NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 131, 15 March 1933, Page 5

NATIONAL ANTHEM.

DESIRE FOR UNIFORMITY. MEETING THE KING'B WISH. \ LONDON, January 26. An Army order has been issued which has as its object a. greater uniformity of interpretation of the National Anthem by civilian as well as by military bands. It is tinderstood that it wak at the express wish. ..of the King that the step has been; taken. The rearrangement has been made under the supervision of Captain H. E. Adkins, director of music at Kneller Hall, the military .musicaLacademy. : The chiel changes are in speed and dynamics; the opening measure of six bars will be played quietly by the reed band with horns and basses in?a single phrase. Cornets and side-drums are to be added as the little scale-passage r leading into the second half of the tune, and the full brass enters for the last eight bars. Bass drum and cymbals will not be used, and their omission is an improvement that will make for greater dignity. For the . quiet (pianissimo) opening the official tempo is M.M. crotchet equals 60; the second part of the tune is to be played in twobar phrases fortissimo, in a broader manner, rather more slowly at a metronome rate of crotchet equals 52. This interpretation applies to occasions when, the National Anthem is sung—for singing the official key is P major. But when only the first six bars are required, as for saluting, they are to be played loud and at the quicker tempo, and by the full band. "The Times;" in a leading article, recalls that two years ago the Government declined an invitation to advise a change in the second verse of the National Anthem, in which some can see notching but the whoop of a blood-thirsty-jingoism. "We may hope," says the writer, "that the tough old po|m:/ which, like many a traditional thing, has grown to express meanings of which the original makers never dreamed, will he let alone for a long time to come. The Army Order concerns only the-tune. 1 11 the ghort debate in the House of Commons on Feb-,, ruary 25, 1931, Lord Snowden (then Mr Snowden: and Chancellor of the Exchequer) made a remark which deserves—whether naccepted or challenged—to be. remembered. 'The words to which the tune is sung,' he said, 'are no part*of the National Anthem. It is only the tune itself which is the National Anthem.' And since the tune is heard without the words at least as often as with the first verse of them only, and very much oftener without, any than .with all, it is no light thing that Knellers Hall, the headquarters of] Army music, should have made an effort to rescue the tune from misuse and to <?et it properly and effectively played all over the country. : "Report says that the new suggestion for the time and the volume of the music—there is no change in the air nor in. the harmonies—has been put forth a* the express wish of the King. That is very probable. On his way out to India in January, 1912, his Majesty noticed that the National Anthem was" not being played on board ship in the covrec't and'prescribed times, and ' the;, result was an order from the Southern Command that on the voyage back this fault should, bo.amended, Twenty-one years, later the King shows that his interest is unabated'. His ear has not become dulled to the tune by repetitions innumerable. Its music still holds for him its meaning, its dignity, ;. its significant worth." \. •• ; "