Posted above.

The opening of George Frideric Handel’s cantata “Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne”:

Eternal source of light divine
With double warmth thy beams display
And with distinguish’d glory shine
To add a lustre to this day.

which comprised the processional to the marriage of Harry and Meghan today.

 

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An acquaintance with whom I sometimes exchange thoughts about music wrote me recently: “I am still am not high on Handel. Great composer for his time and parts of the oratorios are moving (to me), but overall doesn’t impress me.”

I don’t agree. For a long time, I was thoroughly into Handel. One could devote a lifetime to exploring his works.

The cantata celebrates Queen Anne’s birthday, and the accomplishment of the Treaty of Utrecht (negotiated by the Tory ministry of Anne in 1712) to end the War of the Spanish Succession.

 

— Roger W. Smith

   May 19, 2018