The song list drawn up for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is a disgrace. Surely everybody knows that by now, but then what can you expect when the selection is made by a pair of disc jockeys? There is nothing that reflects our nation’s love affair with the sea, no acknowledgement of our bawdy humour, no hymn or carol, no G and S, and the brass band appears somewhat bathetically only in the theme tune to Coronation Street. You could pop into any snug bar in the kingdom, and find a pair of sozzled old topers who could run up a better list.
The obsession with pop music of the past 20 years has blinded this hapless pair to the immense treasure-trove of British music, going all the way back to Tallis and Byrd. In fact you could fill all 60 places with selections from the Tudor songbook, not to mention the work of Elgar and Vaughan Williams.
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