Sax Sextets

Funeral Music for Queen Mary

Henry Purcell, arr. Ben Tordoff

Composed:
1695 Arranged:
2023 Grouping:
sSATBb

Queen Mary II's funeral of 1695 was an extravagant affair and included commissioning completely new music from the leading English composer of the day, William Byrd. The funeral sentences and anthem "Thou Knowest Lord" are still regularly used to this day, both for funerals and other solemn occasions.

Here we present three of the pieces Byrd composed: the march played as the procession entered Westminster Abbey, the "Canzone" instrumental, and the anthem "Thou Knowest Lord". These can be played separately or back-to-back as a single piece.

If you enjoyed this piece, have comments or corrections, we'd love to hear from you.

This music is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence.