A Queen and a Princess

Song For Athene; Sir John Tavener, composer; The Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Stephen Cleobury, conducting

In late August of 1997, the Delta Queen steamboat headed her stern up the Kanawha River in West Virginia for the first time. She had been invited to preside over the annual paddlewheeler festival in the capital city of Charleston over the Labor Day weekend. So, to prepare for the event, the company had sent out special brochures to trumpet the esteemed event, and the crew had spruced up the old girl to show her at her finest.

Then the news came a few weeks before the Delta Queen’s grand arrival. The brand, spankin’ new Winfield Lock and Dam, thirty-one miles upriver from the mouth of the Kanawha River at Point Pleasant, wouldn’t be finished in time for the Labor Day weekend. We had no way of getting the boat all the way up river. I was disappointed. It’s always fun when a boat or a ship makes a first stop in a city. But, our hosts in Charleston promised us that the lock would be finished in time for the event the following year.

In the mean time, the lovely Delta Queen remained tied up in Point Pleasant for a couple of days. It was here, in the quiet of an early evening, that we heard about the passing of Diana, Princess of Wales. Just a few weeks before, I had taken leave to grieve with my family upon the death of my Uncle M. To have this happen so quickly on the heals of the other only served to rekindle my awareness of the preciousness of human life.

I immediately recognized the category in which the Princess would now be seen. She would remain forever timeless, bathed in the beauty of youth. It’s a popular club. President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy, Jr., James Dean, Princess Grace Kelly, Buddy Holly, Michael Jackson, Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. People who are bigger than life itself, who speak encyclopedia volumes by merely stepping out of a car, or smiling at the right camera, or, and this is my favorite, by speaking intelligently.

I recall two instances during the course of the Princess’ funeral. The image of the Princes, Charles, William and Harry, and Charles, the Ninth Earl Spencer, brother to the Princess, following the funeral procession to the Abbey will never go away. But it was while her coffin was carried out of the Abbey on the shoulders of eight Welsh Guards that I heard something musical with which I could mark and remember this hour and this day.

“Song for Athene”, by British composer John Tavener, seemingly sent the Princess to Heaven on the wings of seven “Alleluias”, the sixth of which finds a climax when “weeping at the grave creates the song: Allelulia”. A drone continues throughout the four-minute work.

The following year, the Delta Queen made her triumphal arrival and reigned over the Labor Day weekend festivities. It was a much happier occasion. I don’t recall any deaths or funerals.

Credits: To the Winfield Lock and Dam. You were late but you are beautiful.

This is my normal Saturday individual track posting.