THE PRINCE ALBERT Te Deum is a nineteenth-century Anglican choral mini-masterpiece which deserves to be better known. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861) was, as you may know, the husband of Queen Victoria. Less well-known, though, is that he was also a fine Christian man and a generally multi-talented bloke. His was the genius that drove the Great London Exhibition of 1851, which led to the building of the Crystal Palace and many other London landmarks. And his remarkable talents extended into music.
Prince Albert moved in the best musical circles. He was a close friend of the composer Felix Mendelssohn, who was a regular guest of the Prince in London. Through this friendship Mendelssohn’s links with England blossomed. This led to the first British performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Birmingham in 1837, and ultimately to the founding of the London Bach Society. It also led to the commissioning of Mendelssohn’s Elijah for the 1845 Birmingham Festival.
But Prince Albert was a composer himself. And, in 1845, he composed this Te Deum Laudamus (God, we praise you), at the relatively-tender age of twenty-six. He wrote it for an event in Westminster Abbey that year.
After that, we hear nothing of it for over forty years. But in 1887—as I’m reliably informed by Professor John Pickard of Bristol University—another performance took place in Lichfield Cathedral as part of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, as was told by the composer Havergal Brian. Brian related how, at the age of eleven, he sang in the Cathedral choir and was so moved by the music that it influenced the second movement of his vast Gothic Symphony for 1,000 voices. And it is possible, even likely, that there were other performances in Britain in that Golden Jubilee year.
Since then, I’m not aware of any other performances at all until 2021 when we multitracked our version (below) in Holy Trinity Brussels during the COVID pandemic. There was a rumour of a planned performance by The Really Big Chorus in the Royal Albert Hall on 11 July 2021. But I can find no evidence that it took place. It may have fallen victim to COVID regulations.
The text of the Te Deum Laudamus is one of the great hymns of the early Latin church. Tradition has it that when Saint Ambrose baptized Saint Augustine the two of them spontaneously improvised the hymn in responsory verse. Whether or not that is so, its triumphant tone guaranteed its survival over the centuries. It came to represent great and royal themes, like prayers for the monarch’s birthday, or thanksgiving for victory in war.
TWO EDITIONS OF THE PRINCE ALBERT TE DEUM
Prince Albert died in 1861 at the age of only 42, leaving the Queen heart-broken. Twenty years later, in 1882, W.G. Cusins, Master of the Queen’s Musick, and Queen Victoria’s private organist, published a collected edition of the Prince’s musical compositions. This included the Te Deum and other liturgical music by the Prince. Cusins had known the Prince well, so the edition carries some authority.
Yet Cusins’s edition differs in one important detail from another version of the Te Deum that was in circulation in the early twentieth century. This other version features dramatic top As in the soprano part at the words “continually do cry”. I am most grateful to Chris Upton, who found a copy of this score in a junk shop, and to Douglas Brooks-Davies, for making this score public.
Armed with this better version of the score, I gathered our singers in Holy Trinity Brussels. The result was the first-ever recording of the Prince Albert Te Deum. We are quietly proud of this musical first which we hope will make this little masterpiece better known. The soli are: Lydia Stoddart (Soprano); Kristina Mascher-Turner (Alto); Jonathan Halliwell (Tenor); Ian White (Bass).
You can hear more of our recordings on the Bright Morning Star YouTube channel or on the Videos page.