The Queen’s state funeral was a thing of musical contrasts. Outside in the streets were the skirl of bagpipes, tolling bells, massed bands, tramping feet and solemn marches by Beethoven, Chopin and Mendelssohn, as immense processions slowly wound their way through London. Inside Westminster Abbey, the pomp was tempered by reflection on a long life and reign, interwoven with British choral music from the 17th century to the present day, sung by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, St James Palace, conducted by the Abbey’s director of music, James O’Donnell.
The continuity of tradition predictably hung heavy over the event. The content of the haunting Sentences, sung as the coffin was brought into the Abbey, has remained unchanged for royal and state funerals since the 18th century; their composer was William Croft, then the Abbey’s organist, though in deference to his great predecessor, Henry Purcell, Croft also retained the latter’s Thou Knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Hearts, written for the funeral of Mary II in 1695.
