Do you like your national anthem?

I don’t care much for Ô Canada, it’s not very melodious. And there’s the whole issue of who it was written for vs what it symbolises now.

In general, I think flag-waving and anthems are a negative thing.

I’m partial to both the tune and lyrics of the Bangladesh national anthem. "Amar Shonar Bangla" - Bangladesh National Anthem Bangla & English lyrics - YouTube

I’m Israeli, and I actually like my anthem, although it’s not really designed to be “liked”. It’s a lot more emotional and downbeat than most other anthems.

I only like the Mondegreen’d version
*
“Australians all eat ostriches
For they are yum for meeeeeee!”*

To me the US anthem can be so much more tolerable when sung in under 90 seconds. It’s bottom of the barrel when subjected to the slow motion caterwauling.

UK here, and I hate our national anthem, a pretty rotten tune that glorifies the royal family and says nothing about the country at all really. Awful.

I agree. I’m completely ambivalent about the royal family and think the idea of the UK is about so much more than an arbitrary accident of birth

I gave a few suggestions up thread but when considering what an anthem should “say” about a country I think “Nimrod” takes some beating with evoking ideas through music alone. It is forever associated with remembrance Sunday but it is contemplative, regretful, thoughtful and ultimately hopeful, not bombastic. You can’t sing it, it won’t accompany any military march or parade. You can’t use it to glorify the monarchy but all the same it is intensely moving. Perhaps it is best left unsullied by nationalism and it might get diminished through overuse as an anthem but, it is one of my favourite pieces.

The American anthem is more martial than I’d prefer, but at least it was a defensive action in a defensive war that it’s glorifying. And I don’t know any other national anthems well enough to compare.

I like the SSB just fine. One of the appealing features of it is that it can be played at several different tempos and works for both a soloist doing it a cappella and for a marching band. To me, it sounds fine as a torch song or an “in your face…we won this medal” anthem. How often do you feel the need to sing your national anthem anyway? It’s certainly not one of my personal shower songs.

I don’t like the US anthem. Musically jarring and difficult to sing. Even good singers can barely manage it. And the lyrics aren’t exactly inspiring.

I love the Russian national anthem from a musical perspective, less so from a political angle (resurrecting the Soviet anthem was just one part of the orchestrated effort to create a new national mythology for rather nefarious purposes). I don’t know the new words by heart, so I always sing along with the old lyrics: the party of Lenin leading us to the triumph of Communism, etc.

Canadian and I love ours, both French and English. :slight_smile:

Yeah, this. It’s a beautiful song that mostly celebrates good stuff.

The Star Spangled Banana not only has the problems people have already spoken of (operatic range, bombastic and pretentious, war-celebrating), it also has the problem that the lyrics work badly with the melody, creating a lurching awkward thing. The rhythm of the words is amateurish and clumsy.

ETA: I swear I didn’t write banana on purpose!

In addition, some ballgame singers seem to think it’s a game where you are supposed to sing every single note above or below what the actual notes are. They will lilt above, lilt below, but deliberately never hit the actual note.

That song sucks. Especially “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.”

The Star-Spangled Banner is bombastic and belligerent.

America The Beautiful praises the natural wonders of the part of North America that is the United States, and praises humility and togetherness.

I prefer the latter.

No indeed. No end of great tunes, for hymns as well as grand choral works, but our problem is words. If I had to, I think I would go with Parry’s setting of Jerusalem (yes, it references England, but you could conveniently replace those with “this our”/“these our” without throwing out the scansion) - but even then, someone would kick off about the religious dimension, I suppose.

If I were Welsh, I’d have no problem. Great singalong tune, inspiring but inoffensive words about the language and the land.

I thought “Land of Hope and Glory” (tune of Pomp & Circumstance) was used as an alternate national anthem, analogous to “America the Beautiful”. :confused:

Perhaps, but when done right… http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28chl

The Star-Spangled Banner sounds terrible when sung by non-professionals, its lyrics are clunky, its melody is stolen, and it has a mad, deformed nephew of a racist third verse that we have to keep locked in the attic. No, I don’t believe I like it. Any of Albert Brooks’ suggestions would be an improvement.

not to the best of my knowledge, it is certainly a favourite patriotic song and probably has an unofficial standing with the population but nothing official as far as I know.