On this date in 1745 the first performance of God Save the King in a theatre took place. 10 things you might not know about the British National Anthem.
This first performance came about after Prince Charles Edward Stuart had defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. When the news reached London that the Young Pretender was preparing to invade England, the male cast of the Drury Lane theatre announced they were gong to form a special unit of the Volunteer Defence Force. That evening they gave a performance of Jonson’s The Alchemist. At the end of the evening, three of the leading singers of the day—Mrs. Cibber, Beard and Reinhold —stepped forward and sang God Save the King.
The tune had been around for a long time before that. Nobody knows who actually wrote it. John Bull, Thomas Ravenscroft, Henry Purcell and Henry Carey have all been nominated as possible candidates. It has also been suggested that it was an ancient Irish tune.
The lyrics have potentially been around even longer. The phrase “God Save the King” occurs in several places in the earliest English translations of The Bible. It was also used in the navy from 1544. The watchword for the day as “God Save King Henry” and the reply was “Long to Reign Over Us.” Other lyrics, such as “Scatter Our Enemies” and “Confound Their Devices” were often used in prayers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
As well as the UK, it’s the anthem for crown dependencies and members of the Commonwealth, perhaps, as is the case in New Zealand, one of two official national anthems.
The tune must arouse a measure of patriotic fervour all by itself as there are a number of patriotic songs with the same melody in other countries. The national anthem of Liechenstein, "Oben am jungen Rhein", and the royal anthem of Norway, "Kongesangen" both use the same tune as did the national anthem "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" ("Hail to thee in the Victor's Crown") of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1795. Even Russia used it in "The Prayer of Russians", the imperial anthem of Russia from 1816 to 1833, and Switzerland for the song "Rufst du, mein Vaterland". Not forgetting the US version, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee".
Generally in the UK, only the first verse is sung, although there are three official verses and any number of variations which have been adopted on occasions throughout history.
It was the first piece of music to be played on a computer. Three years after Alan Turing created a programme which allowed a computer to generate musical notes, A performance of the National Anthem was programmed by Christopher Strachey on the Mark II Manchester Electronic Computer in 1951.
The first coronation at which it was sung was that of George IV.
At the most recent one in 2023, the only person who didn’t join in the rendition was the King himself, as the song is traditionally sung to him.
Jimi Hendrix played an impromptu version to open his set at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. Just before walking onto the stage, he asked "How does it go again?". Hendrix gave it the same treatment as "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
NEW!!
The Gingerbread Man
A short story collection including aliens, princes and princesses, dragons, superhero origin stories and of course, a gingerbread man.
No comments:
Post a Comment