GRAND DIEU SAUVE LE ROY

Created on 28/03/2003
Latest update on 01/12/2023

Artist: Demoiselles de la Maison d'éducation de Saint-Cyr
Author: Mme de Brinon/Jean-Baptiste Lully
Label: -
Year: 1686

At the French court it had always been de coutume to sing the motet Domine Salvum Fac Regem any time the king appeared in public. In 1686, at the opening of the Maison d'éducation de Saint-Cyr by Louis XIV, Mme de Maintenon conducted her pupils to sing a French adaptation, using lyrics by la duchesse de Brinon and music by Lully. Same Mme de Maintenon introduced this motet to the Stuarts' court in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It is not clear what happened next. There's this rumour Haendel picked it up while visiting Versailles in 1714 while he was appointed court composer for George I of England. Fact is, the carillon of a clock made during the first part of the 18th century and belonging to the collection of the musée de Versailles, plays this famous air. During the counter revolution in 1795, French royalists sang it with new words for Louis XVII, dauphin in exile.

Covers:

1744:

Georg Friedrich Händel [as God Save Our Gracious King; lyrics translated by Dr. Henry Carey]

1889:

Emile Berliner [as God Save The Queen on 5 inch disc; Queen Victoria that is]

1901:

Columbia Band [as God Save The King/Queen for Columbia]

1914:

Peter Dawson [as God Save The King]

1967:

Frank Alamo [intro Envoie-moi ta photo]

1968:

Brigitte Bardot [intro Le Diable est Anglais]

1970:

Jimi Hendrix [on the Isle Of Wight, three weeks before he died]

1972:

Stan Kenton

1975:

Queen

2002:

Brian May [on top of Buckingham Palace during the Queen's jubilee party]

2012:

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

2014:

Einstürzende Neubauten [as Hymnen, English, French and German version on their 1.Weltkrieg concept album Lament]

God Save The King/Queen, anthem of the United Kingdom and of the British royal family, was first published in 1744 and first staged in 1745 in Drury Lane Theatre in support of George II. Cited by Beethoven and Von Weber. It also became the Prussian national anthem as Heil Dir im Siegenkranz, while the Russian national anthem until Czar Nicholas used the same lyrics on a different tune. The Liechtensteiner national anthem still uses the same melody.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
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Arnold Rypens
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info@originals.be

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