125: Zadok the Priest

 Today marks 3 years since the coronation of Charles III (but not 3 years since the beginning of his reign; he had been King for several months when he was crowned). To celebrate, I thought I’d focus today’s article on one of the few things that has remained exactly the same for almost 300 years, since the coronation of George II in 1727 (his son George III was the King during the Revolutionary War, from 1760 until 1820). Every king or queen since George II has taken off most of their clothing, been anointed with Chrism oil  by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the head, hands, and heart (out of view of the public, for the monarch’s privacy, and for the sacredness of the ritual) and been dressed again as Handel’s “Zadok the Priest” is played.

“Zadok” has several parts: an instrumental introduction, the first entrance, a dance, and an invocation of blessing upon the monarch. This video does a great job walking you through the first very widely-recognized section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA3hGeGGvnU. You’ll hear the opening section 3 times. Once (with the original creators voice-over) with the chords played as chords, a second time played as written but displayed as chords on the screen with a wonderful commentary underneath, and a third and final time displayed and sounded exactly as written. Use the first two run-throughs to familiarize yourself with the sound, and use the third (with your eyes closed, for an added challenge) to say out loud what the chords are as you hear them in real time for a great ear training exercise. If you ever get a chance to play it, be careful to not rush this opening section. A continuous stream of sixteenths like this, with eighths underneath, will always want to rush. Fight that urge and stay as steady as possible. 

There should always be an element of shock moving from the first part (the chords) to the second (the first vocal entrance). The chords move through a wide dynamic range, beginning very softly—piano, or perhaps even pianissimo—growing very gradually. Then, suddenly, we are hit, fortissimo with the Biblical account of the anointing of Zadok by Nathan, in homophony, ending on a half cadence to the dominant, A.

After this, we immediately return to D, but take on a completely different character as we begin to dance around “And all the people rejoiced.” The dotted rhythm of this section both gives it an enormous amount of energy (by a different mechanism than the one from which the first section derived its energy) and gives it an almost folk-like quality not seen in the other sections. It too ends with a half-cadence to A (because this whole time we’ve always been in D, so ending in A means we end on V).

The next, longest, and last section, is a prayer of blessing and protection for the monarch. Just as with so many other Baroque works we’ve already covered, Zadok follows the quintessential recipe: “trumpets + timpani + loud = God and/or King.” This is the most musically complex section, since we constantly bounce around between homophony and counterpoint, which could be splitting the choir in half, or between the choir and the orchestra, or both. In any case, the grandeur and solemnity of the occasion are never lost. 

Here are some great recordings:

1. In Halle, Germany, where Handel was baptized: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xWhclVLQyI&list=RD5xWhclVLQyI&start_radio=1

2. At the Coronation of Charles III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm_PNbQebdA&list=RDSm_PNbQebdA&start_radio=1

3. At the Coronation of Elizabeth II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3qH0rpwwe4&list=RDY3qH0rpwwe4&start_radio=1

4. For organ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH27cslYMi0&list=RDiH27cslYMi0&start_radio=1


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