By Royal Command celebrates the pomp and circumstance of the coronation of Charles III while also exploring a variety of music written for other milestone moments: births, deaths, weddings and much more.  

Music written for magisterial occasions abounds.  Dating from the coronation of George V, Parry's beloved I was glad marks tradition, while Handel's timeless setting of Zadok the Priest starts a set of coronation anthems stretching from Charles II to George II.

Pieces by Henry Purcell, Britain's greatest home-grown composer of that time, include My Heart is Inditing, as well as a selection of music from The Fairy Queen for a wedding anniversary of William III and Queen Mary.  The modern anthem, Ghostly Grace, by Judith Bingham, written for the reburial of Richard III in Leicester, reaches back over centuries to the Plantagenets.

At the same time, we pay homage to composers who wrote a variety of ceremonial music for non-royal occasions.  Bach's secular cantata Zerreisser, Zersprenget, Zertrummert die Gruft, BWV 205, was commissioned by students for the name day of a popular professor at the University of Leipzig in 1725.  Over 160 years later, Brahms premiered his Fest- und Gedenkspruche in celebration of the unification of Germany.  We mark the 190th anniversary of Brahms's birth on 7th May 1833 by bringing this festive double chorus to life.

https://coronation.gov.uk/event/by-royal-command-celebratory-music-by-purcell-handel-bingham-and-others/