My last post was entitled Sussex hymn-tunes - Part I , implying that there would at the very least be a Part II. And so there will be, in due course. But today I would like to write about East Anglia. I realise that East Anglia is not in the north, and is notoriously unhilly. But the title of the present entry does have a point, which we will come to by and by. Recently I had the pleasure of attending a concert at Snape Maltings given by the Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra , who gave a wonderful rendition of the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde , Brahms' Symphony no 4, and Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs (sung by Helena Dix , who stepped in at the last minute to cover for Susan Gritton, and produced a sublime, ravishing performance). This is of course Benjamin Britten country. As far as I'm aware Britten did not contribute to hymnody in any way (unless you count his arrangement of the National Anthem, which is sometimes heard at the Last...
Hymn-tunes and the places that inspired them