Rule Britannia: Encyclopedia II - Rule Britannia - History

Rule Britannia - History

This most popular of all British national airs was first heard in London in 1745 and achieved instant popularity. So well known was it that the composer Handel even quoted it in his Occasional Oratorio in the following year when it was sung to the words, "War shall cease, welcome peace!" Predictably "Rule, Britannia!" was seized upon by the Jacobites and James Thomson's words were altered.

At the time it appeared, the song was not a celebration of the existing state of naval affairs as Britain did not "rule the waves" — rather, it attempted to revive the era when, under Alfred the Great, the British ships outdid the Danish. However, over the next two centuries the Royal Navy became a dominant force on the oceans and protected Britain and her burgeoning Empire from a number of "haughty tyrants" and "foreign strokes". The jesting lyrics of the mid 1700s had assumed a material and patriotic significance by the end of the nineteenth century.

The melody was the theme for a set of variations for piano by Ludwig van Beethoven (WoO 79) and he also used it in "Wellington's Victory", Op. 91.

Part of the tune's refrain — that which defiantly repeats "never, never, never," — may have provided the theme on which Elgar's Enigma Variations are based.

Arthur Sullivan, Britain's leading composer during the reign of Queen Victoria, quoted from "Rule Britannia" on at least three occasions in composing music for his operettas written with W. S. Gilbert and Bolton Rowe. In Utopia, Limited Sullivan used airs from "Rule Britannia" to highlight references to Great Britain. In "The Zoo" (written with Rowe) Sullivan supplied the tune of "Rule Britannia" to an instance in which Rowe's libretto quotes directly from the patriotic march. Finally, to celebrate the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, Sullivan added a chorus of "Rule Britannia" to the finale of HMS Pinafore, which was playing in revival at the Savoy Theatre.

"Rule Britannia" is traditionally performed at the BBC's Last Night of the Proms, normally with a guest soloist (past performers have included Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson and Felicity Lott, Terfel famously singing a verse in Welsh). However, in recent years the inclusion of the song and other patriotic tunes has been much criticised — notably by Leonard Slatkin — and the presentation has been occasionally amended.

The song is also sung by supporters of Scottish football club Rangers F.C. due its Protestant-Unionist fan base, symbolising loyalty to Britain, a contrast to Old Firm rivals the Irish-Catholic fan based Celtic F.C..

The melody of the song's chorus was appropriated in the Marx Brothers' film Duck Soup as the song "Hail, Freedonia!", the national anthem of the fictional country of Freedonia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki