According to this site, the lyrics to the Japanese anthem are about 1100 years old. But the music was composed in 1880 - it was a poem before that. It gained the status of national anthem in 1888.
And then, from this site:
It depends on your definition, I suppose.
As one who, with thousands of others, has stood at present arms for a seemingly interminable time at NATO reviews while the anthem of every last ever-loving mother’s son of a NATO member country was played, I will state for the record that every one of them, in the proper circumstance, is a royal pain. That said, despite it’s Nazi connotations, the West German anthem, the Deutschland Lied, is a moving piece of music, especially when plays by a really good military band with a strong horn section. The same is true of the French anthem. The band of the old 5th Cuirassiers could rip it off as if they were about to take on the Prussians again.
For pure musicality, some one has to mention “Finlandia,” so I will.
ShibbOleth, thanks for the link to the anthem site. Of course now I will have to spend a long time listening to a bunc of them. Back when people played RECORDS(remember them?) I had one of national anthems. IIRC, the anthem of Italy is one without words, and if you listen to it on the MIDI site you can understand why!
I know, but when do we ever have fun parts? (I do alto too. You know, when I actually want to use my musical brain.)
Heh, sorry about that. I also use Casilda and Lady Psyche in different places. It helps keep track of where I am.
I have to go with the African one.
It’s wicked, you gotta hear it.
Paul Simon put it on the end of one of his albums I think.
It’s my favorite.
On this one, I have to respectfully disagree* with Cazzle, and also with those Americans who prefer America The Beautiful to their current anthem. I too prefer Waltzing Matilda -as a song. It’s the one which will make me teary if I’m overseas (and full of beer) when I hear it. But guys, guys… national anthems are supposed to be dull. I associate the very ordinary Advance Australia Fair with balding politicians, glossy sporting events, and heatstroke while being forced to stand in a 1970s school quadrangle for hours while teachers with grating upward inflections strut about with megaphones telling Jason not to pull little Jessica’s hair again, or he’ll be picking up papers (“Mrs Blackburn’s peee-PUL, put ya hands on ya heads!”). Bring Waltzing Matilda down to that level, and that wonderful song will lose all her cheekiness and sense of rebellion. That’s OUR song; no way I’m going to hand it over to the berluddy government.
[python]
This is the wattle,
It’s the symbol of our land.
You can stick it in a bottle,
You can hold it in yer hand!
[/python]
[sub]*Yer right about the ‘girt’ thing though.[/sub]
Once I had the great fortune to attend a concert where the Red Army Orchestra played the Soviet anthem. Wow! For the first time, I heard an anthem as music rather than pomp and circumstance!
The lyrics to the song “To Anacreon In Heaven”, the song that lent it’s tune to “The Star-Spangled Banner”.
Shake Shake Shake,
Shake Shake Shake,
Shake Djibouti,
Shake Djibouti.
My former boss was born in Germany and his family moved to the United States when he was twelve or thirteen. His family was Catholic but he married a woman who was Protestant, Presbyterian I think. He told me about the first time he attended church with her and heard a certain hymn tune being played. The hymn “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” uses the same tune as the German national anthem. I remember singing it in my younger days, back when I was still Lutheran(I thought WE Lutherans were the only ones who knew it!). My boss joked that on hearing the music they were welcoming him!
Listening to that MIDI website Liechtenstein’s anthem is also the music to My Country tis of Thee.
I always liked The Star Spangled Banner, but it is very easy to butcher. America the Beautiful would work, good lyrics and easy for anyone to sing.
One night I got on the website listed below and listened to every single anthem.
My top 3 favorites:
New Zealand. Beautiful and it’s easy to sing.
Australia, easy to sing as well and plus I have a thing for Australia anyway.
HiOpaland
The US, for obvious reasons.
Well, though the American anthem holds a special place in my heart, I think I have to agree that I can’t be objective about it…I mean the anthem isn’t just a song, it’s wrapped up in the whole nationalistic sentiment of loving your country and all, especially in the States, it seems.
So, excluding that, I’d definitely have to go for the OLD Russian anthem (I’m a big fan of harmony and that has wonderful harmony. No idea what the words mean though). Then the Marseillaise, but that’s only because I’ve lived there and studied French culture and language a lot I think. I have a kind of fondness for it like the American one. So the only wholly objective one here is the Russian one.
But, I must admit, besides Canada (whose anthem I’m not at all wild about), I don’t know any other anthems, so I don’t have a real basis for comparison.
Actually, I think the South African one is really awesome too, at least if it’s the one I think it is.
I’ve always been quite partial to India’s anthem. It’s faster than most, yet still retains grace and power.
My national anthem - Britain, dislike it - it’s far too focused on the Monarch and has the same tune as Lichenstein’s anyhow. Switch it to Land of Hope and Glory, I say.
Like many others here, I find the USSR anthem very powerful. The French anthem is also a favourite - to me, it is the most anthem of anthems.
I’d have to agree that the British national anthem needs changing. But not so much because of the focus on the monarch, simply that it’s dreary! I’m English and more patriotic than most, but it’s never inspired me. And now that Scotland and Wales have their own assemblies, we should all have our own anthems. Flower of Scotland and Land of My Fathers, certainly. But for England? The problem with Land of Hope and Glory is that the words are now considered politically incorrect. I’d go for I Vow to Thee, My Country - wonderful words and the music too, the Jupiter suite from The Planets. Wonderfully moving.
Does anybody know of a site that has the national anthem tunes that’s not quicktime???
But what language would it be in? 