Theofficial Organoftheb.B.C

Radio Times, August 20th, 1926. FORTHCOMING RADIO ATTRACTIONS. na ABERDEENe usaf a. A — {mee ral, ae ao PS Dae forage ont a, Pep LELAY! WEIWOAST aoeaeee inalAOL L iinfi cen che, Fa wy wm art aSuave STEER HEFFRE LO SA oO)hreeGeamy oar Ce OTt THEOFFICIAL ORGANOFTHEB.B.C: le notater) mb Chen _ Vol. i. No.151. JO ao ewan _EVERY FRIDAY Two Pesce: Our Second National Anthem ? By PERCY A. SCHOLES. HE. Editor of The Radio Times asks that sweeps, of farm labourers on ten shillings And did the countenance divine [ will write fer his readers a brief a week, of men transported for poaching Shine forth upon our cloudedhills ? account of the poem and the music of a4 hare), and realize that the determin- And was Jerusalem builded here Among thes dark satanic mills ¢ Jerusalem, which was performed with ation is gradually fulfilling rtself, ‘There such thrllme efiect on) the meht Bring me my bowof burning cold ' when the end of the General Strike was Bring me my arrowa of desire ! Bring me my epear: © clonds, unfold ! announced. Fring me my chariot of fire | Jerusalem, | have suggested, constitutes our second National Anthem: “Qur first I will not cease from mental fight, National Anthem, which very, few of us Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Tall we have built Jerusalem would wish to displace, comes down to: us In England's green and pleasant land, irom a. time when Such compositions rather narrowly focussed themselves upon As my correspondence has shown me, a single person, the foremost person in the there are some readers to whom the lacts af nation, the most representative, and the Blake's life are little known.” They cannot most symbolic. In Singing ‘God Save be at all fully given here. He was 4 the King,” we imply, also, ‘ God Savethe Londoner, and next year will see the cen- Country," but we do not say it. Time tenary of lis death at the age of seventy. and again has been made the effort to He was by trade an engraver, but he was supply this-omussion ; the opening of the also poet and prophet. It may be said Great War, it will be recalled, brought that he was crazed, and so on one side of into the columns ol the newspapers many his mind he probably was, for he wrote attempts at additional Verses to our huge books which only a few people have National Anthem, which. shoukl widen ever read and even they have not been its thought. ‘Such attempts will probably able to understand. But he was a genius always fail. To add-toan old tradition is and a tencder-hearted over of huniankind, probably impossible to establish a new What Blake's eyes saw his mind trané- éne may be éasier, Surely, in Bfake's figured, ‘“‘ What ?' it willbe questioned, poemwe have the very complement desired “when the sun rises, do you not set a dise to “ God Save the King "—its only d e f e c t of fire somewhat ‘hike a guinea ? "—'-Oh, in this connection being that by “Eng no, no! [see an innumerable companyof lanl ave are to understand that weinclude the heavenly host, erving, Holy, holy, holy, Peete Pe leer the Empire, WILLIAM BLAKE, Poet and Seer. is the Lord God Almighty! 1 question The. greatest. merit; perhaps, o f this (From a contemporary painting by Thomas Phillips not mycorporeal eye any more than 1 would “secondary ational Anthem," 15 its in the National Portrait Gallery.) question a windowconcerning a sight. I expression of a determination to do is, then, hope in our singing, a5 well as look through it, and not with it."" Tihat someigne for the land we love. And in resolve, rives us something of a clue to the way in which we should rezard the symbolism ‘ol singing of that determination we can’ cast And did those feet in ancient ime our thought back to the England of Walk wpon England's mountain green ? Blake's poetry. As Mr. J. C. Stobart, the B l a k e ' s day, (an England of child factory. And was the Holy Lambof God B.B:C's Director of Education, writes :— workers. and child chimney«climbing On England's pleasant pastures seen 7 {Continued overleaf. } — RADIO TIMES. — (Avarsr -2tre, 1986; a ee Our Second National Anthem? A Radio Democracy. (Continaed from the previous page.) A Look Into the Future. “The words of a mystical poet such as tutes Movement, the Competition Musical Pr ia quite likely that the schoolboy of the year Blake do not admit of literal explanation Festival Movement, and ¢o forth And! S00 will read with amazement in his history word by word. Besides being a poet, Blake understand that it appears in Labour Hynin book: “At first, there were attempts to treat Was also a painter and a prophet. He did Books. Indeed, the merit of this “ Secon- brogdeasting merely aa a pastime and recreation, not write like a logician. He has visions. dary National Anthem” is this—its vision and the first suppeestion of broadcasting the epeeIER of members of the old Parliament was brtterly He sees pictures. Where the modern is so general, its ideals so wide, that all who opposed by members of all political parties.” journalist would say, ‘Is England really a love their country can jom 1n it. And reading that, the child of the fature will Christian country?” Blake sees a picture Mr. Plunket Greene, in writing of Parry's give a smile of supenority at the quaint doings of of the pierced feet of the Saviour walking songs, has sail — his foolish ancestors. upon England's green hills; and so he asks “They are ke himseli—' out-of-doers,’ For itis very certain that broadcasting will nob in wonder, ‘Did Christ ever come to Eng- diatomic and in the major, and, hke his always be kept out of political life aa it is at present Jand?’ Where the journalist might ask, lyrical songs and the rest of his music, they in. this country. Does it not preeent a solution ‘Can we ever realize practical Christianity, are his own. They never could be mistaken of the problem of the demecratic control of our Mm an industrial country governed by the for anybody's children but his. They owe great modern nations ? do to Brahms ; Democracy, a5 we all know, first appeared in capitalist system ?’ Blake merely asks, ‘ Was no more to folk-song than they the City States of Greece. Each of the States had Jerusalem builded here among these dark yet they are as unmistakably English as only a few thousand free inhabitants, and thus all political business could be conducted by mass meetings held in the city itself. But the lack of a ———— — —— Press and of rapid means of communication made any Imerease in the size of the Stale a danger to democracy, It was impossible for citizens living outeide the small city bourdaries to knowaccurately And did those feet in an-cieni time Walk -up-on Englands mountains green? what was going on, or to make their wishes felt. Tt wes not until the aleent, af Tee paPere and of railwiy ond telegraphic communication ‘that democracy became a workable ideal, Vet, when Caxton brought is printing preas to England, g no one dreamt that it was to be the greatest weapon ever forged in the fight of democracy euadiirt tyranny and deapotism. : 2 And eo to-day the citizen receives from his daily paper information of the doings of his Government euch as would have been impossible in previous times ; bot it comes to him colourer| by the views af the paper which selects and emphasizes what it considers to be tho most important points, “And i Opening bars of Parry's “ Jerusalem.” eo, naturally, it comes about: that vital facts: are _ pod properly understood by the public, Broadcasting stands’ ready to bring wa into satanic mills?’ Where the modern editor Stanford's are Irish. Howlittle he knew, actual contact with all important discussions, _ would write a strong plea for idealism, Blake when he gave Jerusalem to Walford Davies Inevitably all parliamentary and industrial débates © Merely sees pictures of the Christian's withthe words, ‘ Here's a tune for you, old will be broadcast, and the ordinary man will hear PF) AMOUry—the bow of burning gold as the chap. Do what you like with it,’ that within at first hand the pro’ and cons of every act of in which he is concerned, | Weapon of offence to destroy hypocrisy; a year or two of his death it would have governmental policy grown to be the national song of his Can you not see him, the’ citizen of the future, p ~=«dtthe arrows of desire, the keen. longing for listening to a debate on some vital topic and then a perfection ; and the chariot of fire represent- country, and the hymn, by adoption, of immediately sending out on histransmitting set - img, I suppose, the vehicle by which the the great competition festivals which are An expression of approval or disapproval of his _ prophet rises to the heights. The heavenly the outward and visible signs of our musical representative's point of view, to be recorded ' ity of Jerusalem is, of course, founded upon renaissance ! automatically, ¢o that his M.P. can see to what _ the Book of Revelation, transmuted’ by “These of us who have seen and heard the extent his constituents approve of his doings + Milton and Bunyan into the English idealist's massed choirs and audience, a couple of If and when a generation arises in this country | Wiew of perfection.

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