; by Handel for the Coronation of King Uer-rgc 11. and Queen Caroline; moreover, this majestic work has been sung at every succeeding ceremony—five times in all. The anthem is performed at that part of the ceremonial wh?re the King is anointed. It has been suggested that the introductory symphony (twenty-two bars lc.ng), was designed by Handel to represent the procession of the twelve tribes to the Coronation of Solomon, but this borders upon the fanciful. " The Comfortare, specially "composed by Sir Walter Parratt, is a setting of the words: 'Be strong and play ths man: keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways.' These words, selected from an ancient Coronation service, will be sunpi, accompanied by brass instruments, at that culminating point in the ceremony when the King is crowned—s most appropriate place for the composition of the Master of 'the Kind's Musick. The Te Denm in the key of B flat, by Professor Viliiers Stanford, belongs to the seventies of the last century, at. which tim* its composer held tbe of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, wherein the composition was first opening phrase is one of the ancient fiainHong intonation* to the great AJabrosiac hymn. ""The words of Sir Frederick Bridge's Homage Anthem have been selected with peculiar appropriateness. It was at this part of the service that in former times the ' General Pardon' wns read by the Lord Chancellor, attended by Garter and the Usher of the Black Rod. at the four sides of the Theatre, hence the words, ' That thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth!' come with particular point. In the last section a march, played by the orchestra, is accompanied by the chorus. The Homage of the whole world is, as it were, signified in the words, ' Beheld these fhall come from afar; and, 10, these from tiie north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.' " The name of Henry Purcell is one that i* rightly honoured in English music. He was organist of Westminster Abbey from 1680 to 1695, and moreover, he composed two anthem* for tiie Coronation of James H. in 1683. He also took part in a. similar ceremony in the year 1689, when William and Mary came to the throne. On the present occasion Purcell is represented by an extract from hds Latin setting {in five parts) of Psalm DX, 'Jebova guam multi sunt hostes.' Its middle movement has been adapted to the words, 'Let my prayer come tip into Thy presence as incense; and let the liftina up °f m 7 bands be a-s an evening sacrifice.' This' Offertorinm is a remarkable specimen of Purcell's harmony, and the shortness of the movement is* in inverse ratio to its impressiveness. "The Sanctus and Gloria from the Service in A—orchestrated for this occasion by Sir George C. Martin—are by the late Sir John Stainer, some time organist of St. Paul's Cathedra], -whose name and achievements are held in reverent memory. The Sevenfold Ames, by the same composer —written in 1872 expressly for use in St. Paul's Cathedral—is sung at the close of the Prayer of Consecration. The Threefold Amen of the celebrated Orlando Gibbons, organist of Westminster A3bbey from 1623 to 1625, is taken from the anthem, ' Great Kin? of Gods.' ol which the manuscript, in tbe Library of Christ Church. Oxford, records that this anthem was ' made for the King's being- i» SeofkmL' Those simple j&ai&ft co&cluda the Coronation Service." / .. -. As to ******t*al WfaJJ-nraaß. T m_v «_T