"GOD BLESS THE PRINCE OF WALES"
NOT A NATIONAL ANTHEM,
Before Hie Professional Orchestra's concert commenced nt His Majesty's Theatre last evening, the conductor, Mr. E. Moschini, announced that after playing the National Anthem the orchestra, would play "God Bless the Prince of Wales," evidently with the idea.of familiarising tho public with the old and almost forgotten air. When tho Anthem was finished about a third of the big audience sat down, whilst the others remained standing, and while the air was being played people were bobbins up and down all over the auditorium. As a guide to tho public it should be made quite clear that the song "God Bless the Prince of Wales" is not strictly speaking a national song (let alone an anthem), though it might have been one at one time, as it is but rarely included in collections of the national 'songs of England. It is not nn air that people honour by standing up to, except perhaps when played or sung in the presence of the Prince himself." Propriety, loyalty, and deference impel Britishers" to stand up to the National Anthem, and any Dead March that may be nlayed under cover in honour of the deal Tho only other musical number to which an English public stand up to is Handel's great chorale, the "Hallelujah" chorus in "The Messiah," mid that only happens to 'be so as on the occasion when it was first sung in imolic (in Dublin), the compelling grandeur pud exaltation of the music lifted the people present lo their feet, ever since trl:eh oe"""-ir"i this striking honour lias hten paid the composer. Since the war, too, it is customary to stand 'i'lum tin' National Anthem of any of England's allies is played.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19200412.2.47
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 168, 12 April 1920, Page 5
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292"GOD BLESS THE PRINCE OF WALES" Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 168, 12 April 1920, Page 5
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