“Satisfied Benton wouldn’t cause any further trouble, Captain Ironside turned to Faustus, who was merrily humming a rendition of Hark the Thundering Cannons Roar to himself.”
This tune was newly composed by Christopher Fishburn in circa 1683, perhaps specifically for the original version of this song, An Excellent New Song, On the late Victories over the Turks. The overly long title became later known by several closely related titles, most of them derived directly from the ballad’s first line: ‘The Cannons Roar’, ‘Hark the thundering Cannons roar’ and ‘Hark I hear the Cannons roar’. Other names existed – ‘The reward of loyalty’, ‘Wealth breeds care’ and ‘Vienna’, for example – but none of were very common. The notation for the tune appeared in several different sources during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and surviving versions vary only slightly in their melodic details.
Historical background
Hark the thundering Cannons roar was a drinking song, which jestingly proposed that sobriety was to blame for the Ottomans’ defeat, while the power of wine had strengthened the Christian forces. The song also celebrates the ‘Royal Pole’ (John III Sobiski) as a ‘Second Alexander’.
The song was first written in 1683 for a courtly audience, potentially for the king himself after the Ottomans were defeated at Vienna in 1683. The original text contrasted the weakness of tea, coffee, and small beer, which turned the Ottoman ruler into a ‘drouzy senseless rogue’, with the strength of the Christian forces, who were strengthened by drinking wine.
The final verse brings the commentary back to English affairs. It described Louis XIV as ‘The Most Christian Turk at home’, mocking his expansionist hopes as ‘shallow’, now that the Poles had ‘led the dance’ in defeating Louis’ Ottoman allies. The final two lines called upon Charles II of England to ‘send a fleet to France’ and declaimed ‘he’s a Whigg that will not follow’, or support this. This last line brought the song into harmony with many others in this period, which likened Whigs to sober, unchristian, Turks, while Tories were celebrated as good citizens, who were unquestioningly loyal to king and church.
For more information on the siege of Vienna and the western victory over the Ottomans read the informative article What saved Vienna from the Ottoman Turks in 1683 on the Daily history website.
Hark the thundering Cannons roar
HArk! the thundring Canons roar,
ecchoing from the German shore,
And the joyful News comes or’e,
The Turks are all confounded;
Lorrain comes, they run, they run;
Charge your horse through the grand half-moon,
We’l quarter give to none,
Since Staremberg is wounded.
Close your Ranks, each brave Soul,
Take a lusty flowng Bowl,
A grand Carouse to th’ Royal Pole,
The Empires brave Defender;
No man leave his Post by stealth,
Plunder the Grand Visiers Wealth,
But drink a Helmet full to th’ Health,
Of the Second ALEXANDER.
MAHOMET was a sober Dog,
A small Beer drouzy senseless rogue,
The Juice of the Grape so much in vogue,
To forbid to those Adore him;
Had he but allow’d the VINE,
Given’em leave to carouze in Wine,
The Turk< had safely past the Rhine,
And conquer’d all before him.
With dull TEA they sought in vain,
Hopeless Vict’ry to obtain,
Where sprighty Wine fills ev’ry Vein,
Success must needs attend him;
Our Brains, (like our Canons) war,
With often Firing, feels no harm,
While the sober sot flies the Alarm,
No Lawrel can be friend him.
Christians thus with Conquests Crown’d,
Conquest with the Glass goes round,
Weak Coffee can’t keep its ground,
Against the force of Glaret:
Whilst we give them thus the Foyl,
And the Pagan Troops Recoyl,
The Valiant Poles divide the Spoyl,
And in brisk Nectar share it.
Infidels are now o’recome,
But the most Christian Turk’s at home,
Watching the Fate of Christendom,
But all his hopes are shallow;
Since the Poles have led the Dance,
Let English CESAR now advance,
And if he sends a Fleet to France,
He’s a Whig that will not follow.
I was unable to find a version of Hark the thundering Cannons roar being played, but you can listen to the song Englands Triumph, which is played to the same melody, on the English Broadside Ballad Archive.