Hyperion Records

The version of The British Grenadiers recorded here was published in about 1770, and may well be the original, though the first half of the tune is similar to several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century tunes, and the references to ‘fusees’ and ‘looped clothes’ seem to refer to the equipment of grenadiers from around 1700 rather than the late eighteenth century. The fine arrangement in the Handelian idiom was printed in short score, with three-part choral writing similar to much parish church music of the period. The writing suggests the presence of trumpets and drums, which I have taken the liberty of adding.

from notes by Peter Holman © 2000