All Princely Graces
COMPOSER’S NOTE
I was delighted to be asked to write this work for the Band of the Household Division and the Royal Choral Society to celebrate HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
All Princely Graces was premiered as part of the annual Military Musical Spectacular, a series of wonderful pageants of music and military precision drill. These concerts are performed on Horse Guards parade in front of the beautiful backdrop of St James’s Park each year. I subsequently arranged another version for choir and strings for a special concert in Norwich Cathedral for Norwich Cathedral Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra to mark the coronation of HM King Charles III.
The beautiful text, taken from the final scene of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, is delivered by Archbishop Cranmer to the King following the birth of the future Queen Elizabeth I. As Prince of Wales, it was chosen by His Majesty King Charles III to be read on the occasion of the 90th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and was the perfect starting point for a new commission to mark her Platinum Jubilee.
The text’s pace, mood, and meter were crafted with the grandeur of Horse Guards Parade in mind, with a slow march style influencing the stately tempo, dignified harmonies, and rhythms. For the version with strings, the tempo should be as marked but, with military band, a metronome marking of 66 beats per minute is more suitable for a slow march.
DURATION
4 minutes
CHORUS
SATB choir
INSTRUMENTATION
Strings or Military Band
YEAR OF COMPOSITION
2023
PUBLISHER
Hawes Music
SHEET MUSIC
Available from
Hawes Music
JW Pepper
Music Room
Music Shop Europe
And hang their heads with sorrow. Good grows with her.
Words: from Henry VIII William Shakespeare (ca. 1564 – 1616)
