Spaniard here as well, and I agree with Go Arachnid Laser completely. I like the Spanish national anthem. I think that any push to put lyrics into it is doomed to fail, though. They tried several times (once, under Franco, with lyrics written by José María Pemán, a very good writer -although a complete suck-up to the dictator’s regime). It never caught on, and if not even Franco and a very good and competent poet managed to do it… I don’t think it will ever happen.
I was very surprised when I heard the Israeli anthem and realized that it has the same melody as “Vltava”, by Smetana. Apparently both are based on the same melody.
Although I am fairly progressive, “all thy sons command” sounds a lot better to me than “all of us”. But it’s just a small change and won’t change how I sleep at night.
It’s not. The melody was sung by drunks, fercryin’ out loud. High school kids have no problem singing it correctly. We even sang it in grade school with no trouble. The problem is morons who think they can “improve” it by adding notes that don’t belong, or altering the time signature, or who don’t seem to realize that the first three notes need to be sung at the lower end of their range. It has a slightly wider than average range, but not even close to the level of operatic.
The US anthem sucks ass. Too militaristic, too long, awful melody, unsingable by most. We should commission Bob Dylan to come up with a new one.
I like O Canada, I still miss Roger Ducet singing it for Canadien games. God Save The Queen is pleasantly short and sounds so majestic. But the winner and all time champion will be Le Marseillaise, though also a bit on the bloody side.
No. It has, from memory, been used on occasion as an unofficial anthem for England - ie, not the UK as a whole. I think it may have been used at the Commonwealth Games? (one international sporting tournament where the four ‘home nations’ of England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland compete separately).
Point being, it’s a stand in anthem for England, but doesn’t represent the whole of the UK (and would therefore upset everyone except the English).
I like the Star-Spangled Banner (my national anthem), but for a really stirring anthem, the classic rendition of La Marseillaise from Casablanca can’t be beat.
There’s been some commentary on the unsavoury warlike nature of some anthems, but here’s a thing. I don’t think anyone has pointed out that the full version of the British anthem revels in the slaughter of - well - Britons.
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King!
Unique in this respect? (And not much talked about these days).
That aside, it’s awful. Dreadful, spirit-sapping dirge.
Along with shoehorning “Under God” into the pledge of allegiance, and the unauthorized/unratified addition of “In God We Trust” on our currency, I think that would make a Hat Trick of offenses that would send Jefferson and Franklin spinning in their graves. As **AHunter **noted, the current Anthem celebrates war a bit too much but it’s still preferable to Irving Berlin’s tune. It’s a nice enough tune, but if we had adopted it as the national Anthem, the Tea-Partiers would have pointed to it as the damning proof that the United States was founded as an exclusively Christian nation.
When I was a kid, I used to listen to a lot of military music (marches and such). The National Emblem is a nice ditty – kinda reminds me of the closing tune for Hogans Heroes, actually. I’d prefer it, but I don’t remember it having lyrics.
I agree with Dr. Alvin Cooks, one of my Japanese Anthropology professors: The Japanese national anthem was their first grand attempt when they were first introduced to Western music and instruments. Rather than a proud anthem, it sounds like a depressing dirge.
–G!
Perhaps the modern replacement should be
You’ve got to fight
For your right
To PARTY!
…–Beastie Boys
Yeah, I like the Star-spangled Banner. I like it today much more than a year or so ago when I found out that it has several verses. I’m not proposing that the additional verses are sung. But specifically what I found out is that the first verse is essentially a question and the following verses respond to the question: Is our flag still waving?
I find the English version of “O Canada” kind of mushy; all the talk about “glowing hearts” and “see thee rise” makes me think of the movie “E.T.”. I really like the French version, though.
I prefer Woodie Guthrie’s response to that song, ‘This Land is Your Land’. It’s much more in the spirit of what America ought to aspire to (obviously, IMHO). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmiUloNblaY
