America/God save the Queen/King Source: pre 1745
- last year
Title: AMERICA (Thesaurus Musicus)
Composer: Henry Carey
Source: Thesaurus Musicus, 1744, Harmonia Anglicana, 1742
Copyright of music score: Public Domain
https://hymnary.org/tune/america_thesaurusmusicus
The origins of “God Save the Queen” are lost in obscurity, but there is no doubt whatever that the words and the tune, as we know them today, suddenly became widely popular in September, 1745. In that month, demonstrations of loyalty to the reigning house were in special demand.
Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, had routed Cope at Prestonpans, and was about to invade England; London was preparing to defend itself and its Hanoverian rulers. An example of popular feeling was given on September 28th when the entire male caste of Drury Lane theatre announced their intention of forming a special unit of the Volunteer Defence Force. That evening they gave a performance of Jonson’s The Alchemist. At its conclusion there was an additional item. Three of the leading singers of the day—Mrs. Cibber, Beard and Reinhold —stepped forward and began a special anthem:
“God bless our Noble King,
God Save great George our King ...”
Neither words nor music were new. They had been published in 1744 in the Thesaurus Musicus. Dr. Thomas Arne compiled Drury Lane’s version in September 1745, and one of his younger pupils, Charles Burney, produced the setting for Covent Garden. Sixty years later, the eminent Dr. Burney recalled some interesting facts about the origins of the anthem for the benefit of his friend Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist. Burney, in common with all contemporaries dealing with the 1745 versions, referred to an “old tune” and an “old anthem.”
He continued:
“Old Mrs. Arne, the mother of Dr. Arne and Mrs. Cibber, a bigotted Roman Catholic, said she had heard it sung not only at the playhouse but in the street when the Prince of Orange was hovering over the coast.”
On a later occasion Burney was more definite:
“the earliest copy of the words we are acquainted with begin—God Save Great James Our King. I asked Dr. Arne if he knew who the composer was: he said he had not the least knowledge ... but that it was a received opinion that it was written and composed for the Catholic Chapel of James II.”
This is not unlikely. Musicians trace the origins of the melody from a medieval plainsong chant and on, through a carol, to a tune by the Elizabethan, John Bull. At the end of the seventeenth century, Purcell wrote a few bars which are almost identical with the opening phrases of the Arne and Burney versions. There is not a shred of reliable evidence that either Henry Carey or the French composer, Lully, had a hand in the music.
Composer: Henry Carey
Source: Thesaurus Musicus, 1744, Harmonia Anglicana, 1742
Copyright of music score: Public Domain
https://hymnary.org/tune/america_thesaurusmusicus
The origins of “God Save the Queen” are lost in obscurity, but there is no doubt whatever that the words and the tune, as we know them today, suddenly became widely popular in September, 1745. In that month, demonstrations of loyalty to the reigning house were in special demand.
Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, had routed Cope at Prestonpans, and was about to invade England; London was preparing to defend itself and its Hanoverian rulers. An example of popular feeling was given on September 28th when the entire male caste of Drury Lane theatre announced their intention of forming a special unit of the Volunteer Defence Force. That evening they gave a performance of Jonson’s The Alchemist. At its conclusion there was an additional item. Three of the leading singers of the day—Mrs. Cibber, Beard and Reinhold —stepped forward and began a special anthem:
“God bless our Noble King,
God Save great George our King ...”
Neither words nor music were new. They had been published in 1744 in the Thesaurus Musicus. Dr. Thomas Arne compiled Drury Lane’s version in September 1745, and one of his younger pupils, Charles Burney, produced the setting for Covent Garden. Sixty years later, the eminent Dr. Burney recalled some interesting facts about the origins of the anthem for the benefit of his friend Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist. Burney, in common with all contemporaries dealing with the 1745 versions, referred to an “old tune” and an “old anthem.”
He continued:
“Old Mrs. Arne, the mother of Dr. Arne and Mrs. Cibber, a bigotted Roman Catholic, said she had heard it sung not only at the playhouse but in the street when the Prince of Orange was hovering over the coast.”
On a later occasion Burney was more definite:
“the earliest copy of the words we are acquainted with begin—God Save Great James Our King. I asked Dr. Arne if he knew who the composer was: he said he had not the least knowledge ... but that it was a received opinion that it was written and composed for the Catholic Chapel of James II.”
This is not unlikely. Musicians trace the origins of the melody from a medieval plainsong chant and on, through a carol, to a tune by the Elizabethan, John Bull. At the end of the seventeenth century, Purcell wrote a few bars which are almost identical with the opening phrases of the Arne and Burney versions. There is not a shred of reliable evidence that either Henry Carey or the French composer, Lully, had a hand in the music.