There was no ‘hidden Unionist code’ in my Queen’s funeral anthem

There were two world premieres during the Queen’s funeral on Monday. One was a beautiful setting of some verses from Psalm 42 by Judith Weir, the Master of the King’s Music, and the other was an anthem by me, a setting of a passage from Romans 8, ‘Who Shall Separate Us From The Love of Christ?’ I wonder if Judith had to deal with some of the questions I got on the day. How could I have written the music so fast considering that Her Majesty only died on 8 September? Of course, these things are planned years in advance, so I composed the anthem some time ago. I was asked to keep quiet about it until Sunday night when the order of service was published. I was told that this passage from Romans 8 was important to the Queen, as it gets right to the heart of her relationship with Jesus. Her Christian faith was an inspiration to millions, perhaps billions, around the world, and her ability to communicate it with devotion and pastoral insight in her Christmas messages and on other occasions was the focus of significance in her life and example. I have rarely reflected so deeply on a text, both while I was setting it and in the years since.

The Queen was a central presence throughout my whole life and in the lives of countless others for many years. Her quiet devotion to this country, this people, this Commonwealth, was the deciding factor for many people in their realisation of just how creative our constitutional monarchy is. I believe that it nurtures a true and profound democracy, perhaps the most successful, the most efficient and the most humane the world has ever seen.