Preparations for progress were not just about packing the right tapestries or ordering enough food, they were also about people and their roles in the king's court. One significant feature of Henry VIII's daily life was music and a key part of that when 'at home' was the singing of the daily offices by The Chapel Royal. This professional choir was composed of men and boys, much like many cathedral choirs today. Highly trained, they sang for worship, but also provided people and music at other events such as the court masques.
It was not practical for the whole choir to go on progress with the king, so a smaller 'Riding Chapel' would be selected to travel with him, composed of both men and boys. For the boys in particular this would have been a great adventure, a chance to visit places they had only heard of, and potentially to be 'spotted' by possible future patrons or employers. In this project we have chosen to capture some of that excitement of the young boys who have been chosen to go in a short film using two of the current choristers of the Chapel Royal, Nick and Tom.
We were able to film this at Hampton Court, with the support of Historic Royal Palaces staff, using locations that Henry's choristers would have known and we have imagined them chatting excitedly about the journey ahead. The details of the progress they are looking forward to, the 1522 one to the southern counties, are all drawn from the documentary research undertaken during the course of the project. These include accounts for accommodation, locations, music to be taken and events attended. We also drew heavily for the script on the project's research into the chapel personnel, particularly the composers and the name of a 'star' chorister, Robin, who (as a member then of Cardinal Wolsey's chapel choir) had indeed taken part in a 'sing-off' between that choir and the Chapel Royal. Wolsey's choir had surpassed Henry's, and Robin had been 'gifted' to the Chapel Royal to avoid losing Henry's favour.
Of course, although we chose locations within Hampton Court carefully, the building has not stood still so we needed to work around that. We filmed with Ignite Creative who brilliantly managed some bits of post-production to replace electric lights with candles and to 'lose' some pieces of modern ironmongery. The two choristers handled the concept exceptionally well, really evoking the sense that we were eavesdropping on conversations from five centuries ago, and bringing to life the human story of progress. In a telescoping of time, these gifted young twenty-first century boys knew the Tudor composers we were referencing and were familiar with some of the pieces being discussed.
The music accompanying the film, Henry VIII on Tour: Music from Tudor Royal Progresses, was another of our project outputs and was recorded by Ensemble Pro Victoria on Delphian Records.
Watch the full film below:
