The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be broadcast in Hawaii beginning at 1:00 am tonight, and although I stayed up to watch the live broadcasts of the weddings of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, and Prince William and Kate Middleton, tonight I’ve decided just to program my DVR. There is so much to love about the royal weddings—the ceremony, the pageantry, but of course, what I pay the most attention to is the music.
According to the official royal family website, “Harry and Meghan have spent a great deal of time planning the music, which will include well-known hymns, and is under the direction of the director of music at St George’s Chapel, James Vivian. The service will include a performance from Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a 19-year-old cellist who won BBC Young Musician in 2016.”
Mr. Vivian said: “The Choristers, Lay Clerks, Organists and I are very much looking forward to this exciting day and are pleased to be performing at the service music chosen by the couple. We are also looking forward to welcoming to St George’s musical colleagues from near and far who will be performing at this very special and joyful occasion.”
The organ will be played by Luke Bond. He is the Assistant Director of Music and comes to St George’s Chapel after appointments at Clifton College, The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick and eight years as Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral.
Check out this link for further details about the music chosen for this weekend’s royal wedding.
Today Ken Peterson of the Compline Choir of St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, wrote a blog post called “Our Royal Wedding,” and posted a video of the October 7, 2017 marriage of Rebekah Gilmore (Associate Musician and Choir School Director) to Tyler Morse, who sings Alto 1 in the Compline Choir. In many respects, it was truly a “Royal” wedding for St. Mark’s in terms of the people involved, the scale and scope of the service, and a good opportunity to see the building and hear its music.
Ken posted the processional hymn from YouTube, “O God beyond all praising,” sung to the tune, THAXTED, which is often sung at British royal occasions. This arrangement for brass, organ, choir and congregation by Canon Musician Emeritus J. Melvin Butler is truly inspiring, and as you will watch on the video below, after the long, grand procession of four choirs, the clergy and the bridal party, a little child squealed with delight! I would have, too! The Compline Choir sang verse 2 alone, with its themes of the transitory life and resurrection: The flower of earthly splendor in time must surely die, its fragile bloom surrender to you the Lord most high; but hidden from all nature the eternal seed is sown though small in mortal stature, to heaven’s garden grown: for Christ the Man from heaven from death has set us free, and we through him are given the final victory!
The entire video can be viewed here. I was very happy to see that the music for Rebekah and Tyler’s wedding included Psalm 46 and This is the Feast by Peter Hallock!
And speaking of wedding processionals, here is the one from Carl Crosier’s and my wedding on July 15, 1977, and the music of Peter Hallock—with handbells, of course! That was in the days before the church got its own set of Petit and Fritsen handbells, so we had borrowed Whitechapel bells from Kokokahi Church (If you heard Carl’s voice on the recording, you guessed right!) Of course it certainly wasn’t on the scope of a royal wedding, but it was a big deal for us, and I don’t believe I’ve posted this before.
Thank you Kathy for another wonderful message about the royal wedding. We DVR’d it too and enjoyed watching it. I really enjoyed the music too which at times was new to me. But, when the choir sang “Stand By Me” I was at “Home”. Back in my band days, we played a lot of Motown songs and Stand By Me was am iconic piece. Simple, great lyrics and easy to play. While I enjoy all types of music, this rendition was very special (the dynamics were wonderful).
Hey Kathy, who is the cantor in this recording from your wedding? It’s a nice quality recording for something from the 70s!
That is the voice of Carl Crosier.