Licked by lists!

Chaos in the Middle East; trouble in the Balkans; Africa in its usual meltdown state; Bush in America; repression in China; racism in Australasia; South America being South America.

But. The sun is shining. There is much to be said for the pathetic fallacy when you are living happiness just because the rain has stopped momentarily (in the British sense) and all appears well with the world. The troubles stay just on the other side of your consciousness a vague dark shape on the horizon but not stopping the gleam of the sun.

I’d like to say that there was an appropriate musical accompaniment to this new found optimism from the good folk in Classical FM, but the first piece of music that they played was Holst’s ‘Mars’ from ‘The Planets Suite’. And that, as they say got me thinking.

Some music, for reasons that I have never been able to understand, has an international reputation: it is known and hummed throughout the world. I suppose that every musically literate person would be able to recognize a whole range of so-called Great Music, though it has to be admitted it would be fairly culturally specific. My general knowledge of music is fairly closely limited to generally white dead Europeans and, if I am a little more specific, then I can say that it is more clearly limited to dead white northern European male musicians. There are of course some notable exceptions in terms of gender and continent, but the statement is generally true. World music, both classical and modern tends to pass me by.

But it was while I was listening to Holst that I began to think about specifically British music. What, I thought to myself, would be ‘World Famous’ British music?

Then I began to think about definitions. I realised that what I meant by ‘World’ was not really the world at all. I was thinking about Europe, well, Western Europe; parts of the Commonwealth and past Commonwealth; educated America – including the USA and the elements of the educated elites of South America and anywhere else where they listen to the World Service of the BBC in English. It was a sort of post colonialist’s memory of what the world might have been if the history of the British Empire had borne any resemblance to what actually happened. If you see what I mean.

It all simplified itself down to the realisation that the world I was thinking of was basically defined as lots of me living in various countries around the globe!

But there again some music does have an international life: you only have to listen to a remarkable variety of national anthems to realise that bad Italian opera has influenced the musical expression of national aspirations of a vast number of disparate countries!

Beethoven has provided the cohesive anthem for Europe; Charpontier has accompanied the European television organization and a chorus of French nuns singing for the relief of a French king’s haemorrhoids provided us with the basic tune for the national anthem.

So however you define the term ‘world’ and ‘famous’ and ‘classical’ and ‘music’ and ‘British’: what bits of our musical cultural heritage would make it on to the world stage?

I started with ‘Mars’ so you wont be surprised to learn that it is part of the list, but as soon as I began to think a little more seriously, the more difficult it became.

Who are our great symphonists? Elgar and Vaughan Williams? While their symphonies are well known, they are nowhere near the fame of the nineteenth century Germans. Concertos? Only the Elgar cello concerto would be in the running. There are certainly traditional British melodies from all the home countries and some hymns which are internationally known, but specifically British classical compositions are hard to find in the international repertoire.

If I could use film music then there would be whole section of what Classical FM likes to call crossover music which could enter the list. Walton’s music for ‘Henry V’; Bliss in ‘Things To Come’; Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto in ‘Dangerous Moonlight’ and lots of others. But, one critic described the ‘Warsaw Concerto’ as “almost classical music,” so does it count?

You can make up your own lists and I’d be interested to see other compilations, but, for what it’s worth this is my top ten, though the number merely refers to the order in which I thought of them, rather than their hierarchy.

1 ‘Mars the Bringer of War’ from ‘The Planets Suite’ by Gustav Holst
2 ‘The Hallelujah Chorus’ from ‘The Messiah’ by Handel
3 ‘Greensleeves’ by Henry VIII (?) in the arrangement by Vaughan Williams
4 ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ by Edward Elgar
5 ‘The Water Music’ by Handel
6 Cello concerto (the tune) by Edward Elgar
7 ‘Adiemus’ by Karl Jenkins
8
9
10

There are numbers left to fill in. I know that I could fill them with what I regard as Great British Music, but that is not the point.

Perhaps British Classical Music is just not as well known as other European music.

This is something that I will come back to.