When Their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla are crowned at Westminster Abbey next month, the service, and pre-service music, will be exclusively recorded and released by Decca Records the very same day.
The Official Album of the Coronation, to take place on Saturday 6 May 2023, will include all music and spoken word from the global event and will feature an official photograph from the day as cover art. This will be the first time that the a recording of a Coronation ceremony will be available globally to stream and download on the day of the service itself.
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The complete album, which will be more than four hours long, will be made available digitally on the day itself. The physical version of the album (featuring the entire service and all 12 of the Coronation commissions) will then be available in stores globally from 15 May.
The performances will include 12 newly composed pieces of music, commissioned by The King and showcasing talent from across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.
Six orchestral commissions, five choral commissions and one organ commission, have been specially written by world-renowned British composers whose work includes classical, sacred, film, television and musical theatre. Between them, the 12 composers have written for a wide variety of film and television titles including Harry Potter, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Emoji Movie, Wolf Hall and more - as well as the Eurovision Song Contest and the 2012 Olympics.
The 12 composers include Debbie Wiseman, Patrick Doyle, Judith Weir, Roxanna Panufnik, Nigel Hess and Roderick Williams.
The special commissions include ‘Make A Joyful Noise’, a brand new Coronation anthem composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This anthem will also get its own separate studio recording, released on 6 May. That recording will feature The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Westminster Abbey Choir, The Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force and the Abbey sub-organist Peter Holder, conducted by organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey, Andrew Nethsingha.
Decca Records – part of Universal Music Group– has previously released commemorative albums such as Her Majesty The Queen Mother’s 100th Birthday Celebrations (2000), as well as the Royal Wedding of The then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (2011), the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (2012) and the Royal Wedding of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (2018).
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This new recording will be the next in a historic line marking major milestones for the royal family, and as such it will enter the homes of millions across the globe.
