WHO COMPOSED "AMERICA."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12064, 20 July 1917, Page 3

WHO COMPOSED "AMERICA."

ORIGIN OF SONG DISCUSSED. The Universal National Anthem — "America"—seems in. the same plight as the great classics that wo like to have on tho shelves, and leave mainly to stay there (says the " Literacy Digest ,s j. For patriotic purposes other than the most solemn, Americans use tho "Starspangled Banner,''' while for sheer nerve-tingling stimulus "Dixie" beats either. '•America," which in England is known as " God Savo the King," has also its alternate in " Rule Britannia,' and recent English papers have reported that a series of English films lately exhibited in Russia were always accompanied with the music of "Rule Britannia," because the air of " God Save the King " is also that of the German national anthem. The melody is usually ascribed to henry Carey (1742); it has been popular in France since 1775, and national in Denmark, Germany and Prussia. Various versions of the way in which the air came to Henry Carey have been put forth; but the latest account of tho origin is given by tho folk-lorist, Mr J. A. Fuller-Maitland. who thinks it was first a seventeenth-century " round." Mr Fuller-Maitland's suggestions are condensed for tho " Daily Telegraph " (London) by Robin H. Legge, who writes— MR MAITLAND'S THEORY. "Mr Malt land puts forward a new theory, or the germ of a theory, as to the origin of the tune in question. . . . ' Quito lately,' says this writer. ' while helping to prepare the catches of Henry Purcell for publication by tho Purcell Society, I earoo across the following, which appears on Page 76 of a M.S. in the British Museum (Add. MSS--19,759); a collection of songs, etc.. which was in the possession of one Charles Campelman on Juno 9, 1651.' I regret that I cannot reproduce here the musical quotation Mr Maitland cites, so I must perforce go into an explanation. Mr Maitland, be it understood, claims no finality for bis discovery, but nevertheless it is undoubtedly interesting. ''The MS. quoted from is headed 'A Catch for Four Voices.' Mr Maitland points out, however, that it is obviously for three voices, not four, and is a round rather than a catch. Its verse parts run thus:

Since the Duke is returned, we'll damn all

tho Wliifra-p, And lot them be hanged for Politick Priggs

"To this charming sentiment tho second voice replies—

]\fako room for tho men. that never deny'd To " God save fh« King and' Duke," they replied.

WHEN" SONG COMPOSED.

"We need not worry ourselves about, the political save that- the. date, as Mr Maitland says, is pretty nearly fixed by the owner's inscription, and that tho ' Duke' was the Duke of York, who returned from virtual exile in 1680. Tho whole point, _ small or large, as you may take it, is that in the fifth complete bar of the music, where the second voice has the words ' God Save tho King,' tho words aro given in quotation-marks as if referring to some toast which a.t. the time ivns perfectly well understood and perfectly familiar to those who sang tho round and to those who heard it. Now, the notes to which the identical words are sung are exactly identical with the notes with which our National Anthem opens. Of course, this may or may not bo entirely fortuitous. But Mr Maitland is careful to point out how very great are the odds against a fortuitous combination." GERMAN SUPPORTS THEORY. An objection to the theory is found in the suggestion that "if this be a genuine quotation from what at the time was a well-known patriotic "?ong, it is odd that no other trace of the existence of the tune as that of " God Save the King" can be found in musical or general literature." T>at—"Curiously enough, the most ardent champion of the theory that Henry Carey was the author of the anthem was a German, none other than Friedrich Chrysander. . . . " Personally. T like to feel that I agree with Mr Maitland when ho says that lie likes 'to fancy that the song got itself composed, as we say, during the period of the Commonwealth, when it would be obviously dangerous to write it down, and that it may have become so popular with the discredited Royalists that when the Restoration came it was not held to he to write it. since it would be in everyone's mouth.' "