Background to the piece
This piece will start the second half of our concert and will be accompanied by players from the Youth Orchestra. It is like a vocal fanfare. Handel wrote Zadok the Priest for the coronation of King George II in 1727 and we’re likely to hear it being sung again next year sometime for another coronation.
We will be singing an edited version based on the BBC Ten Pieces Zadok the Priest. There is a lot of information on the BBC website, along with links to performances.
How we will perform the song
The song is in four parts – three upper voice parts and a part for changed voices.
Please note that the parts we will be using are not the same as the ones on the BBC website.
The primary choirs will be singing Primary 1 and Primary 2 parts
Secondary upper voices will be singing the Secondary Upper part.
Secondary changed voices will be singing the Changed Voices part.
Please be very precise with note lengths and cut offs.
There are a few tricky bits where we’ve had to make decisions about which octave notes should be in – sections D and E for the secondary upper voices are quite challenging and not very musical. Apologies – it all sounds fine in context.
If the changed voice part is too low when it goes down to bottom Bb, students should sing that bit up the octave.