Remember when the Queen of Soul sang My Country 'Tis Of Thee at President Obama's inauguration? Millions watching and listening felt their patriotic juices flow as she belted out the moving stanzas of the song, also known as America, in classic Aretha Franklin style.
As I watched the performance on television, I, too, was moved, for it reminded me of what I felt as a boy singing God Save The King -- which shares the same melody as America -- in my hometown in the 1930`s and '40`s. Words aside, it is a haunting and inspiring piece of music and felt especially so when it was played to honour Queen Victoria on May 24, and sung to greet and end our Dominion Day ceremonies each July 1.
I recall hearing it sung tinged with bittersweet sadness and pride by those gathered in the park at the town cenotaph on Armistice Day, remembering the horror of war and the pride they held dear for all the gallant lost souls who never returned to their loved ones.
I still remember looking down from the bandstand as the Sunday night concert in Victoria Park ended with the playing of God Save The King. It was our national anthem and I was the snare drummer. Dozens of cars ringed the bandshell -- all parked with windows down on a warm night. Everyone stepped unbidden from their cars and stood at attention. War veterans held a rigid salute. All displayed a common respect that was a hallmark of the age.
At school our geography books told us of the mighty empire of which we were part, proudly marked in red on maps of the world. For the sun would not, could not, set on the multiracial, multicultural British Empire. It was simply too immense.
And so many of our fathers, sons, brothers and husbands lie in graves around the world, having fought and died for King and country under the banner of the Union Jack.
It is unfortunate that Canadians today seldom hear this great old tune played or sung. It is such a fine piece of music. And its intriguing history is little known.
Americans are now more familiar with the tune than we are -- and few are aware that the melody was written by Dr. John Bull, son of a London goldsmith. He began as a choir boy in Queen Elizabeth Chapel in 1572. Ten years later, he was appointed organist at Hereford Cathedral. By 1589, he had earned a doctorate of music at Cambridge University and became one of the most famous keyboard musicians and composers in England.
Bull wrote God Save The King in 1619. That same year, English settlers arrived in America with an order from King James to celebrate their arrival with a day of thanks, leading the Jamestown colony to celebrate America's first Thanksgiving Day.
John Bull later moved to Belgium, where he became the organist at Antwerp Cathedral. He died in 1628 and it was said the piece of music that become God Save The King was found among his papers. It would be over 100 years before his tune was published: A printing of the music appears in the 1744 English tune book Thesaurus Musicus.
In Sept., 1745, news reached London that young Prince Charles had defeated the army of King George II near Edinburgh. As patriotic fervour hit the streets, the leader of the band at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal arranged for a performance of God Save The King at the end of a play. It was a great success and was repeated nightly. The practice soon spread to other theatres and the custom of honouring the monarch with a finale of what evolved as the national anthem was born. Even today it is played and sung in the United Kingdom as a matter of tradition and has never be proclaimed by an act of parliament or royal proclamation.
The tune soon hit the "top of the charts." Brahms used parts of it in some of his own compositions. On hearing it in England, Haydn was moved to write Austria's national anthem. Even Beethoven liked the melody. In his journal, he referred to one of his own compositions in which he used the tune. He wrote, "I must show the English what a blessing they have in God Save The King."
As the song's popularity grew, it spread to the continent where it was picked up and used in a German song-book. A Baptist clergyman from Boston, the Reverend Samuel Francis Smith, was given the book by a friend. In humming some of the tunes, he was struck by the melody of one (you can guess which). He thought it had a quality appropriate for a song of hope and inspiration. He sat down and put words to it and called it America (though more Americans probably know it now as My Country 'Tis Of Thee.)
The first time God Save The King was sung as My Country 'Tis Of Thee was on July 4, 1832, in Boston at the American Independence Day service at Park Street Baptist Church.
America made Reverend Smith famous. It is doubtful that he knew the tune was the national anthem of the British Empire. Most Americans still don't. Some remain convinced that the British stole it from them. In reality, they're still playing our song.
