Rule Britannia

The first round is now complete for France, Italy, and Russia. Which country is up next?

Great Britain.

• Thomas Tallis versus William Walton
• William Byrd versus Frederick Delius
• Ethel Smyth versus Gustav Holst
• Henry Purcell versus Arnold Bax
• Arthur Sullivan versus Benjamin Britten
• George Butterworth versus George Frideric Handel
• Michael Tippett versus Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Edward Elgar versus Gerald Finzi

This is an interesting group because we must needs leave the beaten path to find enough composers to fill out eight initial matches. This will give us a chance to explore some music we might not usually run into.

Bax, Finzi, and Butterworth are--along with the better know Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Holst, and Delius--a part of the Edwardian August that followed the Victorian scramble for empire. The music of Victorian England was “utterly ghastly old chap” and forgettable to a fault.

We also have our first female composer in Ethel Smyth and the question of whether or not Handel counts for Britain or Germany. In this case Britain gets Handel while Germany will retain Mendelssohn.