Best and worst National Anthems

[Quartz]

@Struan

That’s more of an English than a British one, I thinkt.

It actually makes no reference to any country!

But if the Germans can have ‘Deutchland Uber Alles’, I don’t see why we cannot have ‘Rule, Britannia!’

[Northern_Piper]

@Struan

I can’t stand the de facto Scottish anthem, Flower of Scotland, another dirge, with trite lyrics and worst of all one that appears to be impossible to play on bagpipes at sporting events.

Not impossible, just difficult, as outlined in the wiki article:

A more practical snag is that Flower of Scotland is difficult to play on the bagpipes. The third last note is a flattened seventh, which is not considered to be part of the standard pipe scale. In order to hit the correct note, a ‘forked fingering’ must be used which less experienced players are unlikely to be familiar with. The tune was originally composed on the Northumbrian smallpipes, which play in F and have the benefit of keys on the chanter to achieve a greater range of notes.

Link to a midi version.

[ShakWave]

Since everyone’s showing off their country’s national anthems, I present the national anthem of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (a translation)

Blessed be the sacred Land
Happy be the bounteous realm
Symbol of high resolve
Land of Pakistan
Blessed be thou citadel of faith
The order of this sacred land
Is the might of the brotherhood of the People
May the nation, the country, and the state
Shine in glory everlasting
Blessed be the goal of our ambition
This Flag of the Crescent and Star
Leads the way to progress and perfection
Interpreter of our past, glory of our present
Inspiration of our future
Symbol of Almighty’s protection

If you want to listen to it, here it is

[threnodyangelfire]

@TheLoadedDog

The anthem is the butt of many jokes here for containing such an ungainly and silly word as “girt”.

I love the word “girt”. I try to use it as much as possible. I love old words like that.

[Kyla]

The Bulgarian national anthem isn’t particularly thrilling, imho, although the tune is very stately and “national anthem-y”.

Stately Stara planina*,
next to it the Danube sparkles,
the sun shines over Thrace**,
flames over Pirin***.

Refrain:
Dear Motherland,
you are paradise on earth,
your beauty, your charm,
ah, they are boundless.(twice)

Countless fighters fell
for our beloved nation,
Mother, give us manly strength
to carry on their course.

Wikipedia adds this interesting (well, to me, anyway) note:

@Wikipedia

The last verse is omitted on official occasions. During Communist rule, an additional verse was added that referred to Moscow (under direct instructions of Todor Zhivkov****), the Bulgarian Communist Party and the “victorious regime”. After the democratic changes in 1989, that part of the anthem was removed.

*The Stara Planina, or “old mountains” are the Balkan Mountains.
**I live in Thrace! But the sun isn’t shining over us today, it’s gray and drizzly.
***Pirin is the tallest mountain in the country.
****Todor Zhivkov was the dictator of Bulgaria under communism.

[Czarcasm]

Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.

[Zebra]

O Canada is a pretty good one. Great building lines in the melody.

The French National anthem is only that cool because of Casablanca.
Personally, I like the Star Spangled Banner. It is a bunch questions, asked during a fight. That is America.

[DSYoungEsq]

@Zebra

The French National anthem is only that cool because of Casablanca.

Entendez-vous dans les campagnes    Do you hear in the fields 
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?         The howling of these savage soldiers? 
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras   They are coming into your midst 
Égorger vos fils et vos compagnes!  To cut the throats of your sons and your wives!

Any national anthem that discusses the slitting of the throats of your sons and wives is cool, regardless.

[DSYoungEsq]

And for another example to listen to to understand how cool it is: Roberto Alagna sings La Marseillaise

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

@TheLoadedDog

The Australian one is pretty dreary.

What’s dreary about Waltzing Matilda?

[TheLoadedDog]

@Tapioca Dextrin

What’s dreary about Waltzing Matilda?

Izzatta whoosh?

Waltzing Matilda isn’t our anthem.

[installLSC]

Why is everybody bashing on anthems with any hint of warfare? As much as it’s “cool” to be pacifist, to deny that countries like the US and France lend their current form of government mainly to military action is both historically inaccurate and kind of mealy-mouthed. Why shouldn’t their anthems reflect this?
To the subject at hand, the British national anthem is great both for its grandiose sound and the fact the melody’s been co-opted for anthems and patriotic songs around the world. (Although “Rule Britannia” is even better.) There’s a reason they’re called anthems–they’re supposed to be bombastic. The Australian an them is weak. I remember a sports talk host during the Sydney Olympics comparing it to the “Goodbye” cast song at the end of “Dirty Dancing”, and that’s pretty spot on .

[Boozahol_Squid_P.I]

@TheLoadedDog

Izzatta whoosh?

Waltzing Matilda isn’t our anthem.

It oughta be, though, in the same fashion that America the Beautiful should be ours. It’s a much prettier song, and I’ve yet to meet a drunk Aussie who won’t hesitate to belt it out.

You guys should probably take that reference to the surfer-gear company out of it before you make it official.

[Martini_Enfield]

I’ve always felt the New Zealand National Anthem to be extraordinarily… Victorian, for want of a better term.

It’s the sort of thing you can imagine a company of British Soldiers singing after they realise that there are 5,000 very pissed off Natives on the crest of the nearest hill, and that they only have three rounds of ammunition apiece (plus a field gun that’s missing a wheel) to fight them off with…