I make no claim to personal military experience nor even to
a family tradition but I guess most British people get a frisson of excitement when they hear familiar martial music. The
military are much respected in Britain, but not raised to the heights of
adulation often demonstrated in the US or Russia. We reflect on the sacrifices
of war and rue the heavy cost, but we are also deeply grateful for the bravery
and resource shown by countless servicemen in hard-fought campaigns and
engagements. Martial music inspires and stimulates memories of national pride.
This year is the Centenary of the foundation of the RAF and
there was a spectacular fly-past in London yesterday marking the occasion. 100
planes participated, many vintage ones from WW2 reminding us of The Few, the bombing offensive and later conflicts in Malaya, the
Middle East and the Falklands. The RAF March brings back those memories.
A much earlier march is Lillibullero
for many years the signature tune of the BBC World Service. Its origins are
obscure – Purcell is tentatively supposed to be the composer of the melody –
but it became popular in England at the time of the conflict in Ireland in 1688
between Protestant King William III and deposed Catholic King James II and
later on in the 18th century. Sectarianism apart, it is a great tune
and I am sure redcoats stepped forward in a lively fashion whenever the fife
and drum band struck up.
The Brigade of Guards is the custodian of much of the
British martial music repertory. One of my favourites is the slow march Scipio by Handel, the march of The
Grenadier Guards. A distinguished former Guardsman was Harold MacMillan, prime
minister 1957-63. His loyalty to his regiment surpassed almost any other and he
requested that Scipio should be
played at his funeral in 1986. Such ancestral loyalties are not unusual in the
English upper classes – Lord Rosebery, prime minister 1894-5, decreed that The Eton Boating Song, should be played
on a background radiogram for his 1929 death-bed. By any measure, Scipio is evocative and uplifting.
The most famous Grenadier march is The British Grenadiers, sung with pride by every schoolboy
Some talk of
Alexander, and some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander
and such great names as these
But of all the world’s
great heroes, there’s none that can compare
With a tow, row, row,
row, row, row, row of the British Grenadiers.
The show case of the Guards is the Trooping the Colour parade held annually on the Queen’s official
birthday in early June. The massed bands start off with the rousing slow march,
The Huguenots, adapted from
Meyerbeer’s opera of the same name. It features a rendering of Luther’s great
hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, warming the hearts of Protestants, though I am no longer of their persuasion.
Luther had many qualities and some faults but he was a formidable hymn-writer
and enlivener of the German language.
I have paid some small tribute to the RAF and the Army but I
will not ignore the senior service, the Royal Navy. Perhaps her greatest days of glory were in the
victories of the Seven Years’ War and in the lethal struggle against Napoleon,
immortalising Nelson and Trafalgar. The official march of the Royal Navy is Heart of Oak, music by Boyce and words
by Garrick, here sung with pride and enthusiasm.
Finally, you would not expect me to ignore Scottish martial
music and I recommend to you Hieland Laddie,
the regimental march of the Scots Guards, the third member by precedence in the
Brigade. From the Peninsular War to Waterloo, from Crimea to the Somme, from
the Western Desert to Tumbledown in the Falklands, Scots dash and courage have
set an example to soldiers everywhere.
My own marching days are long gone, but as I take my daily
brisk walk though nearby woods here in Athens, there is a spring in my step as
I recall some of these old tunes and whistle to their well-remembered rhythms.
Try them for yourself!
SMD
11.07.18
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2018
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