In this year of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubillee I thought it might be appropriate to attempt a list of all the works by both sung and unsung composers in whch the tune of God Save The King/Queen is made use of. This is all I can recall so far:-
(1) Beethoven's "Battle Symphony" ending with a fast fugue on the above tune.
(2) Geoge Onslow's string quartet, Op. 9 No.1 uses it for a set of variations in the 2nd movement.
(3) Heinrich Marscher's Grande Ouverture Solenne of 1842, celebrating the birth of the future King Edward VII, is based largely on God Save the Queen.
I'm sure there are lots more instances of the uses that composers down the years have put to this well known melody. No doubt other members of this forum will be able to fill in a few.
Verdi's "Inno delle Nazioni". Rarely performed, fairly recorded.
Weber: Jubel Overture
Raff: Jubel Overture
David
Sullivan's unfinished "The Emerald Isle" (in the number 'I am the Lord Lieutenant and')
the same composer's "Victoria and Merrie England (also written for a diamond jubilee)
But I must confess I know far more instances of "Rule, Britannia!" being quoted, it seeing to lend itself more to musical play
Johann Strauss I - Huldigung der Königin Victoria von Grossbritannien (Walzer), Op. 103 (1838)
Splendid!
;D
Surely there must be an Elgar.......
J
Quote from: jerfilm on Thursday 03 May 2012, 17:07
Surely there must be an Elgar.......
J
He did his patriotic war-time duty on behalf of Poland (
Polonia, Op.76 - a seriously underrated score), but didn't utilise the British anthem in any composition (besides making the well-known arrangement of it for chorus and orchestra in 1902).
:)
Quote(besides making the well-known arrangement of it for chorus and orchestra in 1902).
Oh sure, John, that's surely what I was thinking of...... I think I was also thinking of the Coronation Ode but didn't that contain an elaborate arrangement of Land of Hope and Glory??
Jerry
Quote from: jerfilm on Thursday 03 May 2012, 17:51I think I was also thinking of the Coronation Ode but didn't that contain an elaborate arrangement of Land of Hope and Glory??
Yep!
Two other examples are:
Alexander Mackenzie -
Youth, Sport, Loyalty, overture, Op.90 (1922) - national anthem used in the final section (presumably to define 'Loyalty')
Joseph Holbrooke -
Triumphal March, for chorus and orchestra, Op.23b (published 1917) - national anthem quoted at the beginning and later in counterpoint, also using
Rule Britannia as well ...
:)
Then again, Mackenzie had already brazenly displayed his monarchist credentials (as it were) by using the tune in the closing pages of his Jubilee Ode (For Fifty Years Our Queen), Op.36 (1887).
;)
Many thanks folks for all your interesting contrbutions to this list. I've since remembered that Clementi, who like Handel before him took on British Nationality after settling in England, made use of God save the King in his "Great National Symphony". By the way, the main subject of the adagio of Haydn's Symphony No 98 starts off very much like that tune, Haydn having been so impressed with it that he was moved to write his famous Emporer Hymn as an anthem for his native Austria.
Sorabji: Toccata Seconda, for piano solo (only a very small and incidental quote, but it's there nontheless, although it's hardly done out of any sense of patriotism)...
The real news being, of course, that there is a national anthem. :)
There's plenty more if you wanna get into film music, though I can't think of any off hand (and of course, Rule Britannia is probably exponentially more quoted).
I assume Ives's Variations on America doesn't count (and didn't Beethoven write a variations on it?)
"God save the King" crops up in Carlisle Floyd's "Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair", and refers to George III!
I'm pretty sure one of Debussy's preludes quotes it too... Hommage a Pickwick perhaps?
The tune known in England as "God Save the [gender of reigning monarch]' is also a major patriotic tune in something like twenty different countries, including Brazil and Germany (and some people have already mentioned examples from the United States), so I'll bet there are plenty of pieces which quote the tune without the composer having thought of England at all.
Weber and Raff's Jubilee Overtures both quote it in entirely different contexts than British.
Quote from: Leea25 on Friday 04 May 2012, 13:35
I'm pretty sure one of Debussy's preludes quotes it too... Hommage a Pickwick perhaps?
Hommage a S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.
To be exact :)
Gottschalk also wrote a piece based on the melody, and I believe (but am not sure) he quoted it elsewhere.
The tune is prominent, and nicely worked out, in Clementi's Symphony 3.