Edward Miller, organist of Doncaster parish church and an influential psalmody composer, was the author of the ingenious arrangement of the Dead March in Saul as the funeral hymn Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb. For this performance we imagined it being sung at the graveside during a public funeral, accompanied by the wind band of the local militia, and scored for the standard military band of the time: two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons. This recording was made soon after Princess Diana’s death, so we chose to sing ‘she must ascend’ in the refrain rather than ‘he must ascend’.

from notes by Peter Holman © 1998