what's your favorite national anthem?

[маразм1]

Mine are:
Russian National anthem
God save the queen,
the french one.

I think that The Star-Spangled Banner is a couple of sentences long, with very primitive chords put on top of that.  Frankly it sucks.  It's not even a song form--no verses, no refrain.  Just one paragraph...  I am wondering, is there an "Irish Drinking Song" arrangement of it?  It would work really well. 

It's time to write a new one! 

d.

[springrite]

#1: South Africa

Distant second: France

Third: Canada

[gmstudio]

Mine are:
Russian National anthem
God save the queen,
the french one.

I think that The Star-Spangled Banner is a couple of sentences long, with very primitive chords put on top of that.  Frankly it sucks.  It's not even a song form--no verses, no refrain.  Just one paragraph...  I am wondering, is there an "Irish Drinking Song" arrangement of it?  It would work really well. 

It's time to write a new one! 

d.

From Wikipedia:

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. Key, a 35-year-old amateur poet, wrote "Defence of Fort McHenry"[1] after seeing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland by British ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a London social club. "The Anacreontic Song" was already popular in the United States and set to various lyrics. Set to Key's poem and renamed, "The Star-Spangled Banner" would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today, with the fourth ("O thus be it ever when free men shall stand ...") added on more formal occasions.

[MN Dave]

There are others???

I think the Brit one is on a Queen album. I've heard that.

[маразм1]

There are others???

I think the Brit one is on a Queen album. I've heard that.

It's on the "night at the opera" album

[MN Dave]

It's on the "night at the opera" album

Yeah, I know. I was being jokey. Haha.

[BachQ]

The anthem of Burkina Faso by a country mile ........

[MishaK]

I once spent a few weeks in a Canadian high school in 11th grade. They would play the Canadian national anthem over the PA every morning. I think it must have been from an LP, because one day some joker decided to move the switch from 33 to 78 rpm. I'd have to say that must have been the best national anthem I've ever heard, especially with so many earnest Canadians around trying to keep a straight face.

[Lethevich]

France has the objectively "best" one, as a piece of good music, IMO. What surprises me about anthems is how horribly bad most of them are, devoid of tunes and bland as hell - this is very apparent during international rugby and football tournaments (Australia's new one is IMO a good example of this type, although it is better than most). During sporting tournaments I almost feel bad for the fans of a country with a terrible one when it is played before or after a good one. Other boring choices for effective anthems (in quite different ways) are Italy, Germany, the US and Britain. I like the tune to Finland's official one, although it goes almost nowhere and repeats a lot.

[Brian]

I'm actually quite fond of Romania's, although the first half of the melody is much more promising than the second half, which dissolves into the usual triviality...

[M forever]

Other boring choices for effective anthems (in quite different ways) are Italy, Germany, the US and Britain.

Hey! The German anthemn is by Haydn!

[Peregrine]

There is only one...

[Lethevich]

Hey! The German anthemn is by Haydn!

Indeedie, it was almost too obvious to mention, but there are so few good national anthems that the few decent ones all needed to be listed

[greg]

i hate national anthems...... although, of course, there might be one out there which i like but haven't heard. Are there sites with recordings of all the national anthems?

[12tone.]

My favorites from anthems I've heard are these ones.  Very beautiful.

Iceland

Denmark

Norway

Finland

Each video there from Youtube features a choir singing.  The video for Norway is from a television broadcast with a choir singing their national anthem in some large indoor setting. 

Wonderful singing on all of them!  Wonderful music! 

[RebLem]

La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is undoubtedly the best.  Of course, you have to keep in mind that while France has had the same national anthem since 1789, it has had five republics, as well as other forms of government.  The United States, on the other hand, has had a least 5 or more national anthems, but only one republic.  Art is not everything.

Francis Scott Key wrote the words to The Star Spangled Banner.  Only the first of the four verses is commonly sung, but here is the whole thing:


1.   O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?


2.   On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


3.   And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner, in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


4.   O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our Trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. [6]

The tune is from The Anacreonic Song, aka To Anacreon in Heaven, which was originally the signature song of a group of London amateur musicians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Anacreon_in_Heaven

[Que]

Here is the Dutch national anthem, "Het Wilhelmus", which is of a rather solemn nature.

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Q

[val]

My favorite was the anthem of the ex DDR. Not for political reasons, of course. It was composed by Eisler and was very beautiful.

Now, with the end of the DDR, there is only the French National Anthem. I don't like much the others that I know (US, England, Russian, Spain, Portugal and even Germany, no matter it becomes from an Haydn theme).

[greg]

My favorites from anthems I've heard are these ones.  Very beautiful.

Iceland

Denmark

Norway

Finland

Each video there from Youtube features a choir singing.  The video for Norway is from a television broadcast with a choir singing their national anthem in some large indoor setting. 

Wonderful singing on all of them!  Wonderful music! 

Iceland and Denmark have some seriously good national anthems..... Norway and Finland are ok.
Why does America have to have such an ugly anthem in comparison? I say we steal the Danish national anthem and put our own words to it 

[MN Dave]

I vote for this as the new anthem for the US.