Sign Britten Victorious

In a bid to make sure that Benjamin Britten's centenary is marked in every way possible, baritone Tom Appleton has created an E-Petition to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In it he asks for Britten's arrangement of the National Anthem to be used henceforth. Britten's version is a magnificent piece of whispered pride, imbuing what is a dignified if dull anthem with a welcome element of harmonic and dynamic surprise. As it enters the second verse, glory bursts forth, though Britten never acquiesces to the pat gestures of his predecessors, particularly in his thrilling imitative use of the final phrase.

The arrangement was completed by 17 August 1961, having been commissioned by the Leeds Festival that year. Britten subsequently revised the score in 1967 in a reduced orchestration, but you can hear the full version below, as performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers and Jiří Bělohlávek at the Last Night of the Proms in 2010. Given that the new culture secretary Maria Miller probably knows little about the musical history of Great Britain, we can perhaps help her in her first weeks in office. Click here to read and sign the E-Petition.