American Reacts to Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance | BBC Proms 2014 - BBC 

As a Brit and veteran , this is my country, and how much I love my country...

We don’t do patriotism often, rather reserved about that, but wind us up and let us go and boy do we go😂. Loved it❤️

There’s nothing like Elgar. So rousing. His mighty and wonderful music portrays so well what it is to be British 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

There is plenty of flag waving to be seen, mostly British but a lot from all countries from around the world. It is Britain's party but everyone is invited. This is patriotism as it should be, it makes us feel good but not at the expense of making everyone else feel bad.

This is why we don’t wave our national or country flags all the time….we save it up for special occasions like the Last Night and all things Pomp, a Ceremony and the Monarchy. There are some miserable gits who call it all jingoistic nonsense - I say rude words to them and remind them, it’s grand patriotism by people who are delighted to be able to wave a flag and jump up and down to music, in celebration for the country they are happy and so proud to live in. They should join in and put a smile on their faces 😊

The 'Promenaders' - those standing in the auditorium - raise large amounts of money for charity during the season of Sir Henry Wood's promenade concerts.

Huge pride in being British.

That was brilliant Squirrel, always brings a tear to my eye. The UK may well be a backwater in the world now, its government has lost its way, but the British people are fantastic and will always rise to the occasion. We love our little island and always will. x

Ahhh I really wish Land of Hope & Glory could be our English national anthem ❤️ it's just perfect

Those musicians are way beyond commitment to their individual instrument. Absolutely stunning.

I've been to the Last Night and it was one of the defining moments in my life. I may physically be 8,000 miles from the UK but every time I watch this, I'm home.

Every time I hear the proms last nights I feel proud and covered in goosebumps. 😅

always brings tears to my eyes when they start singing land of hope and glory

Isn't it amazing that, despite our differences in the different parts of the UK, music brings us all together?

Now Christmas is coming, you should listen to the Coventry Carol, a medieval Carol, that's melancholic, but hauntingly beautiful.

did you spot, behind the orchestra, behind the display screens? those are the pipes for the absolutely Honking Great pipe organ built into the premises when that gets going the audience's emotion is as much vibration as sound absolutely magnificent

Every year and it never gets old (over 60 yrs for me)

Thank you so very much for letting this video run before your comments. So many RU-vidrs constantly interrupt them and in doing so ruin them. Love your channel.

Now THAT'S what I call a reaction!! Brilliant! I defy anyone with even one drop of British blood in his (or her) veins, not to be moved by Land of Hope and Glory...........

Well said Mr Squirrel love for humanity and standing together ...love wins

Tears in my eyes pride in my heart thank you for reacting to this ❤️❤️❤️

The Proms ( Promenade Concerts) are held over the summer for about six weeks and have a mainly classical repertoire, although other music genres are represented. They are attended by a respectful audience as tyou would imagine at a classical concer.The last night is always party night and everyone let's their hair down. There is huge competition for tickets which is why it has expanded into Proms in the Park at various locations throughout the UK. Elgar is a British composer and a lot of people think that Land of Hope and Glory should be the National Anthem for England, as Scotland and Wales have their own anthems which you may have heard at sporting events. God save the King would be used when it is UK as a whole. Glad you like the Proms, it was sad that the last night was cancelled this year following the death of the Queen.

I love seeing all the other nations flags as well as our flags. You rarely see a flag from our properties but we are a very patriotic nation. Always have been and, hopefully, always will.

Always brings a tear to the eye. Proud to be English, and that!

Another beautiful song I vow to thee my Country, sometimes sung at the Proms.

My brother's godfather was leader of the second violins of the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. In my first week as a music student in London in 1972 his wife Betty invited me for lunch and asked if I would like to go to a concert in the evening as Trevor was playing. Little did I know it was the Last Night of the Proms! We had the most magnificent seats next to the organ of the Albert Hall. All the last night pieces were played including Land of Hope and Glory! It was just stunning and every bit as stirring as you see here but so much more being live - an unforgettable evening! Now at 69 and having had a wonderful life as a professional pianist, I have enormous pleasure reliving memories playing, teaching, accompanying, examining....my first concert as soloist.... But this evening at the last night, inspired my whole career. Thank you Trevor and Betty Conor for taking me under your wing and giving me the experience of a lifetime.

No one does it better than the British 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

I watched this in a hotel room in hamburg . . .slighly worse for wear ! conductinng the orchestrer with tears in my eyes

All the last night of the proms so traditional and yet every year so fresh. It's the end of a summer of musical celebration. Thanks to the Beeb . Inform , Educate , and entertain. Perfect.

Lovely stuff. Well done Squirrel, we're most of us never happier than we help someone else.

In 1905 Elgar received an hon. D. Mus. from Yale. He attended and an orchestra played some of his music, including P & C No. 1. Yale used the 'big tune' at their next graduation, and the next. Then all the other Ivy League universities copied it. Then other universities and colleges - and now it's even called the Graduation Song sometimes. In reality it was written in 1900 and later used in celebrations surrounding the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.

Elgar's music is very emotional and stirring. Thanks for listening and only commenting at the end. Do you know that the inventor of the enigma machine used by the Germans in WW2 named it after the Enigma variations? He was a big fan of Elgar.

It's one of the few times the brits can be patriotic in these woke days

This should be the National Anthem for the British Isles

We will have to get Squirrel a honourary British citizenship if he carries on like this 🥰....I know this will rub people up the wrong way👹, but Britain being the most diverse nation in and around Europe, your notice that diversity rarely makes it appearances in the crowds at national events😇. Hyde Park big screening of the Proms is a wonderful atmosphere and highly recommended🤙.

🇬🇧 Quality never gets old. I always shed a tear of pride watching the Proms. Great reaction mate ❤🇬🇧🇺🇸

"There is corner of a Squirrel's room that is forever England".....

As a massive nationalist and unionist it gives me goosebumps , tears in my eyes and a lump to my throat

There is no empire like the British empire that came together like that even many years after their independence. That’s what I call United.

So, when I was in Walmart with a mate of mine some time back (2013), we were near the TV section and they were on display mode, showing the usual stuff , but there was one segment where they showed College football teams/graduations, and had Land of Hope and Glory playing - I pointed this out, and my friend literally went "That music is a song????"

I cry like a baby every single time.

Every time I see 1 of these quintessential classic pieces it moves me to tears. Especially when I see you feeling moved byt he same bits as I. The build up to the first instance of the lyrics, hhhh oh my oh me. & too see you feeling the same.. God 2012 was really the first time I can now remember really engaging with the Proms, & watched every night to it's finish. Funny that year seems to be the main 1 youtubers are reacting to now apart from this 2022, or at least what the algorythm is throwing at me. & then I hardly saw any of them since, & I just happened to miss this years due to major depression, god to see that the last night of the proms somehow insanely conicided with the Queens passing, that really hit me, & that I'd just missed it for feeling so low. When I used to feel this sort of exhilaration from it as well. It's only since her passing that I really feel the unity in the Proms again, a unity I never really thought about until having what she represented & made efforts to bring about, Unity, of all, everyone. A binding force in the world unlike any other spanning more than 9 decades. Yeah, I love feeling this extraordinary unity with you, also, th eProms are the only way I even know some classic sound bites we all know are actually much larger classical musical pieces, exactly as this 1. Who doesn't know Land of Hope & Glory as a quintessential American graduation piece, how few of us knew there was more to the piece until we heard it here at the Proms, Because that's how I knew as well, not that I ever remembered it for a decade until now as I've hardly watched it since 2012. Yeah I've got a horrendous memory like that, technical stuff, sure I can work my way through to familiar territory but my brain doesn't just tie clear cut threads to well defined instances. So it's not that weird to me to hear how you knew that part but not the rest, as that is Exactly my same experience until the Proms, course I only knew it through things like the Simpsons, being in Scotland & all..

So glad you did this Squirrel. Did you notice there were a few 'regulars' in the crowd from the different years you have reacted to. They must have tickets booked on speed dial as I believe it is so hard to get them as they sell out quickly. People from all walks of life united in their patriotism, bobbing up and down and belting out those songs while waving and wafting their flags.

British sports teams would win more games if they had this as the National Anthem instead of God Save the King.

Bloody love it ..singing along. 🙂👍

The Proms are unlike anything else, I think. As a series of events that both celebrate classical music and make it accessible to a wider audience. It's not only a chance to showcase classical music but also to have fun with it, experiment with pop or rock crossover, with comedy, with experimentation. The Proms takes the things that make the average pleb like me intimidated and throws them out of the window. The Last Night of the Proms is usually the sort of equivalent to when a band does the encore with the greatest hits, so is lighter, they are a great way for regular people to be involved in classical music.

When Elgar wrote that, he told his wife and friends 'I've got a tune that'll knock 'em flat'. Now known as The Big Tune, it certainly did!.

I'm so glad that you have found the LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS. Before TV and the internet, I listened to it, every year, on the radio. Now I enjoy it even more. I hope you do as well.

My grandfather always (ironically) said, "what this country needs, is more patriotic songs" 😂... But seriously, a great piece of togetherness that happens every year. Until recently, Britain was proud of it's open door policy to peoples of all nations. I hope it will return, in the spirit of which it was always intended.

Is this what being British means now? I'm on board for that.

So happy you have shown this, I was one of the many who recommended it to you. So proud to be British when watching this masterpiece. Take care Mr Squirrel. Big love from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England 🎉

If you can, see if you can do the fantasia on British sea songs. They are a lot of fun, even more so than this!

I know you said 1% Italian Squirrel. But I bet it has an English accent. You react 100% British to the Proms .

A sincere and heartfelt reaction; it was great to see the joy and peace that this celebration of our, the world’s, humanity gave you. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

I'm German. And yes, of course I know about the complicated history of Germany and Britannia. And of all the terrible things my ancestors did during the 3rd Reich. But believe it or not, people of the United Kingdom - times have changed. I LOVE your country and you, the people!!! And whenever I listen to this masterpiece of Edward Elgar my heart is about to explode. Rule, Britannia!

The proms is our celebration of music. The last night is the celebration of Britishness in music form The proms became so saught after that the addition of outside proms events were introduced in various parks The bobbing is now a tradition. The feeling inside the Albert Hall is electrifying The often have themes, the one celebrating 'Dr Who' the Sci Fi TV series was an absolute gem

The lyrics were written the year after the first Pomp and Circumstance march was premiered...

Officially known as Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D, it was composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1901, and was first played that year in Liverpool UK. It is an absolute belter of a march and it didn't take long to become part of the British psyche over the years. It was first played , as a graduation processional march, at Yale University in the USA in 1905. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Land of Hope and Glory is one of those songs that nobody needs to be taught. You just know it through osmosis growing up, it's in the nations DNA.

Brings a lump to my throat. Seeing youngsters there aswell.

It’s one of the few songs which regularly get brought up in the debate as being the English national anthem (the English use the “British God Save the King” whereas other constituent countries all that’s their own anthems/songs albeit N. Ire is a touch more complicated). It seems to be a popular choice along with “Jerusalem”, but the main issue is it was written in the era of empire expansion and that’s clearly referenced in the lyrics

Thanks for this, am sick of all the Meghan and Harry stuff, this is so refreshing. By the way you look different ? dont know what it is, but your looking good.

Britain was great before America was a nation. Some of its people are still great, many of its people have left and made other nations great.

Makès me miss our beloved Queen so much and love of our free Commonwealth countries so dear to her heart.

'Just hits you in the feels', great expression, gonna use it lol. From a new subscriber who enjoyed Elgar much

Love your reaction to the crowd starting to sing Land of Hope & Glory. Thanks for your interest in us British! 🇬🇧🤝🇺🇲

Makes us glad that we aren’t foreign 🇬🇧”tongue in cheek response” 😂

Not a patriotic song but this is Lux Aeterna from the Requiem mass sung to the tune of Elgar's Enigma Variations - part 9, Nimrod. Worth a listen, even if not a reaction. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IwdeqVmXlHk.html

Am I the only one who expects Windsor Davies to shout 'shut up' after the word 'free'? 😁

It’s alleged that when Elgar was writing this, he was asked what he was working on, and he replied “I’ve got a tune that will knock their socks off”, whether or not that’s true, who knows but, if it is, he was spot on. Patriotism at its very best.

I love my country with all my Hart watching this just in steals it into me more. God save the king

Many concerts invite audience participation. And then there's the Last Night of the Proms.

I remember being in my teens, knowing 'Land of Hope & Glory' as being a British patriotic song and quite miffed that teenage U.S. teen movies quite often playing it by kazoo at student graduation🎓 parades. How dare they!🧐😪😡

Hi Squirrel, How can any enemy ever hope to quench that sort of love and PATREISM Royal Albert Hall 5,000 + inside 10's of thousands outside in Hyde Park WELCOME SQUIRREL. PS I add this was the biggest quire all these place around the country sang together on screen brilliant.

Great choice, Squirrel. Last Night is uplifting when we need a boost whoever and wherever we are.

Just so bloody wonderful. Harry and Meghan, not invited.

There's a reason why are tiny islands ruled half the world and gave it; parliamentary democracy, English,Christianity, policing,postal system, the internet, t.v., jet engine,agricultural and then industrial revolution, electric light,the computer, electrical telegraph,railways,spinning jenny,telescopes ,submarines, the first working aeroplane,steam machines,cats eyes and that's before our discoveries of gravity, penicillin and hydrogen etc Then we gave the world Shakespeare ,Chaucer, Darwin, The Beatles and Elgar!

😊As a Brit I love my Country, especially playing Land of hope & Glory Mother of the free love it.🇬🇧🦋

I think I saw a Stars and Stripes being waved there in the middle of the crowd.

Great post. I love this a last night of the proms.

Of all the problems we are facing at the moment we as a nation will always be proud of our country the pomp will always be the best in the world for all it's faults we muddle through I'm so proud to be a brit

The British, especially the English, are so self deprecating, but don't stick is in the ribs or you will will find that we will fight to the death. In fact, we love a fight.

Why should any one else feel bad- we still have our monarch and we will fight for this. We still have something you don’t have. That’s our difference.

In case I haven't told you lately. I love you Brother. You helped me through some tough times during quarantine and I will never forget that. Peace and happiness for you and your family.

This is good but nothing will ever match being there in person. The atmosphere is something else

We tend to keep the stiff upper lip and to eschew pride at all other times, but the second half of the “Last Night of the Proms” is one of the very few exceptions for the UK as a whole. In particular “Land of Hope and Glory” is British, rather than English, and anyone who considers themselves remotely British is welcome to join in.

The annual season of Promenade Concerts brings great music (new, old, classical, and popular) performed by some of the world's finest musicians and singers - it is a unique institution. As you will know, the second half of the Last Night of the Proms follows a well-established programme. Twice in my lifetime this has changed - this year following the death of H.M. the Queen when the concert was cancelled, and in 2001 four days after the attack on the World Trade Centre when Leonard Slatkin conducted an emotional rendition of Samuel Barber's Adagio. I strongly recommend you watch the video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N_dg2xYfgWg.html The minute of silence at the beginning was strictly observed and, except for a few applauders who missed the announcement, the entire audience were silent at the end to show respect.

In Britain we rarely go in for flag waving because for the most part confident in our nationality, This is one of the few times we do so. more happy and jolly than Rememberance Sunday when we also come to gether though this time to remember those who died for our freedom . The Black Flag with the white cross is the flag od Cornwall. the most south west county in England.

What I like about your show squirrel, is you don't keep interrupting with silly chitchat ,thank you

Black flag with the white cross is Cornwall.

England, the last colony of Great Britain ..

Mother of the Free.

Good evening Mr Squirrel... I've not seen any of your videos for a while. Great to see you my friend. Merry Christmas from over the pond pal... Keep it going... Very distinguished with the grey matter by the way ha ha...

Love my country ❤ a d proud to be British

The only word to be used is simply.... FANTASTIC...

Being blessed, is being born British!!

The black flag with a white cross is the Cornwall flag, Cornwall is at the very bottom of the UK on the west coast, its beautiful.

All you need now to complete the traditional "Last Night at the Proms" music is Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea-Songs, "The Hornpipe". This is actually the lead in to Rule Britannia, so you might want to cut that bit as you've already done it. I promise you, you will love it.

The voice of the people!! not the politcians!! thank you my friend x

The brits Can and DO sing !!