# Music fit for a King!



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

A thread to discuss and recommend music written for the leaders of a country, for emperors, kings, queens, presidents etc. and even for political events!

The obvious pieces to start with are Handel's four Coronation Anthems.


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## Frederik Magle (Feb 17, 2006)

Another one: Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary"


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Thomas Tallis comes to mind as a composer who wrote for not one but four different monarchs (Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary & Elizabeth I). This means switching styles to suit the religious requirements of whoever was monarch at the time.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

_When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love_ (1946) by Paul Hindemith, based on the poem of the same name by Walt Whitman, commissioned after the 1945 death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Walton's Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre.

Various settings of "I was Glad" - Purcell\Blow, Boyce and Parry.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I thought I pose this in the Politics and Religion forum? If it turns out that I didn't, then perhaps it should be moved there?

Anyway, another contribution from me: _Zdravitsa_ by Prokofiev.


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## Guest (Oct 6, 2013)

As long as it comes wearing long sleeves and elegant long skirts, and hats and is modest, dignified and regal, anything goes, surely.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Depends on the king. Some definitely deserve Schoenberg's _Ode for Napoleon Bonaparte_, others deserve mild indifference, some deserve the British national anthem.

No sovereign is so horrible as to truly deserve Richard Strauss's Festival Music for the Anniversary of the Foundation of the Japanese Empire, though.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The Opus 111 label has a CD of music that Jean-Francois Le Sueur wrote for the coronations of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. It's fun to hear.


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## Guest (Oct 6, 2013)

*Pater Maxwell Davies* : _8 Songs for a Mad King_


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Elliott Carter: _Three Occasions for Orchestra_


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

William Byrd 1540?-1623 - a Catholic, served and wrote for both a Catholic court (Mary 1st) and a Protestant one (Elizabeth 1st).

Handel 1685-1759 - The Royal Water Music 1717, George I, and The Royal Fireworks Music 1749, George II.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Bach's The Musical Offering.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos -- well, fit for a Margrave, who seems never to have acknowledged receiving them. And the Goldbergs, fit for a Count, who rewarded Bach very nicely indeed.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Purcell - the birthday odes to Queen Mary.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Another valedictory work from Hindemith - Trauermusik for Viola & String Orchestra. Written immediately after the death of George V when the composer was in London and premiered the following evening instead of a scheduled performance of his new orchestral viola work, Der Schwanendreher.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Royalty or not? Prokofiev: Zdravitsa (Hail to Stalin), cantata for chorus and orchestra for Joseph Stalin's 60th birthday, op. 85 (1939).


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

This is all music composed for the royalty, and much of it greatly amuses me, such as the opening piece, due to its typically Frenc nature, and quite hilarious bombast.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Don't forget Telemann's Water Music & Admiralty Music. The Water Music is very fun - lots of tone-painting and beautiful melodies as well. I'm not familiar with the Admiralty Music but considering it's Telemann, it must be good .

Oh, and Haydn symphonies like No. 101 in D Major, 'The Clock' or No. 104 in D Major, 'London' have a very royal tone to them.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Royalty or not? Prokofiev: Zdravitsa (Hail to Stalin), cantata for chorus and orchestra for Joseph Stalin's 60th birthday, op. 85 (1939).


Stalin was a gangster, a thug, a tyrant and one of the greatest mass murderers. Perhaps qualifies him as royalty by some standards.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

... or for a *Queen* as it was. I like the melody of this tune. It doesn't alienate any listeners.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Queen Sheba, Handel


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

Beethoven wrote two cantatas: WoO 87: Funeral cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1790) and WoO 88: Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II, for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1790). I suppose coronation masses and requiem masses were probably written for kings, but I can't remember any now, maybe it's wrong assumption on my part.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Britten's opera Gloriana was written for Queen Elizabeth's coronation. The opera was a failure but its Courtly Dances are often performed and instantly recognizable.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*Bruckner's* 8th symphony was dedicated to Kaiser Franz Josef of Austria. *Liszt* wrote his Coronation Mass for the Kaiser too.

I quite like the ones Walton did for royal occassions, and I've got a soft spot for Ronnie Binge's Elizabethan Serenade as well. More like that are Welcome the Queen by *Arthur Bliss*, composed to welcome QEII back from a tour overseas and also *Arnold Bax's *Coronation March for that event in 1953.

Another royal one is by *Tamas Luis de Victoria*, who wrote his Requiem a 6 (Officium Defunctorum) for a member of the Spanish royal family.

One in terms of dictators is *Khatchaturian's* Ode in Memory of Lenin. Another one is the Radetzky March by J. *Strauss I, *named after the guy who oppressed the attempts to gain independence by Hungarians and Czechs during the revolutions of 1848. Colonel Radetzky was basically a brutal war criminal, but its long been forgotten now.



Mahlerian said:


> Depends on the king. Some definitely deserve Schoenberg's _Ode for Napoleon Bonaparte_, others deserve mild indifference, some deserve the British national anthem.
> 
> No sovereign is so horrible as to truly deserve Richard Strauss's Festival Music for the Anniversary of the Foundation of the Japanese Empire, though.


Another work written for that occassion was *Britten's* Sinfonia da Requiem, but it was rejected by the Japanese government and received its premiere elsewhere.

Regarding Napoleon, there is of course *Beethoven's* original naming and dedication of his Symphony #3 "Eroica" to the First Consul, but most people here would know the story of how Ludwig van crossed out the dedication after he heard that Napoleon crowned himself emperor, thus becoming yet another dictator.


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## Guest (Oct 9, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> ... or for a *Queen* as it was. I like the melody of this tune. It doesn't alienate any listeners.


It is really curious, but when I listened to this theme I imagined it rather more for the opening panoramic shots of a big Western (cowboy) film !!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Perotin said:


> Beethoven wrote two cantatas: WoO 87: *Funeral cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II*, for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1790) and WoO 88: Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II, for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1790). I suppose coronation masses and requiem masses were probably written for kings, but I can't remember any now, maybe it's wrong assumption on my part.


Its ironic that Joseph II was more in line with Beethoven's ostensible Enlightenment ideals. Joseph II was a reformist monarch and wanted to bring the Habsburg system up to date. I think he died prematurely though and his successors returned to a more authoritarian style. Thus what you got was 1848 and further retrenchment (with some reforms, but mainly economic rather than political) until 1918 when it all went up in smoke. So maybe a republican can be a monarchist - well, at a stretch!


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Schumann's Abegg Variations would be an interesting entry as the dedicatee Countess Abegg was a mystery person (even though in all likelihood she actually existed), with a fake birthday dedication, not to mention that the letters of her last name form the basic motivic theme.

Edit: Actually, Schumann called her "Meta Abegg", where _Meta_ was presumably a scramble of _tema_...wasn't Schumann hilarious?


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Haydn's "Kaiser" (if the inclusion is pardoned) quartet. ^.^


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## GiulioCesare (Apr 9, 2013)

TheProudSquire said:


> Haydn's "Kaiser" (if the inclusion is pardoned) quartet. ^.^


Music fit for a King --> Anthem of the Federal *Republic *of Germany.


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

For the leaders of my country I would say, without a doubt, that the appropriate music would be Tchaikovsky's Pathétique.


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

Just about everything Lully wrote after the 1650s was music for a king, specifically Louis XIV. Lully operas are usually transparent homages to the king, or more generally to kingly responsibility and honor. Lully's _Armide_, with a libretto by Philippe Quinault, is a setting of Tasso's epic poem _Jerusalem Delivered_, which involves a knight named Renaud falling in love with the pagan witch Armide. In Tasso's conception, Armide gives up her pagan ways and becomes a good Christian to be with Renaud. Quinault changed the ending: Armide does not give up her pagan ways, and so it is now Renaud's choice as to whether he wants to renounce his knighthood to be with her or renounce Armide to maintain his knightly obligation. He chooses the latter, making the opera a noble tale about the importance of obligation to your lord--something that would undoubtedly have been music to Louis XIV's ears.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

julianoq said:


> For the leaders of my country I would say, without a doubt, that the appropriate music would be Tchaikovsky's Pathétique.


Is this sentiment shared by many Brazilians? That would be unfortunate (this is not meant as criticism).


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Two more recent ones dedicated to inspiring leaders is Wilhelm Kaiser-Lindemann's *Hommage a Nelson Mandela*, played by the cellist Maria Kliegel, and also Nicholas Flagello's *Passion of Martin Luther King*. Both are on the Naxos label and these are ones I do want to check out at some point!


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> Is this sentiment shared by many Brazilians? That would be unfortunate (this is not meant as criticism).


Yes, absolutely. We had severe riots here in June. Our politicians have the highest salaries _in the world_, we have the highest taxes in the world by far and the public services are terrible. Of course, they are the reflection of the population. Most people here sadly have the vision that once you are elected for a public job you are entitled to get rich.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

To throw in my Russian 2-cents...

Glazunov's_ Coronation Cantata _written for the coronation of the last Czar.

Less specific to royalty but still relevant, the _Great Gate of Kiev_ from Mussorgsky's Pictures.

Last but not least... the ultimate anthem of royal glorification... THIS:






<3 <3 <3 <3 <3


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

Moscow is a cantata composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1883 for the coronation of Alexander III of Russia. The Festival Coronation March in D Major, TH 50, ČW 47, is an orchestral work by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ordered by the city of Moscow for the coronation of Tsar Alexander III in 1883.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Music fit for a king?

Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland.

Simple and profound, to teach the king a bit of humility.

We are all created equal in the eyes of God.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

hpowders said:


> Music fit for a king?
> 
> Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland.
> 
> ...


In case you would be interested, I hope you would see this: Appalachian Spring Choreographed for Orchestra


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> In case you would be interested, I hope you would see this: Appalachian Spring Choreographed for Orchestra


That's really nice! I've never seen anything quite like that! Thanks!

The first 5 minutes or so of that score always puts me into a wonderful peaceful state.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

The Coronation Ode by Elgar has not been mentioned yet?


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Sibelius at the heights of his early stage (1899, one year after the 1st Symphony). Surprisingly enough, one can find in there some of the material of his later symphonies. I don't know why I wonder what PetrB thinks about this piece so I'll stick the passing though in the 'not supposed to be read' section of this post.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

C.P.E. Bach composed a truly great set of keyboard sonatas (The six "Prussian Sonatas") for Frederick the Great of Prussia.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

The music of Marin Marais really evokes the feeling of the court of the Sun King. Mozart and Liszt both have coronation masses. Victoria's Requiem for all your needs of music written for dead queens. Wagner's Lohengrin, act 3, scene 3, the beginning (Morgenröte) followed by the aria of the king ("Habt Dank, ihr Lieber von Brabant...") for the most rousing celebration of royalty I can think of right now.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Michael Daugherty's Elvis is Everywhere


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

GreenMamba said:


> Elvis


Well done, my friend.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

The 6th Brandenburg Concerto - no violins, and yet it's one of the most beautiful concertos ever written.


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