OT: God Save The President?
TOF
The melody did seem familiar.
TOF
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
>Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
"My Country 'Tis of Thee".
Her actual performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>The melody did seem familiar.
>
It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>>
>
>"My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>
>Her actual performance:
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>
>>The melody did seem familiar.
>>
>It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_save_the_queen
Particularly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_save_the_queen#Use_elsewhere
The first German national anthem used the melody of "God Save the King"
with the words changed to Heil dir im Siegerkranz, and sung to the same
tune as the UK version. The tune was either used or officially adopted as
the national anthem for several other countries, including those of Russia
(until 1833) and Switzerland (Rufst Du, mein Vaterland or O monts
indépendants, until 1961). Molitva russkikh, considered to be the first
Russian anthem, was also sung to the same music.
It is also the melody to the United States patriotic hymn "America" (also
known by its first line, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"), and was played
during the Presidential Inauguration parade of President George W. Bush on
20 January, 2001 and sung by Aretha Franklin prior to the inauguration of
Barack H. Obama on 20 January, 2009. In Iceland it is sung to the poem of
Eldgamla Ísafold. The tune is also used as Norway's royal anthem entitled
Kongesangen, and was used for the Swedish royal anthem between 1805 and
1893, entitled Bevare gud vår kung.
The tune is still used as the national anthem of Liechtenstein, Oben am
jungen Rhein. When England played Liechtenstein in a Euro 2004 qualifier,
the same tune was therefore played twice, causing some minor confusion.
The melody of "God Save the King" has been, and continues to be, used as a
hymn tune by Christian churches in various countries. The United
Methodists of the southern United States, Mexico, and Latin America, among
other denominations (usually Protestant), play the same melody as a hymn.
The Christian hymn "Glory to God on High" is frequently sung to the same
tune, as well as an alternative tune that fits both lyrics.
TOF
wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran.B...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
> "My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>
> Her actual performance:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>
> >The melody did seem familiar.
>
> It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
>
Do you know the provenance of the melody?
TOF
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
No.
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page5010.asp#
The British National Anthem dates back to the eighteenth century.
'God Save The King' was a patriotic song first publicly performed in
London in 1745, which came to be known as the National Anthem at the
beginning of the nineteenth century.
The words and tune are anonymous, and may date back to the seventeenth
century.
In September 1745 the 'Young Pretender' to the British Throne, Prince
Charles Edward Stuart, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans,
near Edinburgh.
In a fit of patriotic fervour after news of Prestonpans had reached
London, the leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arranged
'God Save The King' for performance after a play. It was a tremendous
success and was repeated nightly.
This practice soon spread to other theatres, and the custom of greeting
monarchs with the song as he or she entered a place of public
entertainment was thus established.
There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a
matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but
these are rarely used.
The words used today are those sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for
'King' where appropriate. On official occasions, only the first verse is
usually sung.
The words of the National Anthem are as follows:
....
Django Cat
Jaze, but it's a grim tune, whichever set of lyrics you put to it. Fortunately Ms Franklin's singing could send shivers down my spine with Old Macdonald's Farm, so this is as good as it's going to get.
I liked the old guy at the end, too.
DC
--
LFS
> TOF wrote:
>
>> Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>>
>> The melody did seem familiar.
>>
>> TOF
>
> Jaze, but it's a grim tune, whichever set of lyrics you put to it.
> Fortunately Ms Franklin's singing could send shivers down my spine
> with Old Macdonald's Farm, so this is as good as it's going to get.
Her hat was pretty splendid, too.
>
> I liked the old guy at the end, too.
>
But when did Itzhak Perlman get so old?
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
TOF
> TOF wrote:
> > Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
> > The melody did seem familiar.
>
> > TOF
>
> Jaze, but it's a grim tune, whichever set of lyrics you put to it. Fortunately Ms
> Franklin's singing could send shivers down my spine with Old Macdonald's
> Farm, so this is as good as it's going to get.
>
As someone forced to listen to this tune and its usual words for
almost all of my school career, it is a dirge, but as you say, Aretha
could make anything sound good. It has a bit of a gospel-jazz-blues
sound and wasn't half bad.
> I liked the old guy at the end, too.
I missed that as I only heard the radio version.
TOF
TOF
wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:24:03 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran.B...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >On Jan 21, 8:12 am, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net>
> >wrote:
> >> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran.B...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
> >> "My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>
> >> Her actual performance:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>
> >> >The melody did seem familiar.
>
> >> It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
>
> >Do you know the provenance of the melody?
>
>
> The British National Anthem dates back to the eighteenth century.
>
<snip>
Thanks
TOF
Django Cat
> > Jaze, but it's a grim tune, whichever set of lyrics you put to it.
> > Fortunately Ms Franklin's singing could send shivers down my spine
> > with Old Macdonald's Farm, so this is as good as it's going to get.
>
> Her hat was pretty splendid, too.
>
> >
> > I liked the old guy at the end, too.
> >
>
> But when did Itzhak Perlman get so old?
And who was the elderly black gentleman that the camera cut to four times during the inauguration? I'm guessing he was a civil rights veteran?
DC
--
Prai Jei
Several composers, from Beethoven to Charles Ives, have written variations
on this little melody.
Any lyric that is set to this melody can also be sung to the tune that is
more familiar for the hymn "Thou whose almighty word". In the hymnals this
tune is known as Moscow.
--
ξ:) Proud to be curly
Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply
Django Cat
>
> There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a
> matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but
> these are rarely used.
Bring back 'Rebellious Scots to crush' I say...
DC
--
Django Cat
> > Jaze, but it's a grim tune, whichever set of lyrics you put to it. Fortunately Ms
> > Franklin's singing could send shivers down my spine with Old Macdonald's
> > Farm, so this is as good as it's going to get.
> >
>
> As someone forced to listen to this tune and its usual words for
> almost all of my school career, it is a dirge, but as you say, Aretha
> could make anything sound good. It has a bit of a gospel-jazz-blues
> sound and wasn't half bad.
>
> > I liked the old guy at the end, too.
>
> I missed that as I only heard the radio version.
Was that live? What time of day was *that* in Aus? We watched at 5pm in the Uke.
DC
--
Mike Lyle
> On Jan 21, 8:41 am, "Django Cat" <notar...@address.com> wrote:
>> TOF wrote:
>>> Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>>
>>> The melody did seem familiar.
>>
>>> TOF
>>
>> Jaze, but it's a grim tune, whichever set of lyrics you put to it.
>> Fortunately Ms Franklin's singing could send shivers down my spine
>> with Old Macdonald's
>> Farm, so this is as good as it's going to get.
>>
>
> As someone forced to listen to this tune and its usual words for
> almost all of my school career, it is a dirge, but as you say, Aretha
> could make anything sound good. It has a bit of a gospel-jazz-blues
> sound and wasn't half bad.
This is fascinating: as I hinted in another thread, I thought she stank.
This is clearly /de gustibus/ territory.
--
Mike.
James Silverton
I'd just as soon not have listened to Aretha Franklin's take on "My
Country Tis of Thee" but it is the same tune as "God Save the Queen" and
both Beethoven and Haydn thought that was a pretty good melody. It takes
a fair amount of chutzpah to place yourself above those two.
--
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
She was certainly not at her one-time best.
There are times when the selection of a symbolically appropriate person takes
precedence over actual performance.
Of course, if the organisers of the Chinese Olympics opening ceremony had been
consulted she would have been miming to a perfect performance by someone else.
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
> Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
> The melody did seem familiar.
I wish people would call the American version "America" rather than
"My Country, 'Tis of Thee", as Sen. Feinstein did.
Pretty much every American knows the first verse of this song. We
learn it before learning our national anthem, as it's much easier. If
you asked a sample of Americans to sing something /right now/, a fair
proportion would probably come up with "America".
I doubt I'm the only person here who was surprised as a child to learn
that the British, our enemies in the Revolutionary War (which is a
mainstay of primary-school history), used "our" tune for their
national anthem.
Are you interested in a little American iconography? The last two
line of the first verse are "From every mountainside,/ Let freedom
ring", which Aretha Franklin repeated many times at the end of her
performance. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech is one of
the two most famous speeches in our history; he gave it in 1963 at the
Lincoln Memorial, on the Mall in Washington, which the Capitol is at
the other end of. For his peroration, he quoted "America" and named
mountains around the country, including the former slave states where
racism was still overt: "Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of
Georgia..."
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm (It's
worth listening to as well as reading.)
The selection of the song undoubtedly referred to that. So did Dianne
Feinstein (if memory serves) in her speech, when she mentioned the
other end of the Mall and the forty years since then. Even Obama's
"this great Mall" may have been a subtle reminder of King's speech.
(Could King really have said "curvaceous" in that speech? Could I
have heard extracts from it so many times and not noticed?)
--
Jerry Friedman
tony cooper
<mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
My brother the ex-pat called me a few minutes ago from Denmark to tell
me how much he disapproved of Aretha's rendition. "Too gospel".
I spent the day with my grandchildren (5- and 4-years old)letting them
take photographs at a horse training stable.
http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/gallery/7147015_rxzuj#458551472_NRJEo
All photos taken by them without my suggestions or help.
I can always watch the Inauguration on the endless replays that will
be on TV, but a day with the grandchildren...priceless.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
Raymond O'Hara
"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in message
news:qdfcn41j9dqahn1lk...@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>>
>
> "My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>
> Her actual performance:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>
>>The melody did seem familiar.
>>
> It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
>
Yeah, you Brits are always stealing our songs. ;)
Raymond O'Hara
"Django Cat" <nota...@address.com> wrote in message
news:frsdl.19$6p...@newsfe30.ams2...
Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
DC
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rule Brittania should be the Brit National Anthem.
That is a great song.
James Silverton
> "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in
> message news:qdfcn41j9dqahn1lk...@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the
>>> inauguration?
>>>
>> "My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>>
>> Her actual performance:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>>
>>> The melody did seem familiar.
>>>
>> It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
>>
"Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" and "Brittannia the Pride of the Ocean"
and things like that.
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
Obama swore the oath on a copy of the KJV Bible. This may mean he now owes
allegiance to the successor of KJ.
TOF
Shortly after 6AM 21 January, AEDST. (Sydney, which is currently GMT -
11)
Not sure if it was live but as it was a grab in a news story about the
event, one suspects it wasn't.
TOF
TOF
<jerry_fried...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2:59 pm, TOF <Fran.B...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
> > The melody did seem familiar.
>
> I wish people would call the American version "America" rather than
> "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", as Sen. Feinstein did.
>
> Pretty much every American knows the first verse of this song. We
> learn it before learning our national anthem, as it's much easier. If
> you asked a sample of Americans to sing something /right now/, a fair
> proportion would probably come up with "America".
>
> I doubt I'm the only person here who was surprised as a child to learn
> that the British, our enemies in the Revolutionary War (which is a
> mainstay of primary-school history), used "our" tune for their
> national anthem.
>
Thanks Jerry
TOF
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
>I spent the day with my grandchildren (5- and 4-years old)letting them
>take photographs at a horse training stable.
>http://tonycooper.smugmug.com/gallery/7147015_rxzuj#458551472_NRJEo
>All photos taken by them without my suggestions or help.
>
Those are good pictures. The kids were thinking carefully about what they were
doing. I'm impressed.
>I can always watch the Inauguration on the endless replays that will
>be on TV, but a day with the grandchildren...priceless.
Indeed.
Raymond O'Hara
"James Silverton" <not.jim....@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:gl5r8r$m2m$1...@news.motzarella.org...
> Raymond wrote on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:33:06 -0500:
>
>
>> "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in
>> message news:qdfcn41j9dqahn1lk...@4ax.com...
>>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the
>>>> inauguration?
>>>>
>>> "My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>>>
>>> Her actual performance:
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>>>
>>>> The melody did seem familiar.
>>>>
>>> It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
>>>
>
> "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" and "Brittannia the Pride of the Ocean"
> and things like that.
>
> --
Columbia the Gem of the Ocean has a different tune from MCTOT.
TOF
wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:33:06 -0500, "Raymond O'Hara"
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in message
> >news:qdfcn41j9dqahn1lk...@4ax.com...
> >> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:59:19 -0800 (PST), TOF <Fran.B...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
> >> "My Country 'Tis of Thee".
>
> >> Her actual performance:
> >>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE_Dds8DfE
>
> >>>The melody did seem familiar.
>
> >> It has other uses -- "God Save the Queen" for one.
>
> >Yeah, you Brits are always stealing our songs. ;)
>
> Obama swore the oath on a copy of the KJV Bible. This may mean he now owes
> allegiance to the successor of KJ.
>
Also because he was "born in Kenya".
(sorry, couldn't resist)
TOF
Mark Brader
> I wish people would call the American version "America" rather than
> "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", as Sen. Feinstein did.
I'm glad *someone* in this thread know the title of the thing.
> I doubt I'm the only person here who was surprised as a child to learn
> that the British, our enemies in the Revolutionary War (which is a
> mainstay of primary-school history), used "our" tune for their
> national anthem.
It's equally surprising from the other side, of course.
The story is that the author of the American words used a piece of
sheet music he'd found with no title on the page. In other words,
he knew he was borrowing an existing melody, but he didn't know
*what* melody.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Asps. Very dangerous. You go first."
m...@vex.net -- Raiders of the Lost Ark
My text in this article is in the public domain.
R H Draney
>
>
>"Django Cat" <nota...@address.com> wrote in message
>news:frsdl.19$6p...@newsfe30.ams2...
>Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
>
>>
>> There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are
>> a
>> matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years,
>> but
>> these are rarely used.
>
>
>Bring back 'Rebellious Scots to crush' I say...
Some national anthems are more stirring than others...on strictly musical
grounds, I like Canada's best, followed by the old Soviet anthem....
"Scotland the Brave" is pretty awesome too, but I may have been swayed by the
usual instrumentation....r
--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"
R H Draney
>
>Jerry Friedman:
>> I wish people would call the American version "America" rather than
>> "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", as Sen. Feinstein did.
Too much potential confusion with "America the Beautiful", which has often been
suggested as a better choice than the existing national anthem....
>I'm glad *someone* in this thread know the title of the thing.
>
>> I doubt I'm the only person here who was surprised as a child to learn
>> that the British, our enemies in the Revolutionary War (which is a
>> mainstay of primary-school history), used "our" tune for their
>> national anthem.
>
>It's equally surprising from the other side, of course.
>
>The story is that the author of the American words used a piece of
>sheet music he'd found with no title on the page. In other words,
>he knew he was borrowing an existing melody, but he didn't know
>*what* melody.
Isn't that how every country in continental Europe ended up with its own version
of "Lili Marlene"?...r
Steve Hayes
>Was Aretha singing God Save the President at the inauguration?
>
>The melody did seem familiar.
I couldn't discern the words, but imagined "confound their politics, frustrate
their knavish tricks" being in there somewhere.
.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk