What, I wondered, could that have been?Her Majesty unveiled a plaque commemorating her visit to the cathedral after a special Worcestershire-themed service led by the Bishop of Worcester the Right Reverend Dr John Inge, which included the audience singing an excerpt from JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings to Elgar’s Land Of Hope And Glory before finishing with the National Anthem.
The official press release from Worcester Cathedral was not much help:
The audience, which included more than 300 schoolchildren, joined in a refrain based on words by J.R.R. Tolkien in celebration of Worcestershire, sung to Elgar’s tune of Land of Hope and Glory.
So not actually one of the poems in The Lord Of The Rings, and yes, that's right, the representatives of a Cathedral, discussing a Church service, described attendees as "the audience". One of the congregation was a little more revealing on a Worcestershire community website:
We rehearsed a couple of things before The Queen arrived - three lines from J.R.R. Tolkien who said "Any corner of Worcestershire is home to me, as no other part of the world is", set to Elgar's tune of Land of Hope and Glory:Worcestershire is our Shire,
Hill and vale and tree,
Every corner of this Shire is home to me.
And the National Anthem. The three lines were sung three times during the performance.
The line "Hill and vale and tree" (actually a half line) is from the hymn 'For the beauty of the earth' made famous by John Rutter, words by Folliot Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917). As for the rest, it is derived from a remark by Tolkien in a letter to his son Michael, dated 18th March 1941, discussing his maternal relations, the Suffields, who were from the West Midlands and in particular Worcestershire.
Though a Tolkien by name, I am a Suffield by tastes, talents, and upbringing, and any corner of that country (however fair or squalid) is in an indefinable way 'home' to me, as no other part of the world is.
Number 44 in: Humphrey Carpenter ed.,
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, George Allen & Unwin, 1981.
