http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,164738.htmlChoosing a national anthem
Monday, August 13 2012
Fifty years ago, the National Anthem for the newly independent Trinidad and Tobago was chosen in the small village of Guaico, Sangre Grande by Lenore Mahase-Samaroo MOM, L Mus, (Mc Gill), LTCL; (London) CMT. She chose Pat Castagne’s entry:
“Forged from the love of liberty
In the fires of hope and prayer
With boundless faith in our destiny
We solemnly declare:
Side by side we stand
Islands of the blue Caribbean Sea,
This our native land
We pledge our lives to thee.
Here every creed and race find an equal place
And May God Bless Our Nation.
(Repeat the last two lines)”
Through the years there have been many discussions as to the grammatical correctness of the use of the verb “find;” whether it should be “find” or “finds” an equal place. Not even Mahase-Samaroo, who made the final selection can remember what the composer wrote. “It’s too long for me to remember exactly what Mr Castagne wrote but I always say ‘find,’” she says.
Rosalind Wilson, who has been teaching English for nearly 50 years, 27 of them at St Joseph’s Convent in Port-of-Spain, and is still a very successful private tutor in the subject, is sure Castagne wrote it as “find.”
“It is a subjunctive construction, also ‘s’ is a very difficult letter to sing. I sing it and teach it as “find,” she says.
Mahase-Samaroo, or “Miss Mahase” as the dignified and talented woman who has been married to Reverend Ethelbert Samaroo for 51 years, is still called by members of her St Augustine Girls High School Chorale (formerly the Alumnae Choir and Friends), becomes up to this time positively excited when she remembers being invited to be a member of the Committee appointed to select the National Anthem. Helen Mae Johnstone, former music director at Bishop Anstey High School in the ’40s, and founder of the Biennial Music Festival and Queen's Hall, was chairman of the committee.
“There were piles of entrants and Mrs Johnstone gave everybody a little pile to take home and select the best for final presentation to the Committee; and Pat Castagne's music was in my file. I took it home to Guaico, where I still lived with my family, and played them all, but knew immediately that Castagne's entry was the one. I called the entire household to come and listen to the National Anthem of Trinidad and Tobago, and played it for them.”
At the meeting of the Committee, the chairman chose “Miss Mahase” (which she still was at that time) to play all the music selected by the various members of the committee. “It really was from the beginning the anthem, it was so majestic. I did not write it but I selected it and the others agreed it was the best.”
“Of course I knew my choice well, as this is the one I was playing at home most of the time. Castagne had really written this anthem for the formation of the Federation of the West Indies which fell through. It didn’t last long and no anthem was chosen so when a request was made for one for Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence, Castagne submitted it, which would explain his thoughts of ‘side by side we stand islands of the blue Caribbean Sea’ but it worked well for us as we are islands of the blue Caribbean,” Mahase-Samaroo says.
This musicologist sometimes wonders what Castagne’s thoughts would be when he hears the music being changed.
“Some of the people change the tune, or the timing, to suit themselves. Being a national anthem I think that if you change any part of it the melody should always be predominant, it must come out, even though in music it is possible to add another tune called a descant; it happens moreso in churches. I have written hundreds of descants for church music, it's where you write another tune above the original melody. That's all very well and good for church and other songs but when it comes to a national anthem the second tune must not overpower the original melody.
“It does happen, although not often. Actually you would never hear this happening with “God Save the Queen.” This is something that happens in the USA – sometimes you do not recognise the American anthem because of innovations. This is a musical style which we are following here,” she says.
In the ’60s Mahase-Samaroo, who studied and performed extensively in Canada, the United States, here at home and in England, joined the staff of St Augustine Girls High School (SAGHS) as music mistress and for 44 years became the “heart and soul” of SAGHS’ music department. Having written an alma mater song for the school, she says “If I were to hear it being changed, without my permission that is, I would be very unhappy about it.”
Mahase-Samaroo likens the late Marjorie Padmore’s “God Bless Our Nation” to a second national anthem.
