The King shall rejoice is a new anthem by Bob Chilcott for mixed choir and organ, composed for the service at Westminster Abbey, London, on 4th June 2013 to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780193397668.do)

Chilcott says, ‘It is 60 years since Her Majesty The Queen pledged herself to the service of our country and I am deeply honoured to contribute to this service of celebration at Westminster Abbey’.

The King shall rejoice was commissioned by The Dean and Chapter of Westminster and sponsored by many of the choristers who sang in the Coronation Service in 1953. The Choir of Westminster Abbey was joined by the Children and Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, and conducted by James O’Donnell.

In it Chilcott combines two texts, the first taking the opening six verses of Psalm 21, ‘The King shall rejoice in thy strength, O Lord’. Four verses of the same text were set famously by George Frideric Handel in his coronation anthem ‘The King shall rejoice’, written in 1727 for the coronation of King George II. The second text uses an adapted version of the same six Psalm verses set by the composer William Byrd in his anthem ‘O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen’ in honour of Queen Elizabeth I.

This anthem is published by Oxford University Press