The Last Night of the Proms - Pomp, Circumstance, and a new hope

In an economic recession like this, with unemployment still rising it is no surprise that many Britons are unhappy. However, for those whose confidence in the government is dropping and those who feel as if Britain's status in the world stage has been diminishing, well, yesterday showed the Britain's greatness to throw one heck of a party.


Britain has had many great classical composers, and many of these composers saw anniversaries of births or deaths in 2009. Although Georg Frederic Handel, Felix Mendelssohn and Joseph Haydn are not British natives they have had as much influence on British music as Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar. British music is a reflection of British society, it is a delicate mixture of a number of cultures.

The BBC Proms has been a celebration of music in Britain for the past century, and Henry Wood the founder of the promenade and who conducted around 45 series of concerts still remains a presence 65 years after his death. The Proms have seen music and musicians from all over the world come together, culminating in the Last Night of the Proms, last night.

It is the Proms which makes me wonder why thousands of people would want to go to festivals like Glastonbury, and spend days camping during record levels of rainfall. Clearly, Glastonbury is a major part of British culture and the British image, but even for those who do not take a liking to Classical music, the Proms is a totally different spectacle.

While there is the Classical music, in 2009 we had Purcell, Mahler, Haydn and Handel among other composers, while the two solo performers mezzo-soprano Sarah Connoly and Alison Balsom on the trumpet may not be world famous names, they displayed their wonderful talents leading up to the finale of the 2009 Proms. Even if you do not like music, Rule Britannia, Jerusalem, and Land of Hope and Glory makes you feel proud to be British. While Britannia's rule of the waves may be diminishing, while Britains bounds are becoming narrower and narrower, there is still hope of Blake's new Jerusalem in Britain.

While times may be hard, while less people may seem to listen, while influence may be narrower, the Proms show us that there is still hope that Britain would once again, be great.