Adrian York, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Music Performance, has written an article for The Conversation with suggestions on how to modernise the music at the BBC Proms.
In the article, York discusses the various songs that are traditionally chosen for the BBC Proms to express patriotic feelings and the debate around their suitability.
Discussing the BBC’s decision that instrumental rather than vocal-led arrangements of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia should be performed at this year’s Last Night of the Proms, he wrote: “So what is it about the words to these two songs that critics find problematic? The line ‘mother of the free’ in Land of Hope and Glory is likely to ring alarm bells with those who regard British colonial domination as providing anything but freedom. Rule Britannia’s confident assertion that ‘Britons never, never, never shall be slaves’ similarly provides fodder for its critics.”
He added: “The BBC has an almost impossible task in trying to please both the traditionalists and the reformers – and it may be that its graduated approach has some merits. But culture always moves on and pillars that seemed secure can be swiftly abandoned as relics of a previous and discredited era when change comes swiftly as it is surely doing now.”
Read the full article on The Conversation’s website.
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