Great news
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2023
Summary
It has just been discovered that the English national anthem, God Save the King, attributed to Lully, who’s supposed to have composed it to French words for the young ladies of St.-Cyr, isn’t by Lully at all. British pride repudiates such an origin. God Save the King is now by Handel: he wrote it for the English, to the hallowed English text.
There are people specially licensed to unearth these musical deceptions.
They proved long ago that Orpheus isn’t by Gluck, nor Le Devin du village by Rousseau, nor La Vestale by Spontini, nor the Marseillaise by Rouget de l’Isle. In fact some people even go so far as to claim Der Freischütz isn’t by Castil-Blaze!!!
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- The Musical MadhouseAn English Translation of Berlioz's <i>Les Grotesques de la musique</i>, pp. 46Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2003