Land of dope and snoring

[undyingking]

If you're respectably at work or somewhere today rather than able to watch the TV at lunch like me, you may not be aware that a minor hoo-hah is afoot about England's anthem at the Commonwealth Games.

At previous such events, when an English competitor / team won gold, the medal ceremony was soundtracked by 'Land of Hope and Glory'. This time round though there was a public poll which prompted a change to use 'Jerusalem' instead.

Now it's actually happening though, people are complaining that they don't know the words and that it goes on too long.

I don't know about you, but I missed the poll at the time, so here I will in part recreate it and also add some extras.

[Poll #1627902]

I personally favour Jerusalem, because I think William Blake's poetry rather more inspiring than the bombastic hackwork that AC Benson churned out for Land of Hope and Glory. For one thing, the line about "Wider and still wider / Shall thy bounds be set" seems singularly inappropriate for a Commonwealth event involving countries who owe their existence to the belated retrenchment of those bounds. Also, it seems to me that piously hoping that God will make the nation mightier runs a poor second to strapping on one's bow of burning gold and setting out to achieve a better England directly by human effort.

(And LoHaG is the anthem of the Conservative Party, while Jerusalem was the anthem of the women's suffrage movement. There you go.)

I wonder though why 'I Vow to Thee, My Country' wasn't offered as an option? Maybe too slow…

Comments

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't realize you couldn't have instrumental music that happened to have had a hymn set to it. Seems very harsh.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Aye. Uncivil, even.

Is it a demarcation issue?

[chilledchimp.livejournal.com]

I knew you couldn't have hymns, so I didn't even ask the Registrar. There was also the Diana thing - most people know it as I Vow to Thee... and I didn't want them thinking I was copying Charles and Di. There are Daily Mail readers in the family.

I agree with ninthcouncil - God Save the Queen is tedious. The only good version is by Al Murray and Dean Gaffney and involves the Queen falling into her chest freezer whilst trying to retrieve a swan for dinner.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

S'true. God Save the Queen is tedious. The tune always sounds like it needs winding up. I prefer Rule Britannia myself - largely for the tune. OK, some of the words may be a *smidgeon* on the bombastic side, but surely we could re-adopt it in a sort of post-modern, ironic way?

[ninthcouncil.livejournal.com]

Bizarrely, GstQ's rubbish tune has infected the rest of the world - there's a US version called God Bless America, it's been used by several different countries over time (including Russia (!) and Switzerland).

At least one other nation still has it as their anthem ("Oben am jungen Rhein"), as Scots football fans discovered to their vocal displeasure when playing Liechtenstein a few weeks ago....

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I think God Bless America is a different tune, written by Irving Berlin in the 1920s. You may be thinking of My Country, 'Tis of Thee, which is sung to the GSTQ tune (although apparently the setter was unaware of this, he thought it was a German folk tune :-)

[ninthcouncil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you're right. OF course, the Americans also think the Red Flag is a German folk tune ;)

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I knew about the Swiss one - I used to have a lot of Swiss friends when I was doing TEFL. One of them insisted that we stole it from them. IIRC, it was written by Benjamin Britten, which makes it a remarkably simple one to defend!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

GStQ? I think it's a lot older than Britten -- it dates back to the Hanoverian takeover iirc.

I think the reason it got taken up such a lot elsewhere was that it was pretty much the first purpose-written national anthem; and lesser other nations who liked the idea at first thought they should just apply their own words to this tune, rather than also getting their own tune.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

You are right of course.

Where on Earth did I get that from? I know there was some connection that I'd heard with Britten, whether it was an arrangement he did or what, I can't remember, but yes, I was talking nonsense. Sorry about that.