Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary

Purcell’s last church music was written for the funeral of Queen Mary in Westminster Abbey in March 1695. The “March” and “Canzona” Z860 (the catalogue number given by Zimmerman in 1963) were intended for four “flatt” (slide) trumpets, which offered a wider range of notes than the conventional “natural” trumpet. The simple “March” solemnly “sounded before her Chariot” (i.e., in front of the Queen’s bier while she lay in state); while the skilful “Canzona” was “sounded in the Abbey after the Anthem”. The restrained anthem “Thou know’st, Lord Z58c” is strictly chordal throughout, enlivened by intense (chromatic) harmonies and doubled by the brass. Purcell may have written it specifically to fit into Thomas Morley’s Burial Service (often used for state funerals), or he could have revived his own earlier settings of the burial sentences “Man That is Born of a Woman” and “In the Midst of Life”. An eyewitness account records that the plain simplicity of the music moved the congregation to tears. Eight months later it accompanied Purcell’s own funeral.