This weekend sees the 107th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic. Despite claims that the ship was unsinkable some 1500 passengers and crew died on the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York when she hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on 14th April and sank in the early hours of 15th April 1912.
One of the most endearing stories about that fateful day concerns the piece of music that the band played as the ship sank. It is an irrefutable fact that the ship's band played right to the end to calm passengers as the ship listed and then slipped into the cold waters of the North Atlantic. What is not certain is the title of the last piece of music that the band played. One of the first class passengers said it was the hymn 'Nearer My God To Thee' composed by Lowell Mason but one of the ship's radio operators said it was 'Songe d'Automne' composed by Archibald Joyce.
On Saturday evening at the Gala Dinner of the British Titanic Society at the Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton our string quartet will play both pieces at the end of the evening. We will do this in memory of those who lost their lives and to honour the eight musicians of the Titanic Band, none of whom survived.