Master of the Queen’s Music

Master of the Queen's Music (or Master of the King's Music, or earlier Master of the King's Musick) is a post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The holder of the post originally served the monarch of England, directing the court orchestra and composing or commissioning music as required.

The post is broadly comparable to that of Poet Laureate. It is given to people eminent in the field of classical music; they have almost always been composers. Duties are not clearly stated, though it is generally expected the holder of the post will write music to commemorate important royal events, such as coronations, birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and deaths, and to accompany other ceremonial occasions. The individual may also act as the Sovereign's adviser in musical matters. Since 2004 the appointment has been for a fixed term of ten years rather than for life, as previously.

In the 14th century professional music-making in England was theoretically regulated by the Crown. Musicians known as the "King's Minstrels" or the "King's Musick" wore the royal livery and exercised some control of other musicians, although the musicologist Leonard Duck describes that control as "nominal".Henry VI appointed a Royal Commission to regulate unlicensed minstrelsy and in 1469 Edward IV granted the royal minstrels a Guild charter. According to the charter, "no Minstrel of our Kingdom ... shall henceforth in any way practise or publicly exercise the art or occupation within our Kingdom aforesaid, unless he belong to the said Brotherhood or Guild". This led to legal difficulties between the royal minstrels and the City Company under the patronage of the City of London, chartered by James I in 1604 to perform in the City and three miles outside it. The King's Minstrels requested and received a charter from Charles I in 1635 to "have the survey, scrutinie, correction and government of all and singular the musicians within the kingdome of England".

The first appointed Master of the King's Musick was the only one seriously to attempt to rule all the musicians in the kingdom as a guild. This was Nicholas Lanier, appointed by Charles I in 1626 as Master of the King's Musick (the spelling was changed to "Music" in the 20th century, during Sir Edward Elgar's tenure). At that time the holder of the post took charge of the monarch's private band, a responsibility which continued until the band was dissolved in 1901 by Edward VII.

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