Vivat Regina
Taylor Festival Choir Robert Taylor, conductor
Dear patron,
How honored we feel today to perform this music for you! We were planning for today’s concert to commemorate one of my two favorite composers—the great Ralph Vaughan Williams. But, once her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed, we knew we needed to alter our course. Vaughan Williams (who, embarrassed at such an honor, refused a knighthood but accepted an Order of Merit in 1935–when young Elizabeth was nine!) would understand!
If one were to limit oneself’s listening strictly to music that has been performed on British royal occasions, there would still be quite the musical palette to enjoy. From plainchant to Dunstable; Purcell and Handel to Elgar and Parry; twentieth-century masters such as Holst, Walton, Britten, and my favorite Vaughan Williams to contemporary composers such as Judith Weir and Sir James MacMillan, the music performed at coronations alone could be the focus of years of enjoyment and study.
Today, we focus on music taken strictly from Queen Elizabeth II’s 1947 wedding, her wonderful 1953 coronation, the major jubilee celebrations, and her recent funeral. In choosing the program, I made the decision to (excluding Handel, whose Zadok the Priest HAD to be included) focus on composers that would have known the Queen, or at least would have known members of her immediate family. It seemed like a natural personal touch considering our intention is to honor her—her life, her reign. Regardless of one’s personal politics or views on the role of the monarchy in modern society, we hope that you agree that Elizabeth II’s life and reign were remarkable in many ways. And we hope we inspire you to look into her life and what she stood for—beyond watching the Crown!
As ever, we hope that the music chosen today fills you with joy, serenity, vigor, and above all, a sense of spiritual peace and fulfillment. I can assure you we will enjoy every second of performing for you today.
Thank you for joining us!
Namaste
Rob Taylor
Thank you to our Sponsors
Bill Gesin & Scott Curry
Gena Gregory
David Maves
Harriet McDougal
Janelle Pendleton
Porter Remington
Tim & Judy Rinaman
Dwight Williams
Vivat Regina: a Choral Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II Program
Zadok the Priest - George Frederic Handel
Behold, O God Our Defender - Herbert Howells
We Wait for thy Loving Kindness - William McKie
Lux Aeterna (Nimrod) - Edward Elgar
Praise My Soul the King of Heaven - Lyte/Goss
The Lord my God my Shepherd is - Irvine/Ross
Christ is Made the Sure Foundation - Neale/Purcell
My Soul there is a Country - Hubert Parry
I Was Glad - Hubert Parry
Intermission
Credo from Mass in G minor - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Amber Romero, soprano; Emmalee Hinson, alto
David Tayloe, tenor; Stephen Hanna, bass
Like as the Hart - Judith Weir
Who Shall Separate Us - James MacMillan
Land of Hope and Glory - Edward Elgar
Jerusalem - Blake/Parry
Coronation Te Deum - Sir William Walton
God Save the Queen - arr. Benjamin Britten
Why is an American choir celebrating the life of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom?
Many Americans are Anglophiles, hardly surprising considering our shared language and the cultural heritage that shaped the early United States. And for more than seventy years, Elizabeth II was the public face of that shared heritage, an office that she carried out with impeccable dignity. The dedication with which she successfully managed the roles of ruler without power and cultural icon was inspirational. The public events of her life, from her marriage to Prince Philip to her funeral, were showcases of “Britishness,” and the music played and sung at these great ceremonies are masterpieces of the Anglican choral tradition.
The future Elizabeth II was born in 1926, the eldest daughter of the duke and duchess of York. The expectation was that she would live an aristocratic life, but not particularly in the public eye. However, Elizabeth and all her family were thrust into the limelight when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated in 1936. As heir presumptive to her father, George VI, Elizabeth was a public figure from that moment on. The princess needed an appropriate husband, and her choice fell on Philip Mountbatten, of the royal blood of Denmark and Greece but without personal prospects. They married on 20 November 1947, and the marriage endured until Philip’s death in 2021. Elizabeth became queen upon the death of her father, George VI, in 1952, and her coronation took place on 2 June 1953. The queen’s life had already become a ceaseless round of ceremonial appearances in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, which she balanced with a homelife that included horses, her beloved corgis, and her increasingly troubled children and grandchildren. Queen Elizabeth maintained her public schedule almost to the end, presiding over decolonization and the transformation of both the Commonwealth and the political climate in the British Isles. Almost her last public act was the appointment of the fifteenth prime minister of her reign. Elizabeth died on 8 September 2022 at the age of ninety-six. Her state funeral on 19 September was a masterpiece of music and royal ceremony, worthy of a queen who had so worthily upheld her office for so many years. May she rest in peace.
Taylor Festival Choir
Special Thanks
Bethany United Methodist Church
Grace Church Cathedral
Second Presbyterian Church
Tim and Judy Rinamon
Jim Paxton
Susan Chagrin
Lee Lingle
Bill Gudger
