The 1685 Coronation Anthem "I was Glad"

Choral splendour and huge organ chords, Parry's anthem was the first piece to be played as the coronation service started in 1953. Settings of the text, Psalm 122, have been used throughout British history at coronations, including a setting by Purcell in 1685.

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) composed this setting of verses from Psalm 122 for the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, revising it for George V’s Coronation in 1911 by adding a more impressive introduction. Settings of the text by Purcell, John Blow and other musicians had been sung at previous Coronations, but it is Parry’s revised anthem that has been used subsequently, as well as being performed on State occasions and at royal weddings. 

At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953, the anthem was sung as the Queen entered at the west door of Westminster Abbey and processed into the Church. 

Despite his father’s opinion that music was not a suitable career for a gentleman, Hubert’s musical talent was nurtured at his prep school and while still at Eton he became the youngest student to gain a BMus from Oxford. He read law and modern history at Oxford, but kept up his musical studies while working in insurance until his compositions came to public notice. Having been employed by George Grove of the great new Dictionary of Music and Musicians, he was eventually appointed to the staff of the new Royal College of Music. When Grove retired as director of the RCM, Parry succeeded him and held the post until his death.

The full choir begins the anthem, then divides into two at the words ‘Jerusalem is builded’. The central section, a contemplative prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, is sung by the semi-chorus before the whole choir re-combines and the music builds to its final climax. 

I was glad when they said unto me,
We will go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem
Jerusalem is builded as a city that is at unity in itself. 

O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces.

Book of Common Prayer, 1662, Psalm 122, vv 1-3, 6, 7

What Is the Story Behind Mendelssohn’s Wedding March?

Have you ever sat waiting for the bride to walk down the aisle, ears straining for the first bars of “Here Comes the Bride” or the “Wedding March,” and wondered how long the tradition of playing these songs has been around?

There are many superstitious wedding traditions, but some have pretty clear origins.

One of those is the music most commonly associated with Western weddings. The “Wedding March” and the song perhaps best known as “Here Comes the Bride” are both believed to have been first performed at a wedding that took place 160 years ago , when Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise, Queen Victoria‘s oldest child, married Frederick William IV of Prussia on Jan. 25, 1858, in the Chapel Royal at St. James’ Palace.

But neither song was actually composed to be performed at a wedding. Rather, German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote the “Wedding March” for an 1842 production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream,and “Here Comes the Bride” was the Bridal Chorus from Richard Wagner’s 1850 opera Lohengrin.

It was the 1858 royal wedding that is thought to have started the practice of a “full choral processional from the church entrance to the altar” and playing music as the bride walked up the aisle, “a change from the usual practice of having music only at the reception,” according to Elizabeth Hafkin Pleck’s Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture, and Family Rituals. “A patron of opera who loved Mendelssohn and Wagner, the princess chose the music for her ceremony.”

Usually, the “Bridal Chorus” is played without singing at modern weddings, but you can see the original lyrics and learn more about some of the controversy surrounding it here.

The “Wedding March,” composed by Felix Mendelssohn, was created in 1842 to accompany Shakespeare’s famous A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mendelssohn’s wedding march was first played in a wedding in 1847, but it was Victoria, the Princess Royal and Queen Victoria’s daughter, who made it the song to play during a wedding ceremony by having it accompany her own wedding in 1858.

The traditional white wedding 

As still happens at many weddings today — though many couples now choose to branch out, for reasons both personal and political — the Wagner chorus was played as the Princess processed to the altar, and the Mendelssohn march was played as the newlywed couple recessed back up the aisle. Once the royal couple used that music in their ceremony, it caught on more widely.

Plus, starting Western wedding traditions clearly ran in the family: the Princess’ mother, Queen Victoria, was the one who popularized white wedding dresses.