What is your favorite National Anthem?

Published on November 15, 2004 By Grim Xiozan In Misc

So, what is your favorite National Anthem?

I know for alot of you, you will answer straight away with the National Anthem of your country, but what other one besides that?

My favorite National Anthem that I have often listened to and enjoyed listening to is the Russian National Anthem, the music is awesome and combined with a Russian Chorus makes it superb. Though I cannot understand the words the copy I have is sung by the Alexandrov Red Army and is titled the "CCCP National Anthem".

The way the music and words combine makes it to sound oh so Patriot-inspiring, Comrades.

Comment away Plinko!!

- Comrade Grim

Comments

Grim Xiozan

on Nov 15, 2004

Just an FYI.

Lyrics of Russia's National Anthem

Here is an updated translation of the lyrics to Russia's national anthem, approved Saturday by President Vladimir Putin, and an excerpt from the Soviet version.
Anthem of the Russian Federation. Music by Aleksandr Aleksandrov, 1944, words by Sergei Mikhalkov, 2000.
Russia, our holy country!
Russia, our beloved country!
A mighty will, a great glory,
Are your inheritance for all time!
Refrain:
Be glorious, our free Fatherland!
Eternal union of fraternal peoples,
Common wisdom given by our forebears,
Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!
From the southern seas to the polar region
spread our forests and fields.
You are unique in the world, inimitable,
Native land protected by God!
(Repeat refrain)
Wide spaces for dreams and for living
Are opened for us by the coming years
Faithfulness to our country gives us strength
Thus it was, so it is and always will be!
(Repeat refrain)

From ''Anthem of the Soviet Union,'' music by Aleksandr Aleksandrov, 1944, words by S.V. Mikhalkov and G.A. Registan.
Unbreakable union of freeborn republics,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!
Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Locamama

on Nov 15, 2004

When I thought about this the only other National Anthem that I know right off the top of my head besides my country, the US is Canada's. Must be from all the hockey games I watch with my husband. I think the only time I really would hear another country's anthem is at the Olympics.

Myrrander

on Nov 15, 2004

I love O Canada, as I find Canadians to be far more enlightened than Americans.

chiprj

on Nov 15, 2004

I don't know that I've heard that many national anthems and I've only paid attention to a few of them.

O Canada - eh, I can take or leave that one. But I'm not really partial to Canada, so that may explain that.

I do have a strong interest in North and South Korea (12 years and counting as a military linguist) and I like the South Korean National Anthem - ¾Ö±¹°¡ (literal tranlsation is the 'Love for Country Song') very much. The North Korean National Anthem is pretty good, too. It has a very martial sound.

Funny side note - My wife (she's Korean) didn't know what the North Korean National Anthem sounded like until I played it for her. In South Koreaa it is (was? I think there has been some reform in the laws in recent years) a crime to play the song (as well as display the North Korean flag), so she had never heard it.

Grim Xiozan

on Nov 15, 2004

That is a funny side note Chip.

As for O Canada!

O I heard it before but sounds as,
about inspiring as God Save the Queen,

Speaking of which the have the words "True North" in their lyrics, funny.

Another one that I am partial to is the National Anthem of Japan, Kimigayo (The Emperor's Reign), short and to the point plus no mistaking it as anything but of Japanese Origin.
Kimigayo wa, Chiyo ni yachiyo ni, Sazare-ishi no, Iwao to narite, Koke no musu made
Translates to:
May the reign of the Emperor continue for a thousand, nay, eight thousand generations and for the eternity that it takes for small pebbles to grow into a great rock and become covered with moss

Kimigayo comes from a poem and the anthem itself dates back to 1888 making it one of the oldest.
The lugubrious music was composed in 1880 by Hiromori Hayashi, an Imperial Court musician, and was later harmonized according to the Gregorian mode by Franz Eckert, a German bandmaster.

A sign of things to come in the Japan of 1888, hmm...ah well the US was so close to having John Phillip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever as our national anthem.

Speaking of which, is not Austria's National Anthem Edelweiss (the flower song that got sung by the Von Trapp Family in Sound of Music)?
Footnote: Von Trapp Family actually existed and were living in Vermont when they came over from Europe. Link

Surprising to find that some people did not know they exist and are real people.

Comrade Grim

trina_p

on Nov 15, 2004

re von Trapps -- The von trapp great-grandchildren have actually formed a group and have been touring. They toured Australia a few months ago now.

They're the grandchildren of the character known as Kurt real name Werner.

Georg Ritter von Trapp married Agathe in 1911 and had Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Joanna and Martina. Agathe (mother) died in 1922 and Maria came to tutor an ailing Maria - she fell in love with the captain and they married in 1927 and they had 3 children Rosmarie, Eleonore and Johannes.
The whole family sang in the Salzberg Music festival in 1936 and two years later they escaped the Nazi. They toured Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in 1995

But the Disney version makes for a better story.

My husband sings Edelweiss to our daughter as a lullaby.

As an anthem ours (Advance Australia Fair) isn't much lyrically or musically and it doesn't really inspire anymore There are many who don't know it or refuse to sing it. But I don't think Waltzing Matilda is any better.

trina_p

on Nov 15, 2004

double post - sorry

Grim Xiozan

on Nov 15, 2004

As an anthem ours (Advance Australia Fair) isn't much lyrically or musically and it doesn't really inspire anymore There are many who don't know it or refuse to sing it. But I don't think Waltzing Matilda is any better.

Was that the previous song before Advance Australia Fair?
I listened to it (Advance Australia) from the White House site that has some national anthems listed and it sounds sort of flat or it could be me and my possible penchant for military sounding national anthems.

Though either way the sound of the Australian anthem is undeniably Australian, after all it sounds nothing like its counterparts Canada or Britain.

Germany and France have distinctly recognizable music scores to them and I figured that even most people would be able to recognize the French and German national anthems without being told what it was or once again it could be and my love of the movie "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines" they go up...down...and all around those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines!!

Though what is funny, a lot of American Children learn to sing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" but do not know that is actually the British lyric version of an American song, just like they also learn My Country Tis of Thee which is the American lyric version of God Save the Queen (you have to love culture song wars!!).

InBloom

on Nov 15, 2004

Well, nothing beats the Star Spangled Banner, but I do find myself singing The Mexican National Anthem a few times a year lol...Especially after the "Grito" at Midnight on September 16....It's very Millitary -like, but Catchy ...
here is some of it...
Chorus
Mexicanos, al grito de Guerra
El acero , aprestad y el bridón,
y retiemble en sus centros la tierra.
Al sonoro rugir del cañón.

(Mexicans, at the cry of battle
prepare your swords and bridle;
and let the earth tremble at its center
at the roar of the cannon.)

First Stanza
Ciña oh patria!
tus sienes
de oliva
De la Paz el arcángel divino,
Que en el cielo tu eterno destino
Por el dedo de Dios se escribió.

(Oh fatherland
Your forehead shall be girded with olive garlands,
by the divine archangel of peace
For in heaven your eternal destiny
has been written by the hand of God.)

Más si osare un extraño enemigo
Profanar con su planta tu suelo,
Piensa, oh patria querida ,que el cielo
Un soldado en cada hijo te dio.

(But should a foreign enemy dale to
profane your land with his sole,
Think, beloved fatherland, that heaven
gave you a soldier in each son.)

trina_p

on Nov 15, 2004

No the previous anthem was God Save the Queen/King -- Waltzing Matilda is what most Aussies who don't want us to be a monarchy think should be our national anthem. It's always sung at Rugby Union matches. Waltzing Matilda is about a criminal who steals sheep and escapes capture from the cops by jumping into the billabong and drowning. I guess it's a nod to our convict past.

Spc Nobody Special

on Nov 15, 2004

I like the South Korean National Anthem

I can't stand that thing anymore. I stood in too many ceremonies where we had to salute through the Star Spangled Banner, which was okay, then the s. korean anthem, which felt like three times as long. By the time we were done, my arm was ready to fall off.

On the whole, I can take or leave france, but they've got an awesome anthem, especially the blood filled verses from the revolution that they don't sing anymore.

dynamaso

on Nov 16, 2004

I agree with Trina about 'Advance Australia Fair' in that it is bland and really unreflective of our land and culture now. It was written in the late 1800's but not adopted as our anthem until 1974 but with 'God Save The Queen' to be played at all royal, vice-regal, defence, and loyal toast occasions. Finally, ten years later, it was made our anthem at all occasions.

My personal favourite has been the French anthem too. I was made sing it repeatedly while studying high shcool French. It is still about the only French I know...

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