Funeral Sentences and Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary

[2][3] When William Croft was commissioned to write another setting for the burial service, he freely admitted that he had imitated Purcell's style "as near as I could".

Croft preserved the whole of Purcell's "Thou knowest, Lord" within his new work, stating that "The reason why I did not compose that verse anew (so as to render the whole service entirely of my own composition) is obvious to every Artist".

O holy and most merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.

"Thou Knowest Lord" is in E-flat major and is a stirring hymn-like setting with all the voice parts moving in the same rhythm.

Purcell's earlier setting of the fourth sentence of the Burial Service, "Man that is born of a woman", introduces a melancholy theme.

Purcell brings tension to the phrase with "hath but a short time to live", and the melody rises and falls with the words "he cometh up and is cut down like a flower".

With "In the midst of life we are in death", an earlier setting of the fifth sentence, Purcell begins with a soprano part that is passed on to the choir.

[5] Robin Beanland would later adapt the music for the opening cut-scene of Rare Ltd.'s 2001 videogame, Conker's Bad Fur Day, as the scene homages Kubrick's film.