British concert will omit traditional jolly tunes

LONDON (AP) -- The jolly tunes that normally close the Last Night of the Proms concert have been canceled this year in respect to the dead in terrorist attacks in the United States, the British Broadcast Corp. said Thursday.

The concert, which attracts a large audience outside Britain, will be held Saturday at the Royal Albert Hall, concluding the popular summer series of Promenade Concerts.

The Last Night performance is normally a high-spirited affair ending with mass singing of "Land of Hope and Glory" and "Rule Britannia!"

Those will be dropped on Saturday. Instead, the closing music will include Samuel Barber's solemn "Adagio for Strings," spirituals from Michael Tippett's "A Child of Our Time" and the choral finale from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.