Photo: Dominic Lipinski/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Today, Monday, the state funeral of Isabel II at Westminster Abbey, where he married the duke of edinburgh and where she was crowned queen when she was 25 years old. The ceremony has been as emotional as expected and the tears of Fergiethe former daughter-in-law of the monarch, perfectly reflected the feeling that we are facing the end of a historical era that is shared by all Britons.
Music has greatly contributed to creating the atmosphere of solemnity for a historic occasion. The surprise was listening to one of the hymns that was sung at the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth with Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in 1947, based on Psalm 23 and titled “Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing”).
The reference to this day reflects the importance of her marriage throughout her reign, because she herself recognized that her husband was her greatest support. The most famous part of both the psalm and the hymn is the verse that reads: “Though I walk through the dark valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, and your rod and your staff still comfort me.”
All attendees stood up after praying the Our Father to sing “Love divine, all loves excelling” that has sounded at two royal weddings: that of the new king Charles III with queen camilla and that of prince william with Duchess Kate. The abbey choir, made up of children between the ages of eleven and thirteen, performed a piece composed by Judith Weir -Master of the Music of the King- expressly for the funeral and inspired by the Christian faith of the monarch, and also another of Hubert Perrywhich he wrote during the First World War with the verses of the poet Henry Vaughn.
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