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So traditional has the Last Night of The Proms come to seem that one might imagine it has been the same since Queen Victoria hummed \u2018Rule Britannia\u2019 to herself in the bath. But like many traditions it is a much more recent invention. Every one knows, as Henry Wood knew, that you have to end with a party, but what kind of party should end The Proms?<\/strong><\/p>\n Initially the Proms<\/a> <\/strong>under Henry Wood and Robert Newman had been much more populist than nowadays. Somewhere in their background there had been experience of organising concert series involving promenading audiences (standing, or rather walking around \u2013 forbidden now), as well as popular ballad concerts. The latter lay behind the idea of having the audience join in singing, perhaps in preference to coughing or fainting. But the adventurousness and high-mindedness of Wood led to an expanding repertoire of classical music including new works by Richard Strauss<\/a><\/strong>, and cycles of Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong> and Beethoven<\/a><\/strong> symphonies. All the more reason to let one\u2019s hair down at the last concert to emphasise that work was now done and it was time for a party.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The first element in the current Last Night sequence was Wood\u2019s Fantasia on British Sea Songs<\/em> <\/strong>of 1905. Initially, this had been written as another piece in a series introducing the orchestra to new listeners: Wood often included an operatic fantasia at the beginning of concerts for this purpose. Each player who played a solo was named in the programme and newcomers to symphony concerts could learn how to appreciate the joys of concert-going. By the 1930s the Fantasia had become entrenched as the first piece in the Last Night. Too entrenched for some, as there was a move in 1953 to remove the Fantasia from the Last Night, a move which was bitterly opposed by some Promenaders (prommers<\/a><\/strong>). Who won is history.<\/p>\n The second element to appear (of course apart from the British National Anthem \u2018God Save The Queen\u2019<\/a><\/strong> that ended the concert and the series) was \u2018Land of Hope and Glory\u2019<\/a><\/strong>. This had been first performed in its instrumental form in 1901, when it was encored twice, and then conducted by Elgar<\/a><\/strong> in 1902 with the words as part of the Coronation Ode<\/em>, for which they were written. It appeared again in 1945 in the Last Night as part of the victory celebrations marking the end of World War II. But it still was not enshrined as a permanent fixture at the final concert.<\/p>\n The last piece to be part of the \u2018traditional\u2019 Last Night was Parry\u2019s Jerusalem<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. A strange inclusion in some ways as it is not \u2018patriotic\u2019 in the way \u2018Rule Britannia\u2019 or \u2018Land of Hope and Glory\u2019 are, and there is an irony in the way half-crazed audiences filled with flag-waving euphoria shout the words \u2018nor shall I cease from mental strife\u2019. But, then, not knowing what Blake\u2019s words mean when you sing them has become another British tradition not confined to the Proms.<\/p>\nWhat was the idea behind The Last Night at The Proms?<\/h2>\n
What music is played at the Last Night of the Proms?<\/h2>\n