Responding to a Coronation: Sheet Music, Piano Stools & Radios

Since I’m currently working on a book about Scottish music publishers, I suppose it was inevitable that I’d ask myself just one question last night:-

Did 20th century Scottish music publishers publish any music to commemorate the four Coronations of their day? 

Well, you’d have thought they might, wouldn’t you?  There were militaristic books of marches and national songs in war-time, so why not patriotic books of national favourites when a new monarch acceded to the throne?

A couple of klaxon warnings should be sounded straight away. 

• It would be easy to say that Kerr and Mozart Allan never published anything related to coronations, but the truth of the matter is that I have plenty of evidence that what survives in libraries is certainly not the same as what was published in the first place.  The more ephemeral the music, the slimmer the chance of its surviving.  And, without putting too fine a point on it, a library might keep Mozart Allan’s book of songs by Robert Burns, but a flimsy, contemporary song of the music hall or variety performance kind, not designed for longevity, probably won’t have been added to a University Library’s stock at the time it was published, even if there might be scholars today eagerly seizing upon any lucky survivors.  Similarly, a ‘Coronation Waltz’ or ‘Coronation March’ wouldn’t have been something studied by music undergraduates studying Palestrina or Mozart in a red-brick British University.
• If you’ve been following social media or broadcast news recently, you’ll realise that some Scottish people are decidedly not Royalist in their leanings.  However, it would be risky to say this was the reason for Kerr and Mozart Allan’s apparent lack of interest in publishing music on a coronation theme.  There is no written evidence about their political views whatsoever.
• I searched for pieces with ‘coronation’, ‘King’ or ‘Queen’ in the title.  It was a quick and easy search, but certainly not a comprehensive one.  (For example, if there was a song called ‘Westminster Pageantry’, without any of my search terms in the catalogue entry, then I would not have retrieved it.)

But the fact remains that music celebrating the coronation of a British monarch appears not to have been of interest to Kerr and Mozart Allan, the two popular music publishers holding sway in Glasgow for the first part of the twentieth century.

Edward VII and Alexandra’s Coronation, 1902

I found just one Scottish publication, the Glasgow and Galloway Diocesan Choral Association’s Book of the Music to be used at the sixth festival service in St. Mary’s Church, Glasgow on Saturday, June 28, 1902 (in connection with the coronation of His Majesty King Edward VII) etc.  And that was it!

The English firm Bosworth, on the other hand, published Alexander Campbell Mackenzie’s Coronation March, op.63, in various formats: for piano, a full score, and arranged for piano duet by J B McEwen.  Mackenzie (1847-1935) was Edinburgh born, but became Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1887.  McEwen (1868-1948), another Scot, was professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy, and in time became their next Principal.  Mackenzie’s Coronation March was dedicated to the King, and first performed at Crystal Palace with anything up to nine military bands.  A march was an accessible genre, but the composer was very much part of the English musical establishment.

So, not much to see in 1902, then.  But wait!

George V and Mary’s Coronation, 1911

Bayley and Ferguson had offices in Glasgow and London – and had done for some years.  On the occasion of George V and Mary’s Coronation, they published Carlo F. Roberti’s The Crowning of our King & Queen; or, The Coronation Song of – Semper fidelis.  I know nothing about Roberti, but someone at the Dundee Courier wrote in 1990 that his real name was Charlie Robertson, of Perthshire.  (If you have access to the British Newspaper Archive, you can read how the readers responded to this snippet, on 8 February 1990.  Robertson was a violin teacher.  His song was taught to local schoolchildren at the time.) 

The Scottish firm Paterson’s had offices in both Scotland and London, too.  They published a Coronation song by a Durham man, Thomas Richardson, who had moved to Edinburgh to become organist at St Peter’s Episcopal Church in 1879, and singing-master at George Watson’s College in 1883.  His song, ‘Mary’ had an alternative title, ‘Queen Mary. Coronation Song’, with words by K. Kelly, and was for some two decades popular as what people imagined to be a Scottish song. Which raises the interesting debate as to what makes a song ‘Scottish’!

Meanwhile in London, light music publisher Metzler published a book of tunes around this time, which included at least one piece composed for Edward’s Coronation: Metzler’s Coronation Dance Album.  The precise date is uncertain: Metzler gives 1911 in Roman numerals, and (1909) in Arabic.  Very helpful, Mr Metzler!

George VI and Elizabeth’s Coronation, 1937

Paterson’s was essentially a London firm by this time.  J Michael Diack, one of the directors, had moved down south some years earlier.  And that means that the only Coronation theme publications that I traced were either published in England, or overseas.  Perhaps it was the advent of radio broadcasting that made people more enthusiastic about such things, but the outpouring of Coronation-related music was suddenly – well, remarkable!  Many people got a wireless in time to listen to the Coronation – the first time such an event could be broadcast.

‘This Most Historic Event’

Which brings me to an advertisement in the Coatbridge Leader on Saturday 27 May 1937.  F. Mills & Co sold pianos, organs and radios from his two shops in Coatbridge, a town about a quarter of the way between Glasgow and Edinburgh.  (He also had a shop in Motherwell at some point – I haven’t checked dates.)  If you bought a piano or organ before the Coronation, he would give you a free stool.  If you bought a radio – to listen to the broadcast – then there was a discounted price. 

Mr Mills didn’t mention sheet-music, but you’d be surprised how many English music publishers rushed to publish relatively lightweight music for popular consumption, whilst Paterson’s also offered a choral arrangement of a Handel anthem by one of Diack’s favourite composers:-

• Let all the people rejoice : coronation anthem S.A.T.B. / Handel;  arranged by W.F.R. Gibbs ; edited by J. Michael Diack. (Lyric collection of choral music, sacred. No. 1647) London: Paterson’s 1936
• Paterson’s Coronation music book
• Royal cavalcade : coronation march / Albert W. Ketelbey, in piano or orchestral score (Bosworth, 1937)
• Chappell’s Coronation Album. A Musical Cavalcade, etc. [Marches and Songs.], 1937
• The Coronation Waltz / Jimmy Kennedy (Peter Maurice, 1937)
• Long live the King (Paxton, 1936)
• The Coronation Song / Martin Silver (London: Silver’s, 1936)
• Coronation March Album / Granville Bantock (London: Joseph Williams, 1936)

Slightly to my surprise – though it was obvious, when I thought about it, with emigration still high – I found publications from Australia, Canada and America too:-

• Sterling’s Coronation Community Album (1937?)  Disappointingly, the contents of  this publication from the Antipodes didn’t seem to have anything to do with the – erm, actual Coronation.  But I suppose the word ‘Coronation’ would have been eye-catching.
• In Toronto, Florence M Benjamin published her Coronation Bells in 1937
• And in Chicago, Moissaye Boguslawski’s Coronation March: dedicated to their Majesties King George and Queen Elizabeth of England was published by Calumet Music in 1937

Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953

There was a rush to get television sets for Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation, although comparatively few people in Scotland would have had them this early on.  Francis, Day and Hunter published a new dance introduced on television for the Coronation.

However, despite now being basically an English firm, Paterson’s turned to their Scottish roots for their Coronation offerings, which had nothing to do with the television broadcast at all.  Indeed, country dancing was very popular across Britain:-

• For the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, Paterson’s published The Scottish country dance book. Book 17 : Coronation book / music arranged by Herbert Wiseman.
• Paterson’s also published Pipe-Major William Ross’s The coronation bagpipe march… entitled “The coronation of Queen Elizabeth 1953”
• The English Folk Dance and Song Society also published a book of dances: The Coronation Country Dance Book.

Many other publishers produced music in their own preferred genres, but I didn’t see anything from Kerr’s, Mozart Allan or Bayley & Ferguson.

• From Bosworth came Coronation march album for piano solo, with music by Ketelbey and a variety of other composers.
• Bosworth also published a Coronation Suite for piano by Barbara Kirkby-Mason, who was known for writing educational material.
• Francis, Day and Hunter produced Francis & Day’s coronation album in 1952, along with
• Archie Alexander’s The Coronation Polka, followed by
• Kenneth Wright’s A Waltz For The Queen (Television’s New Coronation Dance), arranged by Sydney Thompson in 1953
• The Northern Music Company – a London firm – published Coronation Waltz by Christine Hurst and George Warren, with words by Bill Tomlinson and Stanley Barnes.  Reported in The Stage in October 1952, it was written by ‘four northern songwriters’ and received favourable reviews at its introduction in a Butlin’s holiday camp dance contest.  If this makes you think of ‘Hi-de-Hi’, then you’re absolutely right – Butlin’s holidays were cheap, accessible, didn’t involve travelling abroad, and as we all know, dance contests have never gone out of favour!

Last night, I was just idly searching to see if ‘my’ Scottish music publishers showed much interest in Coronation-themed publishing.  On the face of it, those with an English office did make a token effort.  Those based solely in Glasgow may not have done, with the caveat that they might have produced ephemeral material no longer traceable, and there could have been songs that my quick search didn’t reveal.

But I know a lot more about light music publishing in England around those times!

IMAGES: All from eBay!

• If you enjoyed this blog post about popular printed music, then you might like to read another post about music with a more serious, ceremonial slant, that I wrote for our library blog, Whittaker Live: Tracing our Musical History through National Events.