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| The moment of Communion at the Coronation |
This week at Amersham Free Church, as part of our LunchBreak
programme, we enjoyed a wonderful concert by a local trio of musicians called
Stromenti. They played authentic 17th/18th
century instruments such as the spinet and viola de gamba. We had lots of ‘bouncy’ (I know that isn’t
exactly a musical term!) contributions but one piece, by Schultz, was a Suite
in D Minor. As he introduced it one of
the musicians commented on its ‘sad’ key but said it was still lively and
enjoyable.
I readily admit that I’m rather fond of music in a minor key – it has a certain pathos and integrity which can go deep. In fact I would go as far as saying it can reflect life more honestly than a piece entirely composed in the major.
That point came home to me a bit on Sunday as we remembered the 60th anniversary of the Coronation. In the evening, along with a few friends, I attended a Coronation Classics concert at The Albert Hall with The Royal Philharmonic Society. It was a great event – how could it be otherwise with Zadok the Priest and the Hallelujah Chorus? We were even given Union Flags to wave during the singing of Land of Hope and Glory at the end! However, and this is a fleeting observation not a major criticism, the concert was entirely in spirit, if not in actual technicalities, in the ‘major’ key.
Not so the Coronation – at least not from the recordings I saw on TV last weekend. That’s because at the centre of that long service, after the crowning, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh received Holy Communion. It was, in the midst of so much dazzling splendour a solemn and reflective moment. For the communion speaks to us of sacrificial service, compassionate self-giving and the endurance of suffering for the sake of love - and perhaps at its centre its simple message is that life cannot be lived entirely in a major key. So as bread and wine were taken and the beautiful music of the Psalms filled the Abbey Church of St Peter there was something of the minor key being understood and acknowledged in a day otherwise filled with colour and pageantry – thinking about it, maybe even the rain that day was God’s way of bringing a sense of reality back into the fairy tale!
So, when I listened to the radio news on Tuesday evening and heard the Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins call for the next Coronation to be an entirely civic one overseen by Parliament rather than the Church I just wondered how such a ceremony could replicate what was done with such nuanced subtlety in the Abbey that June day sixty years ago.
Living in a minor key isn’t about being miserable – it’s life lived with honesty, trust and understanding. At least that’s my take on Schultze’s Suite in D Minor!
With best wishes,
I readily admit that I’m rather fond of music in a minor key – it has a certain pathos and integrity which can go deep. In fact I would go as far as saying it can reflect life more honestly than a piece entirely composed in the major.
That point came home to me a bit on Sunday as we remembered the 60th anniversary of the Coronation. In the evening, along with a few friends, I attended a Coronation Classics concert at The Albert Hall with The Royal Philharmonic Society. It was a great event – how could it be otherwise with Zadok the Priest and the Hallelujah Chorus? We were even given Union Flags to wave during the singing of Land of Hope and Glory at the end! However, and this is a fleeting observation not a major criticism, the concert was entirely in spirit, if not in actual technicalities, in the ‘major’ key.
Not so the Coronation – at least not from the recordings I saw on TV last weekend. That’s because at the centre of that long service, after the crowning, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh received Holy Communion. It was, in the midst of so much dazzling splendour a solemn and reflective moment. For the communion speaks to us of sacrificial service, compassionate self-giving and the endurance of suffering for the sake of love - and perhaps at its centre its simple message is that life cannot be lived entirely in a major key. So as bread and wine were taken and the beautiful music of the Psalms filled the Abbey Church of St Peter there was something of the minor key being understood and acknowledged in a day otherwise filled with colour and pageantry – thinking about it, maybe even the rain that day was God’s way of bringing a sense of reality back into the fairy tale!
So, when I listened to the radio news on Tuesday evening and heard the Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins call for the next Coronation to be an entirely civic one overseen by Parliament rather than the Church I just wondered how such a ceremony could replicate what was done with such nuanced subtlety in the Abbey that June day sixty years ago.
Living in a minor key isn’t about being miserable – it’s life lived with honesty, trust and understanding. At least that’s my take on Schultze’s Suite in D Minor!
With best wishes,
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