Hoyle, Vernon - Fantasia On Westminster Abbey

The tune was written to be sung to repeated ‘Alleluias’ at the end of Henry Purcell’s anthem ‘O God, Thou are my God’. It was adapted as a hymn tune in 1842 by Ernest Hawkins, a Canon of Westminster Abbey where Purcell had been organist. It did not become popular however until it was sung at Princess Margaret’s wedding in the Abbey in 1960, where it made a thrilling sound in that great space and endeared itself to many.