Which hymns had been most beloved by Queen Elizabeth II? Here’s a collection of non secular songs that she is thought to have cherished – or that featured at distinguished moments throughout her reign.
Which hymns did the Queen love probably the most throughout her lifetime?
Reward, My Soul, The King of Heaven
The Queen cherished this Christian hymn, written by Anglican clergyman Henry Francis Lyte. First revealed in 1834, Lyte’s hymn attracts on Psalm 103, which is believed to have been written throughout the lifetime of the Hebrew King David.
Lyte first revealed the hymn in his assortment The Spirit of the Psalms, which he used together with his congregation in Brixham, south Devon.
The music with which the lyrics are most incessantly heard at the moment, nonetheless, was written in 1868 by John Goss. Appropriately, there was a Royal connection: Goss was a boy chorister of the Chapel Royal, the institution that ministers to the religious wants of the monarch and Royal Household.
The hymn is already a well-known staple from state ceremonies, having been performed throughout Queen Elizabeth’s marriage ceremony to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1947. Extra just lately, soprano Alexandra Stevenson carried out ‘‘Reward, My Soul the King of Heaven’ throughout the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee earlier in 2022.
The Lord’s My Shepherd
To mark the Queen’s ninetieth birthday celebrations again in 2016, BBC Radio 2 produced a present entitled Our Queen: 90 Musical Years. As a part of this, the Queen listed her ten favorite items of music.
Two hymns featured on this checklist. One was ‘Reward, My Soul, The King of Heaven’ talked about above: the opposite was ‘The Lord’s My Shepherd’.
The phrases of this lovely hymn are believed to have been written by the Seventeenth-century Puritan politician and creator Francis Rous, primarily based on Psalm 23. It’s mostly sung, in the meantime, to the tune of ‘CRIMOND‘, by Scottish hymnist Jessie Seymour Irvine.
All Folks that on Earth do Dwell
We don’t know whether or not this was a favorite of the Queen’s – however it was sung at her Coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953, so it’s certain to have some robust resonances.
The phrases to ‘All Folks that on Earth do Dwell’ are an association of Psalm 100 (also called ‘The Outdated Hundredth’), by Elizabethan churchman William Kethe.
For the Coronation, no much less a composer than Ralph Vaughan Williams set Kethe’s translation to music – for all 4 vocal components, plus organ, orchestra and congregation.
I Vow to Thee My Nation
This rousing and emotional piece was additionally carried out on the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. The music, famously, is from the Jupiter part of Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite, The Planets. The phrases to ‘I Vow to Thee My Nation’, in the meantime, originate in a poem by the Edwardian diplomat Sir Cecil Spring Rice.
Lead us, Heavenly Father
This conventional Christian hymn asks for steering and safety from God. Sung throughout the Queen’s ninetieth Birthday Service of Thanksgiving, it’s one other robust candidate for one in all her favorite hymns.
The phrases to Lead Us, Heavenly Father had been composed by Victorian architect and surveyor James Edmeston. He seems like a outstanding fellow: on prime of the busy day job, Edmeston discovered the time to compose some 2000 hymns – one each Sunday.
The hymn has been set to music in a number of totally different preparations, together with one by the 19th century German musicologist Friedrich Filitz.
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