The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48149   Message #4053521
Posted By: FreddyHeadey
19-May-20 - 04:36 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Pomp & Circumstance No. 4
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pomp & Circumstance No. 4
On the 4th June,,, Haruo does say that he thinks the programme notes were wrong.

But just in case it was #4 there are some notes on the Elgar page Burke linked to :

Pomp & Circumstance March No. 4 in G ,,,

Attempts have been made to fit words to this melody à la Land of Hope and Glory.
The first was made by Alice Elgar in 1910, who called her new song The King’s Way after the road which was opened in London in 1909.
In 1928, that was replaced by Alfred Noyes’s Song of Victory and a later attempt was made
in 1940 during the Second World War, when the author A.P. Herbert (1890-1971) provided his Song of Liberty. He wrote two verses for the song, each followed by a refrain from which the song gets its title:

All men must be free,
March for liberty with me.
Brutes and braggarts may
Have their little sway –
We shall never bend the knee ...

But, years before, Elgar had revised his view of the patriotic “bards … (who) … step in front of an army and inspire the people with a song.” When Boosey sent him in 1928 Noyes’s words to be fitted to the central tune of No. 4, he wrote: “I think the pronounced praise of England is not quite so popular as it was; the loyalty remains, but the people seem to be more shy as to singing about it.”

The King’s Way by Alice Elgar

The newest street in London town,
The Kingsway, the Kingsway!
The newest street in London town,
Who’ll pace it up and pace it down?
The brave, the strong, who strive and try,
And think and work, who fight and die
To make their England’s royal way
The King’s Way, the King’s Way!

The noblest street in London town,
The Kingsway, the Kingsway!
The noblest street in London town,
The stir of life beats up and down;
In serried ranks the sabres shine,
And Art and Craft and Thought divine,
All crowd and fill the great highway,
The Kingsway, the Kingsway!

On dreary roads in London town
The sick and poor sink sadly down in gloom:
But grace and pity meet
When King and Queen stretch hands and greet
The weary ones;
This, they say,
Our King’s way, and our Queen’s way.

There is a path across the deep, -
The King’s Way, the King’s Way!
There’s a path across the deep, -
A path the Island ships shall keep;
A way by which to those we win,
Whose hands we clasp, whose hearts are kin,
England’s sons across the sea;
They too will fight to keep it free:

Let ev’ry voice in England say, -
”God keep the way by night and day,
The King of England’s Way!”
The King’s Way, the King’s Way!

http://www.elgar.org/3pomp.htm