Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode

[2] It was Masefield's first commission as Poet Laureate, and Elgar, as Master of the King's Musick, was requested to set the verses in mid-May 1932, shortly before his seventy-fifth birthday.

At the beginning of the ceremony outside Marlborough House, Elgar, wearing magnificent robes, conducted the chorister children of the Chapels Royal, the choir of Westminster Abbey,[5] and the band of the Guards in a performance of the Ode.

The work starts with a short fanfare-like figure, followed by a lengthy prelude[8] by the orchestra (or band) before the choir enters, unaccompanied, with the words "So many true princesses who have gone".

So many true princesses who have gone Over the sea, as love or duty bade, To share abroad, till Death a foreign throne, Have given all things, and been ill repaid.

Here, at this place, she often sat to mark The tide of London life go roaring by, The day-long multitude, the lighted dark, The night-long wheels, the glaring in the sky.