Perhaps the most memorable image for me, watching the Royal Wedding over here on CBS, was the number of people in London streets able to sing 'Jerusalem'. I also thought how lucky the British are to have had composers like Parry, Walton and Elgar who could write music to match imperial occasions or any occasion: living in an age when composers wrote for something bigger and more important to them than their own selves - the occasion, the subject, the patron or the audience. The other composers on this occasion were also able to write suitable music too - Rutter, Mealor and the fanfares by Wing Commander Stubbs. But the other striking feature of the music by Walton and Parry is it achieves this sense of occasion without losing any of its own - what Stravinsky would have called - 'physiognomy'. It's still instantly recognisable as those composers' music. Nothing is lost by serving the occasion.
The other 'heresy' that struck me while watching people in the street sing 'Jerusalem' was: "The Monarchy is not going away any time soon." Even in Australia, the republic is, say, 138 behind maybe 137 other more pressing issues. And perhaps, heresy number 3: it deserves to be.
The most substantial objection to a continuation of the monarchy in Australia would probably be the reserve powers of the governor-general, who can, and has (in 1975), sacked the democratically-elected parliament and closed down the parliament that immediately voted to restore that government. But even in a republic, someone will probably have that power. I would hope that it would be someone more qualified than a Logie winner or Olympic gold-medallist. But we don't know. Where is the detail? Where is the argument? "We should"; "it's time"; "the country around Alhyekelyelhe is nothing like the Cotswalds" (actually that's my argument). But think about what happened here - over two decades of argument from John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer to the Bill of Rights, 85 articles of roughly 2,000 words' length trying to convince just the New York legislature to ratify the Constitution (that is, The Federalist Papers). The American colonists wanted a republic so badly the guys at Philadelphia pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honour to the cause. I suspect Australians would always prefer to go to the beach before it gets to that.
PS. I also loved the trees (English field maples and hornbeams) down the nave. It was good enough to be a transformation scene from Parsifal. But this was the truly modern touch for me.
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