HAPPY AND GLORIOUS:
The Official Album of H.M. The Queen Mother's 100th Birthday
Celebrations on Horse Guards.
Various orchestras and massed
bands conducted by Barry Hingley OBE.
Decca 467-100-2 78m
DDD.
Crotchet
The happy and glorious celebrations that have permeated these last two months
will no doubt have pleased the Matriarch no end. This wonderfully produced
album is the official souvenir of an event that has had many of us harking
back to the good old nostalgic days with the songs and tunes that shaped
a century of British and Imperial development. Thus the stirring sounds of
the medley entitled 'Songs of the British Isles' is perennially nostalgic
whilst the more overtly romantic and sweet and sour arrangements of 'What
a Wonderful World and 'Memories' bring us closer to the real world. Decca
have also included some delightful introductions in the way of short excerpts
from BBC news bulletins that sound almost exactly the same every ten years!
Barry Hingley's skilful arrangements of various popular songs from the earlier
half of this century are winningly done whilst the now legendary pipes and
drums find their moving place in 'Amazing Grace' and the tear jerking 'Sound
of the Pipes' composed especially for the QM's 90the birthday. However the
real highlight of the album is the wonderful song, 'Happy and Glorious' which
really signifies the respect and love of a nation towards such a charismatic
figure. The album shows that for pomp and circumstance, there's no better
than a thoroughly British occasion!
Gerald Fenech
Malta also has fond memories of Queen Elizabeth and King George VI especially
in the award of the George Cross to our island in 1942. Many happy returns
to the Queen Mother from a former bastion of the Empire!
