Music Fit for A King – Decca Records Coronation Album

Monarchist or not it is hard to igonre the feast of music that will accompany the festivities surrounding the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla this weekend.

The complete recording of the coronation will be released by Decca Records and Universal Music on the day of the ceremony and will be available around the world.

The coronation will be an unprecedented celebration of new, contemporary and traitional British music, form the 9th century to the present day. It will feature 12 new works commissioned by King Charles including the new coronation anthem Make a joyful noise by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

The performers include The State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry, The Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force, The ‘Coronation Orchestra’ comprising some of the world’s greatest orchestral musicians the UK & Canada, joined by soloists Sir Bryn Terfel CBE, bass-baritone, soprano Pretty Yende, baritone Roderick Williams OBE and Royal Harpist Alis Huws. 

With this release, Decca will be supporting the Royal British Legion and Age UK charities.

The service, and pre-service music of the coronation will be exclusively recorded and released by Decca Records the very same day. and will include all music and spoken word from the ceremony and will feature an official photograph from the day as cover art. It is first time a recording of a Coronation ceremony – a tradition which can be traced back more than 1000 years – will be available globally to stream and download on the day of the service. 

The complete album, to be available digitally on the day, will be over 4 hours long. The physical version of the album (featuring the entire service and all new commissions) will then be available in stores globally from 19th May. A special Deluxe Collectors CD and vinyl will follow later in the year.

Six orchestral commissions, five choral commissions and one organ commission, have been specially written by world-renowned British composers. As well as the new anthem by Sir Lloyd Webber, the other newly commissioned works include a Coronation March by Patrick Doyle, a piece for solo organ by Iain Farrington embracing musical themes from countries across the Commonwealth and works by Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson OBE, Judith Weir CBE and Master of the King’s Music, Roderick Williams OBE, and Debbie Wiseman OBE. In addition, there are also newly commissioned arrangements by John Rutter CBE and Iain Farrington which includes new arrangements of pieces composed for past coronations and royal occasions.

Performing the orchestral commissions is the Coronation Orchestra, whose membership comprises some of the world’s greatest musicians drawn from eight leading orchestras of The former Prince of Wales’ Patronages, from across the UK and Canada: the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Regina Symphony Orchestra (Saskatchewan, Canada), English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra and Welsh National Opera Orchestra. Music Director for the Royal Opera House and Chief Conductor Designate of the London Symphony Orchestra (from Sept 2023), Sir Antonio Pappano, will be conducting the Coronation Orchestra. Fanfares will be played by The State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry and The Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force. 

Overall director of music is organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey, Andrew Nethsingha. The service will be sung by The Choir of Westminster Abbey and The Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal with girl choristers from the Chapel Choir of Methodist College, Belfast and from Truro Cathedral Choir and singers from the Monteverdi Choir, The Ascension Choir, The King’s Scholars of Westminster School and the Byzantine Chant Ensemble. The organ will be played by the Abbey Sub-Organist, Peter Holder during the service, and by Assistant Organist, Matthew Jorysz during the pre-service music. In recognition of The King’s deeply held relationship with Wales, one of the liturgical sections of the ceremony will be performed in Welsh, and the Official Royal Harpist Alis Huws will perform as part of the Coronation Orchestra, as well as during the pre-service music featuring as soloist in a new arrangement of a work by one of Britain’s most loved and celebrated living composers, Sir Karl Jenkins CBE, entitled Tros y Garreg (Crossing the Stone).

Alongside the newly-commissioned works, there will be music by the great British masters Byrd, Handel, Elgar, Walford Davies, Walton, Parry and Vaughan Williams. Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE will conduct the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in a pre-service programme of choral music, which will be included in the digital version of the recording, and then the ‘Deluxe’ to follow.

For more information on the New Music Commissions for the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey please go to: www.royal.uk/coronation-music-commissions