King and Queen are played song written for 20th anniversary
The King and Queen attended a church service near Balmoral where they heard a new piece of music celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary.
Their Majesties waved to onlookers as they exited their car outside the tiny granite Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, on Sunday.
The King was in a kilt and tweed jacket while the Queen wore a blue coat with a tartan lapel and a red hat decorated with a feather.
Before entering the church, the couple were given a handwritten manuscript of The Weather of My Being, the new piece composed by Prof Paul Mealor.
Prof Mealor, who has created music for a number of royal events including Prince and Princess of Wales's wedding and several of the King's birthdays, also gave the Royal couple a volume containing all the music he composed for their coronation in 2023.
The composer said he decided to mark the King and Queen's anniversary by 'set(ting) great poetry to music', which he said combined the King's love of music with the Queen's love of literature.
He said: 'So I wrote it, and then sent it to them, and then they said, 'why not perform it now, just literally after the wedding anniversary?'
'So we had the premiere today at the service, which was very powerful'.
The new piece was performed by St John's Festival Choir during the hour-long service.
Asked for their reaction to hearing the performance, Prof Mealor said: 'They were beaming, it was very nice, and they thanked me very much at the end.'
He added that they were 'very touched' to have been given the manuscript of the new piece.
The piece is made up of three anniversary songs, with each designed to reflect a different aspect of enduring love.
The first song, to a poem by Daniel Hoffman, compares love to the seasons – ever-changing and ever-staying the same – while giving a nod to the King's love of nature and the environment.
The second is a setting of words from the Bible's Song of Solomon, and is about the desire for a profound and unwavering love while reflecting the King and Queen's faith.
The third and final song is a setting of Robert Burns's famous poem A Red, Red Rose, and reflects the Queen's love and support of literature and reading, as well as the Royal couple's love of Scotland, where they celebrated their honeymoon in 2005.
The composer said: 'Today is very special because this is the place where they spent their honeymoon, in Birkhall, and so it was lovely, pretty much on the time that they would have been doing that 20 years ago, that we performed this new piece.
'So for me, that was the special thing, and that each of the texts, each of the lyrics, has a real connection to Their Majesties.
'I thought that that was powerful, and then trying to add something new with the music, like any song. So it was very special. Then, having all my friends sing it was lovely.'
The couple's actual anniversary on April 2 fell during their state visit to Italy.
During their tour, they met with the convalescing Pope at the Vatican and enjoyed a state banquet in their honour.
Speaking to the British press during a school visit in the middle of the tour, which ended on Thursday, Queen Camilla said her husband, who is receiving ongoing cancer treatment, 'loves his work' and wants to do 'more and more and more' as he gets better.
'That's the problem,' she added.
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