Music fit for a Queen Songs to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Queen Victoria ( )... then Queen Anne ( )... Over the last 500 years, England has had four Queens First comes Queen Elizabeth (reigned ).... and lastly Queen Elizabeth II (1952-)

Music has always been written to celebrate their reigns

For Elizabeth I, composers of the day wrote a set of madrigals A madrigal is an unaccompanied song in several parts. The words for these songs often talked about shepherds and shepherdesses, or gods and goddesses dancing, singing or playing in the fields.

The madrigals were called ‘The Triumphs of Oriana’ ‘See where she comes with flowery garlands crowned, Queen of all queens renowned. Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: Long live fair Oriana!’ Come, gentle swains, and shepherd's dainty daughters, Adorned with courtesy and comely duties, Come, sing and joy and grace with lovely laughters The birthday of the beautiest of beauties.

Queen Victoria was crowned on 28 June She was 19 years old. This is Sir John Ella, who conducted the orchestra at Victoria’s coronation. Some people criticised his timing! See victoriaweb.org Johann Strauss wrote a series of waltzes for the event

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on 2 June She was 27 Here are some of the pieces of music that were performed at her coronation.

In 1837 the Bristol Madrigal Society was founded In January 1837, the Bristol Madrigal Society was born. At the time, Princess Victoria was only 18 years old and did not become Queen until June 20 that year. The gentlemen who founded the Society (no women were allowed to join until after World War 2) wanted to encourage the people of Bristol to sing madrigals. The Bristol Madrigal Society gave special concerts, called “Ladies’ Nights”, every year. They became so popular that the women of Bristol vied with each other to wear the most beautiful gowns for the occasion. The concerts were held at the Victoria Rooms in Clifton, and horse-drawn carriages would have to queue all the way from the concert hall to Victoria Square. This man, Pearsall, was one of the founder members. He wrote music for the choir.

The Bristol Madrigal Society still exists today What we are still doing, 175 years later meeting to sing on Wednesdays giving concerts in Bristol and further afield singing madrigals...and other music, too

We need your help! We’re celebrating our 175 th anniversary, and the Queen’s diamond jubilee, with a concert of music written for the Queens of England which will be called ‘Vivat Regina’. We’ll be performing music written for England’s Queens and we need help creating images to go in the programme The challenge is to design an image, which we can use for the cover of our 175th Anniversary Concert programme on 23 June Bring your entry and join us at Mshed on 2 nd June. For more details see our website.