Rule, Britannia! (1996)
Arrangement of Thomas Arne for 2 pianos, 8 hands
Unpublished
Première
First performance: 3 July 1996; King’s House School, Richmond, United Kingdom; "Forty Fingers" Piano Quartet
Programme
For about ten years I was a visiting piano tutor at King’s House School in Richmond, and for the school's jubilee concerts in 1996 I assembled the piano department into a quartet (eight hands at two pianos) to play music by Percy Grainger among others. I was also asked to arrange Thomas Arne's Rule Britannia! for these forces to wrap up the celebrations in the style of the "Last night of the Proms".
I now had an opportunity to quietly express my aversion to the jingoism of the annual Proms Last Night in the Royal Albert Hall. Following the last line of the song "Britons never shall be slaves" I added a muted coda which ironically quoted an eighteenth-century Caribbean slave song. Needless to say, almost no-one noticed.
Arrangement of Thomas Arne for 2 pianos, 8 hands
Unpublished
Première
First performance: 3 July 1996; King’s House School, Richmond, United Kingdom; "Forty Fingers" Piano Quartet
Programme
For about ten years I was a visiting piano tutor at King’s House School in Richmond, and for the school's jubilee concerts in 1996 I assembled the piano department into a quartet (eight hands at two pianos) to play music by Percy Grainger among others. I was also asked to arrange Thomas Arne's Rule Britannia! for these forces to wrap up the celebrations in the style of the "Last night of the Proms".
I now had an opportunity to quietly express my aversion to the jingoism of the annual Proms Last Night in the Royal Albert Hall. Following the last line of the song "Britons never shall be slaves" I added a muted coda which ironically quoted an eighteenth-century Caribbean slave song. Needless to say, almost no-one noticed.
