From Handel to a dozen new commissions, the king selected a fitting soundtrack for the event
Perhaps fantasising about your coronation is as standard for future monarchs as imagining your wedding for some lesser mortals. If so, Charles III had plenty of time to think it through. His choice to enter Westminster Abbey to the rousing choral explosion of Hubert Parry’s anthem I Was Glad, composed for Edward VII’s big day in 1902, certainly suggests a man keen to make an entrance.
From the intricate choreography to the glittering array of monarch-making accoutrements – ring, glove, orb, sceptre – symbolism was also going to take centre stage. It’s why Charles’s involvement in selecting the music has attracted attention, and why there was so much of it. Every broadcast-ready historic event needs a soundtrack.
