Zadok the Priest, HWV 258

Zadok the Priest was written for the coronation of George II in Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1727, one of four anthems Handel supplied for the occasion; he had become a British subject only that February. The text, from the first book of Kings, had been used at English coronations since the tenth century. Handel's setting opens with twenty-three bars of rising string arpeggios before the choir enters on a single chord, and it has been sung at every British coronation since. The premiere itself went awry through poor rehearsal.