Music and Monarchy

Tying-in with a 4-part BBC TV series presented by David Starkey, this audiobook offers a new history of Britain through music, showing how the Royal Court shaped the musical landscape of Britain.

Many of our current musical symbols of nationhood - from the 'Last Night of the Proms' to football terraces erupting in song - have their origins in the way the Crown deliberately shaped the national soundtrack.

This is a story of song and power, exploring how Henry VIII subverted the Reformation he started by protecting a sacred choral tradition he loved; how Henry Purcell's music was designed to help make Charles II more palatable to his subjects; how opera in Georgian London is a story of political infighting between the King and his son; and how the coronation of Elizabeth II, and the music of Vaughan Williams, represented the last dramatic moment of Church and State coming together in all its grandeur.