Friday, May 15, 2009
Victoria Day
Up here north of the 49th we are approaching the first long weekend of 'summer'. (I write this with tongue in cheek as the temperature at 9:40 a.m. is only 2C (36F) - so far below normal it's disgusting!) We still observe Queen Victoria's birthday, which is actually May 24th, although the holiday is designated as the Monday preceding the 24th. In researching her well known connection with Felix Mendelssohn, I learned a little more about her husband Prince Albert. I knew that he was a musician of sorts and that he played the organ. Organists know this kind of thing! What I learned was that he also wrote music. You can read a little more about that here. I don't know that I have ever heard any of Prince Albert's compositions although apparently they are performed from time to time. So, happy Victoria Day; enjoy the fireworks!
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3 comments:
I hadn't realized that he wrote other sacred music, but Albert also wrote two hymn tunes (GOTHA and COBURG) that were frequently used ("by permission of Her Majesty the Queen" in hymnals of the late Victorian age.
I can only find a link to GOTHA at the moment:
http://hymnal.oremus.org/hwiki/index.php/Gotha
I looked in my copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern and didn't see either tune. Not sure what time frame I should be looking at and my copy doesn't have a date that I can see. Also looked in my Book of Praise dated 1912 - not there either. I'm guessing that the name COBURG is a nod to the prince's origins.
I think we can find them through Google Books. Search on:
"Church Hymns" Sullivan
which should bring up Sullivan's hymnal CHURCH HYMNS: WITH TUNES as the first item. GOTHA is hymn #404 (p. 339) and COBURG is hymn #431 (p. 363). Though if you wanted to print them out you would probably have to download the whole book.
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