God bless our native land

God bless our native land. William Edward Hickson* (1803-1870). Written in 1836 and published in The Singing Master, Hickson's famous book on musical education, where it had three stanzas. A fourth stanza was added to the Second Edition of The Singing Master in 1844. Hickson said that it had been written ‘as a new national anthem’ (JJ, p. 1566): it follows the metre of ‘God save our gracious Queen (King)’, and can be sung to the normal tune, although it is often set to MOSCOW by Felice Giardini* to avoid too close an association. In contrast to the National Anthem’s ‘Send her victorious’, its sentiments are entirely peaceful: God bless our native land,May heaven's protecting hand    Still...