Wouter Joubert, the composer of the tune wrote on the Strathspey Mailing List:
“I got around tonight to work out the chords for a tune in honour of the late Prince Philip,
Duke of Edinburgh, who lived just a few months short of a hundred. The tune was
composed on the day of his funeral.”
His comment on reading “Gravitas” was:
“Those mirror reels, especially with the couples taking hands, has the feeling of a stately
procession. Your whole dance seems to embody the twists and turns of life which, even
when it comes full circle, does not finish precisely where it started because all those
twists and turns of life change and shape a person into who they are at the end.”