0:00:02 > 0:00:05CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:11 > 0:00:13From Glastonbury to Glyndebourne,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15from the glitter of London's West End shows
0:00:15 > 0:00:19to our thriving regional choirs and amateur orchestras,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Britain today is alive with music.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25But while we think of the 21st century
0:00:25 > 0:00:28as the era of impresarios and celebrities,
0:00:28 > 0:00:32gossip magazines and social networking, pop stars and groupies,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36all these were first forged in the energy and inventiveness
0:00:36 > 0:00:39of 18th century Britain.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43I've been playing, studying and loving 18th century music
0:00:43 > 0:00:45for as long as I can remember.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48In this series I'll be discovering what it must have felt like
0:00:48 > 0:00:52to be at the very centre of that cultural explosion,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55visiting its refined salons and concert halls,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58playing on its newfangled cutting-edge instruments,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and trying to make some money as a ballad singer on the side.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07I'm going to explore how and why 18th century Britain
0:01:07 > 0:01:10became the centre of a musical revolution,
0:01:10 > 0:01:12as a rage for music swept the country.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Patriotic songs and anthems, operas and ballads,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20polite entertainments and rowdy rallying cries,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24all played their part in creating a shared sense of identity
0:01:24 > 0:01:26and national allegiance.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30From Rule Britannia to music for the royal fireworks,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34from Auld Lang Syne to Amazing Grace.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38It's music that sits deep within our cultural DNA,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42that ties us together with the invisible bonds of shared memory.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52More than anything else - books or newspapers, paintings or poetry -
0:01:52 > 0:01:57I think it was music that truly touched the lives of everyone
0:01:57 > 0:02:00in 18th century Britain. This is its story.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26In 1695, British music suffered a catastrophic loss
0:02:26 > 0:02:30when the nation's leading composer died at the age of just 36.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Henry Purcell was buried here at Westminster Abbey
0:02:42 > 0:02:44where he'd been organist.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47He'd single-handedly revived English music
0:02:47 > 0:02:50with a series of glittering operas,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53stage shows, songs, and music for state occasions.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59This is the gravestone of Henry Purcell and his wife, Frances.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01It's got an inscription in Latin.
0:03:01 > 0:03:07It reads, "Here rests Henry Purcell. Died the 21st of November, AD1695.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11"Immortals welcome an illustrious guest.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13"The many sided master of his art.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16"The brief delight and glory of his age."
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Not much is said about his wife, Frances.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24She only gets "Uxor" - wife.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25She is a crucial part in all this
0:03:25 > 0:03:28because it was she who locked Purcell out of the house
0:03:28 > 0:03:32one night after he'd been out on a particularly heavy pub crawl.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35He caught a cold and he never recovered.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Possibly the worst case of man flu in history.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41If his death was untimely,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Purcell's life had also been touched by disaster.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Born in 1659, he'd lived through the Great Fire and the Plague.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52He'd seen the turmoil of the glorious Revolution,
0:03:52 > 0:03:56when Britain had deposed her King, the Catholic James II.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58But in the years after Purcell's death,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02London was beginning to reawaken.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05After the devastation of the Plague and then the Great Fire,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08London, at the close of the 17th century,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12was a city of despair - its population decimated,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15many of its great buildings lying in ruins.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19But the capital rebuilt quickly and by the early 18th century,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24London had overtaken Paris as Europe's largest city.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28The wealthy metropolis needed world-class culture.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Purcell's death had left a chasm and a new national musical hero
0:04:32 > 0:04:36was desperately needed, because a new nation was being formed.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44In 1707 the Acts of Union were passed,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48joining together England and Wales with Scotland, making a new country.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52It was to be called Great Britain.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55But persuading the population that they had, overnight,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57become British was more of a problem.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07Britishness at the start of the 18th century is really quite precarious.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11It's only in 1688 that James II of England, James VII of Scotland,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13has been thrown out.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17And thereafter there is a war of the British succession.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22And people sitting in London are not sure how long this new country,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26this new state, is going to be able to hold together.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30What this newly-forged Great Britain needed was a national identity,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33a shorthand that Britons could buy into, that would unite us
0:05:33 > 0:05:36through a celebration of our shared culture.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39And in this fight for national cohesion,
0:05:39 > 0:05:42music would become a battleground.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Working out what British music should sound like
0:05:50 > 0:05:51wasn't going to be easy.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Britain's arbiters of elite taste and fashion - the aristocracy -
0:05:55 > 0:06:01had their cultural sights set far away from these shores...
0:06:01 > 0:06:02in Italy.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Their tastes were formed on the Grand Tour,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17an odyssey lasting anything up to three years,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21where wealthy young Brits would descend in hordes on Italy
0:06:21 > 0:06:23to drink in the culture of the ancient world
0:06:23 > 0:06:25and the glories of the Renaissance.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34It's like, in the mid 20th century,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37going abroad and getting a tan.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40In the 18th century it was going abroad,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44going on the Grand Tour of Italy and collecting -
0:06:44 > 0:06:49collecting art, collecting music, collecting singers sometimes,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52collecting musicians, bringing them back to England
0:06:52 > 0:06:55and flaunting your stuff, flaunting your knowledge.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00But the fashion for the Grand Tour wasn't just a journey of the mind.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03It was a voyage into the heartland of Protestant Great Britain's
0:07:03 > 0:07:07sworn enemy, to the very home of Catholicism.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12You have large numbers of the elite going abroad, going to France
0:07:12 > 0:07:16and Italy, rather as if the principal place that American tourists
0:07:16 > 0:07:19in the 1950s had gone was Moscow.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23You have these tourists going to Catholic states and coming back
0:07:23 > 0:07:25and showing an interest in a culture
0:07:25 > 0:07:29which parts of British society is uneasy about.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31And there is a tendency,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35particularly that's developed in the press and among critics,
0:07:35 > 0:07:39to argue that there's a form of what we could call cultural betrayal.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44The music London's elite beau monde went mad for was Italian Opera,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49which first arrived in the capital in 1705.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54Boatloads of Italian musicians and singers pitched up on our shores
0:07:54 > 0:07:57to perform it. Try as they might,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01British performers simply weren't a patch on the imported stars,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and British composers couldn't come up with anything
0:08:04 > 0:08:07to rival their Italian counterparts.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09There was no native composer who was capable, really,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13of writing a good, full-length English opera or Italian opera.
0:08:13 > 0:08:19There was a big gap in England for a composer to arrive who would be
0:08:19 > 0:08:22settled in England and would write Italian opera.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23And, of course, one did arrive.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29A German composer, who'd studied in Italy,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32was about to take Britain by storm.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36In 1710 a 25-year-old called George Frideric Handel
0:08:36 > 0:08:41arrived in London. It turned out to be rather a smart move.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48What Handel grasps is that there is a gap in the market
0:08:48 > 0:08:50after the death of Henry Purcell.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54He also senses that there is a new kind of cultural scene
0:08:54 > 0:08:55emerging in London.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59There may be no home-grown native composer there but there is
0:08:59 > 0:09:04an audience desperate for new music, and with the money to pay for it.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12To cash in on the Italian opera craze,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Handel quickly cobbled together a selection of music he'd written
0:09:15 > 0:09:20back in Italy and turned it into an opera - Rinaldo.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25Rinaldo in itself is not really a great opera. It's a great review.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29- It's like the Greatest Hits today. - Yeah, Greatest Hits of Handel, 1711.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Now, That's What I Call Handel 1.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35It's a real... All his best bits.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38So, it was bound to succeed.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Full of high drama and sensuality,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50with fast and furious music,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Rinaldo quickly became a sensation.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Audiences swooned.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01SHE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:11:07 > 0:11:11It wasn't just Handel's music that was spectacular -
0:11:11 > 0:11:15so, too, was the staging, with chariots, fire-breathing dragons
0:11:15 > 0:11:19and live sparrows and chaffinches released onstage.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26We get this explosion onto the London stage
0:11:26 > 0:11:29of Handel and Rinaldo in 1711.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32What was it that audiences heard in that music that they sensed,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34that really thrilled them?
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Rinaldo is an all-out attempt to do everything -
0:11:37 > 0:11:41to have the best cast in Europe, which it did,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45to have absolutely thrilling music, tremendous scenery -
0:11:45 > 0:11:49the stage directions are extraordinary -
0:11:49 > 0:11:51and it didn't quite work on the first night -
0:11:51 > 0:11:55fabulously expensive costumes and more music than had been
0:11:55 > 0:12:00performed in any Opera in England, ever, with a larger band.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04So, no wonder it was a financial disaster for the manager.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Whatever it did for the promoter,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Rinaldo certainly put Handel on the map.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15More Italian operas followed as he became the go-to musician
0:12:15 > 0:12:19for London's wealthy and influential elite.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Then he had the good fortune to find that a former German employer
0:12:23 > 0:12:29of his had been elevated right to the top of British society.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33In 1714 the reining monarch, Queen Anne, died.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35She'd produced no surviving heir
0:12:35 > 0:12:39and by law only a Protestant could succeed her.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44The throne passed, not to the 50 or so people who were next in line -
0:12:44 > 0:12:48they were all Catholics - instead it went to the 51st,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51a Protestant from the House of Hanover.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56George I was crowned King and the Georgian era had begun.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03But it was to be rocky start.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07The union with England was hugely unpopular with many Scots,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11and the arrival of this German king ignited their anger.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16In 1715 the Jacobites, supporters of the deposed Catholic Stuarts,
0:13:16 > 0:13:21rebelled, and tried to overthrow the Protestant House of Hanover.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26The uprising failed but George knew that if he wanted to stay in power
0:13:26 > 0:13:31a PR campaign was needed, and music would be at its heart.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34George and his team of advisors knew right from the start
0:13:34 > 0:13:37that if they wanted legitimacy in the hearts and minds of
0:13:37 > 0:13:41the British public then they had to harness a little show business.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45So they started injecting music into festivals, masquerades,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48and river parties.
0:13:48 > 0:13:54Music is very important in supporting the authority of power.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58It's part of a general pattern to strengthen the idea that the Crown
0:13:58 > 0:14:00is the centre of British society,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02it's the focus of British symbolism, and that,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05if you oppose the Crown, you are going to be left out.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16And so on the evening of the 17th of July, 1717,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19the King boarded a royal barge at Whitehall
0:14:19 > 0:14:22with a bevy of fashionable aristocratic guests
0:14:22 > 0:14:23and celebrated beauties.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26George commissioned Handel to write the soundtrack for this
0:14:26 > 0:14:31glittering piece of public spectacle, called The Water Music.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34And its premier was one of the most unusual
0:14:34 > 0:14:36musical performances in history.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42I can't imagine what it must have been like to be one of those
0:14:42 > 0:14:4450 musicians crammed on to a single boat.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46They must have been jostling one another.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Barely room to draw your bow arm and be able to move at all,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52and you'd be staring in virtual darkness -
0:14:52 > 0:14:56only candle light to light the notes on that manuscript paper,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00hastily scrawled by hand and the ink barely dry.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04When you think of all the chatter and cheering of those crowds,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06plus all the noise that would have been coming off the river,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09you probably wouldn't have heard a note of music.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13But if you'd been on that crowded boat next to all those musicians,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15this is what it would have sounded like.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Handel included horns in The Water Music,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41the first time they'd ever been used in a piece of British music.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44An instrument thought of as only good for chasing foxes,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47they gave this music real oomph.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Here was music in the British style -
0:15:56 > 0:16:00stirring, manly, bombastic, and loud.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03The Water Music didn't need words to convey its message.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07It did it through the sheer force of its instrumental sound.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Handel is saying, "This is music for a proud King,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30"a confident King, a British King."
0:16:30 > 0:16:32And he does it brilliantly.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40The battle to make Britain love its new King had begun in earnest.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46And he was going to need all the friends he could get.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49George I is a foreigner, doesn't speak English
0:16:49 > 0:16:53and does spend a certain amount of time back in his native Hanover
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and does devote quite a lot of time to using the resources
0:16:56 > 0:17:00of British foreign policy to forward Hanoverian expansionism.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04The Water Music is part of George I persuading himself,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08being told by his minsters to stay in London, not to go to Hanover,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10and to make himself available to the elite
0:17:10 > 0:17:13and seen by the bulk of the population.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29George set about ingratiating himself with the aristocracy,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32becoming an enthusiastic supporter of Italian opera.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41In 1719, the King stumped up £1,000
0:17:41 > 0:17:45to help launch a new Royal Academy of Music.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50A golden age for Italian opera in Britain was now under way.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54For London's toffs, at least.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59It was very much enfolded into aristocratic life,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02aristocratic culture.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05And the fact that you might, as a young man,
0:18:05 > 0:18:10be able to buy a ticket in the pit
0:18:10 > 0:18:13to come and stand or sit and watch the opera,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17or that you might, as a family, occasionally be able to buy a ticket
0:18:17 > 0:18:21if you were from the middling ranks of society.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24That took away nothing from the fact it was primarily
0:18:24 > 0:18:27an aristocratic entertainment.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31So, you were as much there to be seen and recognised
0:18:31 > 0:18:36by your peers as you were to sit there and actually enjoy it.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Yes, absolutely. And there's a wonderful fan that shows a
0:18:40 > 0:18:44seating plan of the King's Theatre and all the names are carefully
0:18:44 > 0:18:48written in to the fan so that when she holds up the fan, it's a
0:18:48 > 0:18:51crib note, so that she can look down and see who's sitting in the box
0:18:51 > 0:18:54and whom she should make eye contact with.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57And there was a lot of exchanges going on between boxes,
0:18:57 > 0:18:59between audience members.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06But if the aristocrats found themselves safely cocooned
0:19:06 > 0:19:09within the confines of the opera house,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12the theatre district was a different proposition.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Much of London was very mixed.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19You'd have beggars and paupers in every part of London.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23You have the West End but that morphs quickly into the Covent Garden area,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27which is notorious for prostitution, as well as being the area where
0:19:27 > 0:19:31all the fashionable world go for the theatre and for entertainment.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Never mind the show itself,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41just getting to the opera was a piece of pure theatre.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43I'm imagining you're wearing your finery.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45You're very, very much an object.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47You're dressing so that people will look at you.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50But you're not dressing for comfort when you come to the opera,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53- particularly as a woman.- No. No, it's all about the show.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56As...
0:19:56 > 0:19:58"Pride feels no pain."
0:19:58 > 0:20:00As the Duchess of Devonshire once said.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03So, I'm there in this very uncomfortable dress.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Being run along through the streets on a sedan chair.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08How much would you know the other people
0:20:08 > 0:20:11who you would be seeing at the opera? Would you be waving hello?
0:20:11 > 0:20:13Who might I recognise?
0:20:13 > 0:20:18You would recognise almost all of your social contemporaries,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20very much so.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22London was a hugely visible city
0:20:22 > 0:20:25and the culture of celebrity is absolutely on the rise.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30So, in many ways, you wanted to be as visible as possible,
0:20:30 > 0:20:31as recognisable as possible.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36And this culture of show is becoming very strong.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Even when you got inside the theatre
0:20:44 > 0:20:47the drama wasn't confined to the stage.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Theatre-going in general was a perilous business.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00Theatres were noisy, unruly and often downright dangerous.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02The Drury Lane Theatre in London, for example,
0:21:02 > 0:21:08was destroyed by rioting on six occasions during the century.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10People would eat and get drunk.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12They'd arrive and leave in the middle of a performance
0:21:12 > 0:21:16and well-to-do young men would prowl the theatre on the lookout
0:21:16 > 0:21:18for women in search of a good time.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21The aisles were known as "Fops Alley."
0:21:23 > 0:21:27People would talk or even play cards during the recitatives.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29These were rapid-fire bits of singing
0:21:29 > 0:21:31which drove the plot forward.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44What the audience was really there to listen to were the arias.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47These are operas' show tunes, if you like, the moment where the
0:21:47 > 0:21:50characters get to express their inner-most feelings.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53They would start with a clarion call from the orchestra
0:21:53 > 0:21:55with a little preview of the tune.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57This was your cue to stop your conversation,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01finish up your game of whist, and listen. Because this was where
0:22:01 > 0:22:04the singers really earned their vast salaries.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19The public came to hear the singers, not actually to hear the music.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21They wanted to hear what wonderful things
0:22:21 > 0:22:23the singers could do, technically.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30What made Italian opera attractive was the calibre of the singers
0:22:30 > 0:22:33and that's what people said over and over again -
0:22:33 > 0:22:36"We do not have singers trained to this standard who can perform
0:22:36 > 0:22:38"this wonderfully virtuosic music."
0:22:40 > 0:22:45What made the singers so exciting was the unstoppable energy,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48the thrilling newness of the music they got to sing,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51as Handel proved time and again.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Handel's real strength lies in the simplicity of the music.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57That's what makes it so sexy.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00And there's something sexy about the style. You just think,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03"How have you managed to do that with so few resources?"
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Just a couple of instruments. Something very simple.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10He never over-eggs the pudding.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13SHE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Most Londoners couldn't afford to see these superstars but they
0:24:55 > 0:24:58certainly knew about them from the wealth of newspapers
0:24:58 > 0:25:01and periodicals printed daily in the capital.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Here were the beginnings of today's tabloids,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06gossip mags and celebrities.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Readers loved the antics of the opera stars
0:25:08 > 0:25:10with their ridiculous behaviour,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14most notoriously the Italian singer, Francesca Cuzzoni,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17who arrived in London in 1723.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Handel once had to threaten to throw her out of a window
0:25:21 > 0:25:25because he was so infuriated by her diva-ish histrionics.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27After her debut in his opera, Ottone,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30she became the toast of the town.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32But she didn't have the field to herself for long.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Cuzzoni soon had a rival -
0:25:38 > 0:25:41another Italian soprano called Faustina Bordoni.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52She arrived in London to the delight of the capital's satirists,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55who started penning acid pieces about these overpaid,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59imported and vastly extravagant singers.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01The managers of the opera houses
0:26:01 > 0:26:04absolutely rubbed their hands together in glee
0:26:04 > 0:26:07because what a good way, what better way, in fact,
0:26:07 > 0:26:12was there to guarantee bums on seats
0:26:12 > 0:26:14than to have a really good showdown
0:26:14 > 0:26:18between two fabulous singers on stage?
0:26:18 > 0:26:21There were racehorses called Faustina and Cuzzoni
0:26:21 > 0:26:24pitted against each other at race meetings, and fans of one
0:26:24 > 0:26:27prima donna started refusing to even socialise
0:26:27 > 0:26:33with fans of the other, such was the intensity of their celebrity.
0:26:33 > 0:26:39The rivalry between sopranos was identified at the time with women -
0:26:39 > 0:26:44high society ladies who held assemblies in their private rooms,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49invited their elite guests, and split themselves into factions
0:26:49 > 0:26:53in order to demonstrate their inordinate good taste.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03One night in June, 1727, there was a riot among the factions.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11A legend quickly grew that Faustina and Cuzzoni had themselves indulged
0:27:11 > 0:27:14in a full-scale catfight, tearing off each others' wigs
0:27:14 > 0:27:18and hurling unspeakable insults at each other in Italian.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22It's a great story that's gone down in music history.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Unfortunately, it's not actually true.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28I'm afraid to say, it didn't happen.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32But it's really interesting that we still have that myth with us.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35So, there's nowhere in the newspapers that says that
0:27:35 > 0:27:38hair-pulling happened? Where'd that come from?
0:27:38 > 0:27:42All the newspapers say is the audience factions produced
0:27:42 > 0:27:45so much noise that you couldn't hear the singing any more
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and they had to stop the opera. And this dreadful because it happened
0:27:49 > 0:27:53while the Princess of Wales was there, so it was a real breach
0:27:53 > 0:27:58of royal protocol that the audience factions didn't pay more respect.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59Such was the scandal
0:27:59 > 0:28:03that the whole opera season came shuddering to a halt.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05But nothing could stem the tide of opera mania
0:28:05 > 0:28:08that swept the salons of the capital.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13Bored by the soprano wars, Londoners became obsessed instead
0:28:13 > 0:28:16with opera's leading men - the castrati.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21They got opera's heroic roles, sung today by countertenors in falsetto.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26HE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:29:48 > 0:29:50I think the people who don't go to the opera,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54who don't hear countertenor voices, the whole idea of a heroic figure in
0:29:54 > 0:29:57opera being a guy who's singing in a very high register feels quite odd.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00And yet we're really used to it in some ways
0:30:00 > 0:30:02because if you listen to The Bee Gees or The Beach Boys
0:30:02 > 0:30:05or Freddie Mercury, men sing high all the time.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07It's just a question of what we're used to, isn't it?
0:30:07 > 0:30:10I think what throws some people when they come to hear classical music
0:30:10 > 0:30:12and they hear a countertenor singing,
0:30:12 > 0:30:15and it's the complete reversal of what we expect now,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18that the heroic man to be the sort of Daniel Craig, muscle,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22coming out of the water and singing this big tenor aria,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25which happened in the late 18th century and then the tenors took over
0:30:25 > 0:30:30and their high notes became the true, you know, heroic noise.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34The castrati were a gift from Catholic Italy.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37After the Pope had banned women from singing in church,
0:30:37 > 0:30:42choirs found they needed a way of preserving those high voices,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45their male sopranos. So, if you were Italian and you were poor
0:30:45 > 0:30:48and you had a son with a promising voice,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51you would take him off to a backstreet surgeon who would
0:30:51 > 0:30:54drug him with opium and put him in a hot bath.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56And then came the gruesome bit.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03This is a castratori.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05It's a tool for human castration.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08Essentially, it's a giant nut cracker.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11And this would be opened.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Clamped tightly around the testicles and held there for several minutes.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18It would then be whipped away and you'd be stitched up -
0:31:18 > 0:31:20all with no anaesthetic.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Even by 18th century standards
0:31:23 > 0:31:27this was a particularly unbearable operation.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32But with one snip the 18th century's greatest opera stars were created.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40They paid a heavy price.
0:31:40 > 0:31:42Physically, they were monsters.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45The castrato fell into two body types.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49One was very fat with short stumpy legs and a huge belly.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53And the other one was what they called "the long thin one."
0:31:53 > 0:31:58And they had very long legs, a tiny torso, an overbite,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02often very fleshy lips, long, luxurious hair, no Adam's apple.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06So, there were these various physical characteristics
0:32:06 > 0:32:08that made them monstrous.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10But the practice continued
0:32:10 > 0:32:13because the combination of a boy's high-treble voice
0:32:13 > 0:32:16and the lungs of a fully-grown man
0:32:16 > 0:32:20could produce singing of legendary power and sweetness.
0:32:20 > 0:32:21This is the great mystery nowadays -
0:32:21 > 0:32:24we really don't know what they sounded like and we can only imagine.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28And voices such as myself are trying to help people
0:32:28 > 0:32:31to access that sort of memory.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34The castrati had a most extraordinary effect
0:32:34 > 0:32:35on female listeners.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39They would arrive at the opera proudly displaying wax figurines
0:32:39 > 0:32:42of their heroes stashed in their bosoms.
0:32:42 > 0:32:43And they went weak at the knees
0:32:43 > 0:32:46when they heard them sing music like this.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51HE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:34:41 > 0:34:46The star castrati and sopranos may have wowed their wealthy fans,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49but the rest of the population was growing tired of these foreign
0:34:49 > 0:34:52musical invaders.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56London has a very high proportion of Italian musicians and singers
0:34:56 > 0:35:00and they get paid an awful lot money, so there's resentment.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04And also it's associated with a Catholic country.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08Catholicism carried with it negative moral values as well,
0:35:08 > 0:35:13so there was this idea that the opera brought with it
0:35:13 > 0:35:18elements of immorality that were associated with particularly
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Catholic society, both in France and in Italy.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24Right from the start of Italian opera in London
0:35:24 > 0:35:29there had been voices raised against this foreign musical form.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Now a backlash began in earnest.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35It was shameful that all these people were going to hear
0:35:35 > 0:35:39something in a language they simply didn't speak.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42It wasn't right and it wasn't British.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44This was the supreme art form of Catholics,
0:35:44 > 0:35:49of foreigners, lording it over our native Protestant elite.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51A rebellion was brewing.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54There are newspapers which argue that this is
0:35:54 > 0:35:58a form of cultural betrayal, this preference for Italian opera
0:35:58 > 0:36:02and French theatre, and that something should be done about it.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Concerns were raised that Italian opera actually contained
0:36:06 > 0:36:09secret messages for Jacobite sympathisers
0:36:09 > 0:36:13and Catholic agents eager to restore the Stuarts to the throne.
0:36:13 > 0:36:14As if that wasn't bad enough,
0:36:14 > 0:36:18it was also seen as a threat to the nation's manhood.
0:36:18 > 0:36:19Take a look at this.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25It's a pamphlet called Plain Reasons For The Growth Of Sodomy In England.
0:36:25 > 0:36:26We don't know who wrote it,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29but it was published in the 1720s
0:36:29 > 0:36:31and it asserted in the strongest terms
0:36:31 > 0:36:36that opera, Italian opera, was a kind of cultural Trojan horse.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Everything that proper Britons should shun.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44It was foreign, it was Catholic and, most awful of all,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46with all those castrated men warbling away,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49it was dangerously effeminate.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58What was needed was a form of musical theatre
0:36:58 > 0:37:02sung in English that could appeal beyond a snobbish elite.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06And there was such a form alive and well in every
0:37:06 > 0:37:08nook and cranny of the British Isles.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13A wealth of ballads and songs sung by an army of street performers.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17There are literally thousands of people who earned
0:37:17 > 0:37:20something of a living as street ballad singers.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23People who sell these penny or halfpenny sheets to anybody
0:37:23 > 0:37:25who'd buy them.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28And sometimes these people actually get done for obstruction
0:37:28 > 0:37:31because they've got a crowd of 100 or 200 people around them.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34So this is a form of street entertainment.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38WOMAN: What people loved most in England, always,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41was to sing the same old tunes over and over again,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44and they loved nice, straightforward songs.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48So although the beau monde are listening to all kinds
0:37:48 > 0:37:53of wonderful twiddly music, this is not really particularly
0:37:53 > 0:37:57popular amongst the ordinary people of England.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01They want to hear good old-fashioned songs that you can understand.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07So, I am a ballad seller.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11I go and pick up the piece of paper, the physical ballad,
0:38:11 > 0:38:14from the publisher in Seven Dials. How do I advertise my wares?
0:38:14 > 0:38:17How do I get people to buy and what are they buying?
0:38:17 > 0:38:18Well, I have to say, you don't
0:38:18 > 0:38:21look anything like a ballad seller of the 18th century.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23You just don't look poor enough.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27And so by the 18th century, women especially, who might decide
0:38:27 > 0:38:30to sell ballads, they are going to sell these little slips.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33You're going to shout that you've got ballads, you're going to try
0:38:33 > 0:38:35singing some of those ballads.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38You might not be the world's best singer but you'll give it a go.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40OK...
0:38:42 > 0:38:44# There was a fair maid of Islington
0:38:44 > 0:38:47# As I heard many tell
0:38:47 > 0:38:49# And she was going to London town
0:38:49 > 0:38:52# Her apples and pears to sell
0:38:52 > 0:38:54# As she was going on the road
0:38:54 > 0:38:57# A vintner did she espy
0:38:57 > 0:39:00# And what shall I give, fair maid says he,
0:39:00 > 0:39:02# One night with thee to lie?
0:39:02 > 0:39:05# If you would lie with me one night
0:39:05 > 0:39:07# You must give to me five pounds
0:39:07 > 0:39:09# A match, a match, the vintner said
0:39:09 > 0:39:12# So let's go round
0:39:12 > 0:39:17# And when he had lain with her all night her money she did crave
0:39:17 > 0:39:22# No, oh, no, the vintner said the devil a penny you'll have
0:39:22 > 0:39:27# Oh, no, oh, no, the vintner said the devil a penny you have. #
0:39:30 > 0:39:31Penny for a song?
0:39:33 > 0:39:34Give us a penny!
0:39:34 > 0:39:37The ballad I'm failing to sell is fairly typical,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41in that a well-to-do man offers to pay a woman from a lower class
0:39:41 > 0:39:42to sleep with him.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47When he refuses to pay up, the fair maid takes him to court and,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49this is the unusual bit, she wins.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51Go, girlfriend!
0:39:57 > 0:40:00It was these street ballads, with their familiarity,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04their lowlife subject matter and their potential subversiveness,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06that inspired one of the most sensational musical dramas
0:40:06 > 0:40:08ever created.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13It was resolutely and unapologetically British.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17No more falsetto voices, no overpaid Italian singers,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20no more ridiculous plots about kings and queens,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23this brought opera much closer to home.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26It told the real-life story of a criminal who'd been hanged.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30It was set in the London underworld and it was sung in English.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35It became the most successful music theatre piece ever staged
0:40:35 > 0:40:38and it was called The Beggar's Opera.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Created by the writer John Gay, it opened in London in 1728.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Not only did the plot and characters come from the street,
0:40:48 > 0:40:49the music did, too.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Gay took a collection of well-known tunes and gave them new words.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58# When my Hero in court appears
0:40:58 > 0:41:03# And stands arraign'd for his life
0:41:03 > 0:41:06# Then think of poor Polly's tears
0:41:06 > 0:41:11# For ah, poor Polly, his wife
0:41:11 > 0:41:15# Like the sailor he holds up his hand
0:41:15 > 0:41:19# Distrest on the dashing wave
0:41:19 > 0:41:23# To die a dry death at land
0:41:23 > 0:41:27# Is a bad and a wat'ry grave
0:41:27 > 0:41:31# And alas, poor Polly!
0:41:31 > 0:41:35# Alack and well a day!
0:41:35 > 0:41:39# Before I was in love
0:41:39 > 0:41:42# Oh...
0:41:42 > 0:41:46# Ev'ry month was May. #
0:41:53 > 0:41:56The story of The Beggar's Opera was something any Londoner could
0:41:56 > 0:42:00recognise, because it was based on a real-life drama that had been
0:42:00 > 0:42:04keeping tabloid hacks and ballad writers busy for several years.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09On the morning of 4 September 1724,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12a young man by the name of Jack Sheppard
0:42:12 > 0:42:15was due to be hanged at the gallows at Tyburn.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19His crime - stealing three rolls of cloth, two silver spoons
0:42:19 > 0:42:21and one silk handkerchief.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25And then the astonishing news spread that Shepherd had escaped
0:42:25 > 0:42:30from the condemned cell of London's notorious Newgate Prison.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Sheppard was soon caught and hanged.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39He became the subject of countless ballads, songs and plays.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43He's also the model for the antihero of The Beggar's Opera,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45the highwayman, Captain Macheath.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50Alongside him were a cast of rogues, lowlifes and ne'er-do-wells,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52the likes of whom had never been
0:42:52 > 0:42:54seen on a British operatic stage before.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00The social order had become so perverted
0:43:00 > 0:43:03that the ways of thieves and beggars
0:43:03 > 0:43:09and of thief takers were somehow more reflective of British society
0:43:09 > 0:43:15than the kinds of high stories seen in serious opera.
0:43:15 > 0:43:22It suggested that the amount of money being spent on silly opera singers
0:43:22 > 0:43:30was related to the corruption of court society
0:43:30 > 0:43:34and the corruption of the Whig Party under Robert Walpole.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37Legendary for his corruption,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Walpole was a prime target for British satirists.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43For many in the audience, Walpole's government bore
0:43:43 > 0:43:47a distinct resemblance to the highwaymen, whores and thieves
0:43:47 > 0:43:49of The Beggar's Opera.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51Walpole actually went to it, enjoyed it,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54until he started to realise quite how it was being read
0:43:54 > 0:43:57by the opposition as being a satire on himself.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01# Through all the employments of life
0:44:01 > 0:44:05# Each neighbour abuses his brother
0:44:05 > 0:44:08# Whore and rogue they call husband and wife
0:44:08 > 0:44:14# All professions be-rogue one another. #
0:44:14 > 0:44:18The piece is also a satire on Handel's famously
0:44:18 > 0:44:21brattish sopranos, the divas, Faustina and Cuzzoni,
0:44:21 > 0:44:23in a brilliant spoof catfight
0:44:23 > 0:44:26between the characters of Polly and Lucy.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28# Why how now, Madam Flirt?
0:44:28 > 0:44:31# If you thus must chatter
0:44:31 > 0:44:35# And are for flinging di-i-i-i-rt
0:44:35 > 0:44:38# Let's try who best can spatter. #
0:44:38 > 0:44:41But the two people who reflect Faustina and Cuzzoni,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44the rivals for Macheath, that's Polly and Lucy,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47they meet and suddenly they're going into
0:44:47 > 0:44:50"A-ha-ha-ha-ha" type stuff,
0:44:50 > 0:44:51instead of one word per syllable,
0:44:51 > 0:44:56and that is the one moment at which Gay actually parodies Italian opera,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00rather than just making a satire of the form of Italian opera.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05# How can you see me ma-a-a-a-ade
0:45:05 > 0:45:08# The scoff of such a gypsy
0:45:08 > 0:45:10# Saucy jade! #
0:45:14 > 0:45:18The Beggar's Opera spread like wildfire to cities across
0:45:18 > 0:45:22the British Isles and travelled as far afield as Jamaica and America.
0:45:22 > 0:45:28In 1750, it played in New York, today the home of musical theatre.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31If you wanted to locate the very beginnings of the Broadway musical,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34I'd argue it was there.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37The Beggar's Opera, that intoxicating piece
0:45:37 > 0:45:40of British culture, where pop songs and street culture
0:45:40 > 0:45:42and real characters
0:45:42 > 0:45:47were fused together on the musical stage for the very first time.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56After two decades in thrall to Italian opera,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59a British musical model has finally arrived.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04The Beggar's Opera, and this desperation to say,
0:46:04 > 0:46:09"We can do it as well, in English, as anyone else would do an Italian,"
0:46:09 > 0:46:11is part of a nascent patriotism,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14is part of a growing what we would call nationalism,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17which is directed culturally as much as politically.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Dozens of new stage works followed,
0:46:28 > 0:46:33inspired by the box office gold of John Gay's jukebox musical.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40The fuse had been lit for a new kind of British cultural patriotism.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43Songs in English with a way to bring the nation together
0:46:43 > 0:46:45through its music.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48And one incendiary new piece was brewing in the mind
0:46:48 > 0:46:51of the British composer, Thomas Arne.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54A piece for which he pulled out all the stops.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00JANGLY RENDITION OF "RULE, BRITANNIA!"
0:47:08 > 0:47:13# Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves
0:47:13 > 0:47:17# Britons never never never will be slaves. #
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Rule, Britannia! is still sung proudly today.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24An iconic piece of British national music.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27But it came from a much bigger work
0:47:27 > 0:47:28and one that was commissioned
0:47:28 > 0:47:31not as a celebration of national unity at all,
0:47:31 > 0:47:35but as an attack by a royal son on his hated father.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41This is Cliveden, a country house famous in the 20th century
0:47:41 > 0:47:44for playing host to John Profumo and Christine Keeler
0:47:44 > 0:47:47in one of the great scandals of British politics.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52It was also a hotbed of scandal in the 18th century.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Cliveden was the country seat of George II's eldest son,
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Frederick Prince of Wales.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02And here in Cliveden's grounds, in this grass amphitheatre,
0:48:02 > 0:48:07a new piece was heard. It was called Alfred.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09And it was a musical model
0:48:09 > 0:48:12for an explosive kind of British patriotism.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Alfred was a musical entertainment
0:48:18 > 0:48:21that told the story of Alfred The Great,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25the Anglo-Saxon king who defended England from the marauding Danes.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Rule Britannia! is its stirring finale.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33But the hero of the piece wasn't Alfred at all,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35but his son and successor.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39The central character in Alfred isn't the King himself,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43but his son Edward. He stands for virtue and honour and liberty.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47And for Edward, read Frederick, Prince of Wales.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51If in public, the Georgian royal family was trying to capture
0:48:51 > 0:48:53the hearts of the British people,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56in private it was using music as a weapon
0:48:56 > 0:48:58in a prolonged family squabble.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02The Hanoverians did not have the best relations with their children
0:49:02 > 0:49:05and particularly with their eldest sons.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10And in each case one of the ways in which the oldest child shows
0:49:10 > 0:49:15their opposition is by patronising musical and culture of their own
0:49:15 > 0:49:17in order to show that, as it were,
0:49:17 > 0:49:19they are the Augustus of the modern age.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23They are the cultural figure who best actually represents
0:49:23 > 0:49:25what monarchy and majesty should be.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28And in the case of a piece like Alfred, with Rule Britannia!
0:49:28 > 0:49:30it's also a way of saying you're more British
0:49:30 > 0:49:32and more patriotic, isn't it?
0:49:32 > 0:49:34Patriotism is very important there.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Frederick Prince of Wales aligns, in the late 1730s and 1740s,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42with a group of politicians calling themselves the Patriots.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46And this group argue that the government has failed
0:49:46 > 0:49:51to defend British interests, and that in singing about British values,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54one is actually demanded that the government takes steps.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58# Rule, Britannia!
0:49:58 > 0:50:00# Britannia rule the waves. #
0:50:00 > 0:50:03The real story behind Rule, Britannia!
0:50:03 > 0:50:06reminds us that the patriotic songs we still sing today were,
0:50:06 > 0:50:08three centuries ago,
0:50:08 > 0:50:11not celebrations of strength and unity at all,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13but symbols of weakness and division.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18And not just within the royal family.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21The monarchy was also under attack from the Jacobites
0:50:21 > 0:50:23and their French allies.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27A struggle that had been bubbling away for more than 50 years
0:50:27 > 0:50:29was about to come to the boil again.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33BAGPIPES PLAY
0:50:36 > 0:50:43On 22 June 1745, a ship called the Doutelle set sail from Nantes,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45in France, headed for Scotland.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49On board was a man named Charles Edward Stuart,
0:50:49 > 0:50:54grandson of King James II and the man who believed he would reinstate
0:50:54 > 0:50:57the Catholic Stuart dynasty to the British throne.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02He came closer than anyone could have expected.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10Early one morning in September 1745, the Jacobite forces surprised
0:51:10 > 0:51:14the sleeping Hanoverians of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Scots still celebrate the victory in a song that haunts Sir John Cope,
0:51:21 > 0:51:26the beaten English general, asking if he and his troops are awake.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29# Hey, Johnnie Cope are ye awaking yet?
0:51:29 > 0:51:31# Are your drums a-beating yet?
0:51:31 > 0:51:35# If you were walking, I would wait
0:51:35 > 0:51:37# To gang to the coals in the morning. #
0:51:39 > 0:51:45By December 1745, the Jacobite forces were as far south as Derby.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Panic spread among George's supporters.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53At this crucial moment of instability,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56where the future looked to many uncertain,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59a rousing new song began to be sung in London's theatres
0:51:59 > 0:52:02and it's stayed with us to this day.
0:52:02 > 0:52:07# God save our gracious King
0:52:07 > 0:52:11# Long live our noble King
0:52:11 > 0:52:16# God save the King
0:52:16 > 0:52:20# Send him victorious
0:52:20 > 0:52:25# Happy and glorious
0:52:25 > 0:52:29# Long to reign over us
0:52:29 > 0:52:35# God save the King. #
0:52:35 > 0:52:36Arranged by Thomas Arne,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40it's got all the ingredients of a great national song.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42A tune that is simple enough for anyone to learn,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46that sweeping melody that really hits and emotional nerve,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49and stirring, patriotic lyrics.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53In 1745 those words were critically important
0:52:53 > 0:52:57and they were rather different to the ones we know today.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01# Confound their politics
0:53:01 > 0:53:06# Frustrate their knavish tricks
0:53:06 > 0:53:10# On him our hearts are fixed
0:53:10 > 0:53:17# God save us all. #
0:53:19 > 0:53:24The coup de grace, God Save The King was actually a Jacobite tune.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27The supporters of the Georgian monarchy had appropriated
0:53:27 > 0:53:31the music of their opponents and transformed it into their own
0:53:31 > 0:53:36battle cry against their enemies within Britain.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40Another verse not often sung today begs George's commander to
0:53:40 > 0:53:47"sedition hush and like a torrent rush, rebellious Scots to crush."
0:53:47 > 0:53:52The anthem quickly caught on in pubs, playhouses and streets
0:53:52 > 0:53:56up and down the country, its lyrics printed in newspapers and prints.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00This was a song for a people who had been saved
0:54:00 > 0:54:03through their faith in God and their King.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08# God save our gracious Queen
0:54:08 > 0:54:14# Long live our noble Queen... #
0:54:14 > 0:54:17It's a faith that, for many, still survives.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20When people sing the national anthem,
0:54:20 > 0:54:24what they are expressing is a sense of personal identity.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29And this is not being dragooned to sing it, this is not North Korea.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33I mean, what is very interesting is that nationhood
0:54:33 > 0:54:37is expressed in cultural forms in which people can take part.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42# God save our Queen. #
0:54:42 > 0:54:43CHEERING
0:54:46 > 0:54:50There was no official decree, but God Save The King gradually became
0:54:50 > 0:54:53adopted as our national anthem.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56But there was a dark side to all this,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00as patriotism's evil twin, xenophobia, reared its head.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03In defining ourselves through our songs,
0:55:03 > 0:55:08we began also to tell the world what we weren't - foreign.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Master of the art of nationalistic music was Thomas Arne,
0:55:12 > 0:55:16composer of Rule, Britannia! and arranger of God Save The King.
0:55:16 > 0:55:21His song, Beer Drinking Britons, was a dig at both the Scots
0:55:21 > 0:55:24and our most feared enemy of all.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27If you thought the national stereotype of the French
0:55:27 > 0:55:30as cheese-eating, Beaujolais- swilling, surrender monkeys
0:55:30 > 0:55:33was something new, think again.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37# Ye true honest Britons who love your own land
0:55:37 > 0:55:41# Whose sires were so brave so victorious and free
0:55:41 > 0:55:45# Who always beat France when they took her in her hand
0:55:45 > 0:55:49# Come join honest Britons in chorus with me
0:55:49 > 0:55:52# Join in chorus, in chorus with me
0:55:52 > 0:55:57# Come join honest Britons in chorus with me
0:55:57 > 0:56:01# Let us sing our own treasures Old England's good cheer
0:56:01 > 0:56:05# The profits and pleasures of stout British beer
0:56:05 > 0:56:09# Your wine sipping, dram-tippling fellows retreat
0:56:09 > 0:56:12# But your beer drinking Britons can never be beat. #
0:56:15 > 0:56:18There were more wars come, with France and America
0:56:18 > 0:56:21as well as an Irish rebellion.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26But there were no more Jacobite risings after 1745.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Great Britain had survived and it would grow ever stronger.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35Music had played a powerful part in bolstering the monarchy,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38the union and supporters of both.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Not just Handel's grand ceremonial music,
0:56:41 > 0:56:43not just the national anthem or Rule, Britannia!
0:56:43 > 0:56:46but also a wealth of popular music and song
0:56:46 > 0:56:50which had truly fostered a sense of community,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52nationhood and togetherness.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Songs like Tom Bowling, by the composer Charles Dibdin,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00are still sung today.
0:57:00 > 0:57:05Tom is a young sailor in the Navy who dies tragically at sea.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08A man with all the qualities Great Britain wanted to show
0:57:08 > 0:57:13to the world - strength and patriotism, duty and nobility.
0:57:13 > 0:57:20# Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling
0:57:20 > 0:57:28# The darling of our crew
0:57:28 > 0:57:36# No more he'll hear the tempest howling
0:57:36 > 0:57:43# For death has broached him to
0:57:43 > 0:57:52# His form was of the manliest beauty
0:57:52 > 0:58:00# His heart was kind and soft
0:58:00 > 0:58:08# Faithful below, Tom did his duty
0:58:08 > 0:58:16# And now he's gone aloft
0:58:16 > 0:58:24# And now he's gone aloft. #
0:58:30 > 0:58:34In the next programme, as the money pours in from colonies abroad,
0:58:34 > 0:58:36the British go mad for pleasure.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39The middle classes get the music bug
0:58:39 > 0:58:41and music and culture become a passport
0:58:41 > 0:58:44to power, money and prestige.