 |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||
This article is on the British patriotic anthem. For the Sex Pistols song, see God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols).
God Save the Queen is a patriotic song whose author is unknown. It is traditionally used as the national anthem of the United Kingdom, one of the two national anthems of New Zealand, and the royal anthem of Canada and the other Commonwealth realms, as well as the royal anthem of the British Royal Family. When the British monarch is male it becomes God Save the King, as it was originally sung.
It should be noted that there is no authorised version. Indeed the anthem has never been officially adopted by Royal Proclamation nor Act of Parliament. In general only one, or rarely two, verses are ever sung . There has been some debate about replacing God Save the Queen with Jerusalem, another patriotic song popular in England.
It's now generally thought that the melody was composed in its present form by Dr. Henry Carey, although many of the musical phrases were present in various earlier melodies, leading to some confusion.
The first public performance of the work is now believed to be when Carey sang it during a dinner in 1740 in honour of Admiral Edward Vernon who had captured the Spanish harbour of Porto Bello (then in Colombia, now Panama during the War of Jenkins' Ear.)
Traditionally, the first performance was thought to have been in 1745, when it was sung in support of George II after the defeat of his army at the Battle of Prestonpans by the Jacobite claimant to the British throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose forces were mostly Scottish. To express this support verse 5 was added, but as its call to crush the rebels now suggests an anti-Scottish sentiment it is rarely (if ever) sung nowadays.
It was formerly used as a national anthem by most of the Commonwealth Realms, including Australia, Canada, and Jamaica. It has since been replaced by Advance Australia Fair, O Canada, and Jamaica, Land We Love respectively, though it remains those countries' royal anthem. It continues to be recognised as the national anthem of New Zealand, together with God Defend New Zealand. It is also the former national anthem of Ireland, replaced in the 1920s by Amhrán na bhFiann (in English, 'The Soldier's Song').
God Save the Queen was the very first song to be used as a national anthem, and its tune was either used as or officially adopted as the national anthem for several other countries, including those of Denmark, Germany (unofficial), Russia (until 1833), Sweden and Switzerland.
The tune is still used as the national anthem of Liechtenstein. This was a source of embarrassment to Winter Olympic officials in 1980 when Hanni Wenzell won this country's first gold medal ever, and they had no record of her country's national anthem. It is also the melody to the popular United States song My Country, Tis of Thee. The tune is also used as Norway's Royal anthem entitled Kongesangen. The rock band Queen played God Save the Queen at the end of all of their concerts.
Frequently, when an anthem is needed for one of the component countries of the UK — at an international sporting event, for instance — an alternate song is used:
Traditionally the tune is played at a slow and sombre pace which many consider to be dreary. Occasionally events use a faster and livelier beat to reduce that effect. Comedian Billy Connolly performed a sketch broadcast on TV comparing the UK's slow tune to the lively ones of many other nations and suggested that it should be replaced by the theme tune to The Archers.
At the end of theatre performances the audience was expected to stand to attention while the anthem was played. In cinemas this brought a tendency for audiences to rush out while the credits played at the end of the film to avoid this formality.
The anthem was traditionally played at closedown on BBC One and in some ITV regions. ITV dropped this practice in the late 1980s, but it continued on BBC One until November 1997 and is still done on BBC Radio 4.
The rock band Queen put a version of God Save the Queen on their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. During the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace on June 4, 2002, Brian May performed the anthem on electric guitar from the palace roof.
In 1977 during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, a punk rock band called The Sex Pistols released an anarchistic and anti-royalist song with the same title. Attempting to play the song from a boat on the river Thames outside the Palace of Westminster on the Jubilee holiday itself (a day which was billed as a national party), the band was arrested by the British police. See: God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols).
Since God Save the Queen is the Royal Anthem of Canada, the first verse has been translated into French for use in that country, as shown below. As sung in English in Canada, God Save the Queen has an additional English verse, sung after the first or second verse, which is also given below.
1
2
3
Although in the original lyrics, verses 4-5 are now omitted entirely - partly to reduce the length of the anthem and partly due to the 'rebellious Scots to crush' line in verse five:
4
5
While verse 5 had been added in response to the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Prestonpans, after the Jacobite forces retreated from Derby and their garrison at Carlisle surrendered to King George's son the Duke of Cumberland another verse was added:
6
In the 19th Century, there was some lively debate about the national anthem. Even then, verse two was considered to be slightly offensive. Notably, the question arose over the phrase "scatter her (or his) enemies". Some thought it placed better emphasis on the respective power of Parliament and the Crown to change "her" to "our"; others pointed out that the theology was somewhat dubious and substituted "thine" instead. In 1836, Oben am jungen Rhein, national anthem of Liechtenstein, sung to the same music
|
||||
| View Live Article | This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License | |
||
