National anthem

For other uses, seeNational Anthem (disambiguation).

"State anthem" redirects here. For the songs of U.S. states, seeList of U.S. state songs."National Hymn" redirects here. For the U.S. hymn tune, seeGod of Our Fathers.

Anational anthemis apatrioticmusical compositionsymbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of acountryornation.The majority of national anthems aremarchesorhymnsin style.American,Central Asian,andEuropeannations tend towards more ornate and operatic pieces, while those in theMiddle East,Oceania,Africa,and theCaribbeanuse a more simplisticfanfare.Some countries that are devolved into multiple constituent states have their own official musical compositions for them (such as with theUnited Kingdom,Russia,and theSoviet Union); their constituencies' songs are sometimes referred to as national anthems even though they are notsovereign states.

History

Early version of the "Wilhelmus" as preserved in a manuscript of 1617 (Brussels,Royal Library,MS 15662, fol. 37v-38r)

In theearly modern period,someEuropean monarchiesadoptedroyal anthems.Some of these anthems have survived into current use. "God Save the King/Queen",first performed in 1619, remains the royal anthem of the United Kingdom and theCommonwealth realms.La Marcha Real,adopted as the royal anthem of the Spanish monarchy in 1770, was adopted as the national anthem of Spain in 1939. Denmark retains its royal anthem,Kong Christian stod ved højen mast(1780) alongside its national anthem (Der er et yndigt land,adopted 1835). In 1802,Gia Longcommissioned aroyal anthemin the European fashion for theKingdom of Vietnam.

Following the reinstating of La Marseillaise in1830,in the wake of theJuly Revolution,as the national anthem of France, it became common for newly formed nations to define national anthems, notably as a result of theLatin American wars of independence,for Argentina (1813), Peru (1821), Brazil (1831) but also Belgium (1830). Consequently adoption of national anthems prior to the 1930s was mostly by newly formed or newly independent states, such as theFirst Portuguese Republic(A Portuguesa,1911), theKingdom of Greece( "Hymn to Liberty",1865), theFirst Philippine Republic(Marcha Nacional Filipina,1898), Lithuania (Tautiška giesmė,1919),Weimar Germany(Deutschlandlied,1922), Ireland (Amhrán na bhFiann,1926) andGreater Lebanon( "Lebanese National Anthem",1927). Though the custom of an officially adopted national anthem became popular in the 19th century, some national anthems predate this period, often existing as patriotic songs long before their designation as national anthem.

If an anthem is defined as consisting of both a melody and lyrics, then the oldest national anthem in use today is the national anthem of the Netherlands, theWilhelmus.Written between1568and1572during theDutch Revolt,it was already a popularorangisthymn during the 17th century, though it would take until1932for it to be officially recognized as the Dutch national anthem. The lyrics of the Japanese national anthem,Kimigayo,predate those of the Dutch anthem by several centuries, being taken from aHeian period(794–1185) poem, but were not set to music until1880.If a national anthem is defined by being officially designated as the national song of a particular state, thenLa Marseillaise,which was officially adopted by theFrench National Conventionin1796,would qualify as the first official national anthem.

Holographiccopy of 1847 ofIl Canto degli Italiani,the Italian national anthem since 1946

TheOlympic Charterof 1920 introduced the ritual of playing the national anthems of the gold medal winners. From this time, the playing of national anthems became increasingly popular at international sporting events, creating an incentive for such nations that did not yet have an officially defined national anthem to introduce one.

The United States introduced the patriotic songThe Star-Spangled Banneras a national anthem in 1931. Following this, several nations moved to adopt as official national anthem patriotic songs that had already been inde factouse at official functions, such as Mexico (Mexicanos, al grito de guerra,composed 1854, adopted 1943) and Switzerland ( "Swiss Psalm",composed 1841,de factouse from 1961, adopted 1981).

By the period ofdecolonisationin the 1960s, it had become common practice for newly independent nations to adopt an official national anthem. Some of these anthems were specifically commissioned, such as the anthem of Kenya,Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu,produced by a dedicated "Kenyan Anthem Commission" in 1963.

A number of nations remain without an official national anthem adoptedde iure.In these cases, there are establishedde factoanthems played at sporting events or diplomatic receptions. These include the United Kingdom (God Save the King) and Sweden (Du gamla, Du fria;the country also has a royal anthem,Kungssangen). Countries that have moved to officially adoptde iuretheir long-standingde factoanthems since the 1990s include: Luxembourg (Ons Heemecht,adopted 1993), South Africa (National anthem of South Africa,adopted 1997), Israel (Hatikvah,composed 1888,de factouse from 1948, adopted 2004) and Italy (Il Canto degli Italiani,composed 1847,de factouse from 1946, adopted 2017).

Usage

Star-Spangled Bannerwith the American flag (ca. 1940s). Anthems used duringsign-on and sign-offsequences have become less common due to the increasing prevalence of 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week broadcasting.

National anthems are used in a wide array of contexts. Certain etiquette may be involved in the playing of a country's anthem. These usually involve military honours, standing up, removing headwear etc. In diplomatic situations the rules may be very formal. There may also beroyal anthems,presidential anthems,state anthemsetc. for special occasions.

They are played onnational holidaysand festivals, and have also come to be closely connected with sporting events. Wales was the first country to adopt this, during arugbygame against New Zealand in 1905. Since then during sporting competitions, such as theOlympic Games,the national anthem of thegold medalwinner is played at eachmedal ceremony;also played before games in many sports leagues, since being adopted in baseball during World War II.When teams from two nations play each other, the anthems of both nations are played, the host nation's anthem being played last.

In some countries, the national anthem is played to students each day at the start and/or end of school as an exercise in patriotism, such as in Tanzania.In other countries the state anthem may be played in a theatre before a play or in a cinema before a movie. Many radio and television stations have adopted this and play the national anthem when theysign onin the morning and again when theysign offat night. For instance, the national anthem of China is played before the broadcast of evening news on Hong Kong's local television stations includingTVB Jade.In Colombia, it is a law to play theNational Anthemat 6:00 and 18:00 on every public radio and television station, while in Thailand, "Phleng Chat Thai"is played at 08:00 and 18:00 nationwide (theRoyal Anthemis used for sign-ons and closedowns instead). The use of a national anthem outside of its country, however, is dependent on the international recognition of that country. For instance, Taiwan has not beenrecognizedby theInternational Olympic Committeeas a separate nation since 1979 and must compete asChinese Taipei;its "National Banner Song"is used instead of itsnational anthem.In Taiwan, the country's national anthem is sung before instead of duringflag-rising and flag-lowering,followed by the National Banner Song during the actual flag-rising and flag-lowering. Even within a state, the state's citizenry may interpret the national anthem differently (such as in the United States some view theU.S. national anthemas representing respect for dead soldiers and policemen whereas others view it as honouring the country generally).

Various solutions may be used when countries with different national anthems compete in a unified team. WhenNorth KoreaandSouth Koreaparticipated together in the 2018 Winter Olympics,the folk song "Arirang",beloved on both sides of the border and seen as a symbol of Korea as a whole, was used as an anthem instead of the national anthem of either state.

On 21 September 2021, to mark theInternational Day of Peace,Australian sisters Teresa and Augnes Joy set aworld recordfor singing the national anthems of 193 countries in a hundred languages at an event hosted by the United Nations Association of Australia inBrisbane.

Creators

Rouget de Lisle performing "La Marseillaise" for the first time

Most of the best-known national anthems were written by little-known or unknown composers such asClaude Joseph Rouget de Lisle,composer of "La Marseillaise"andJohn Stafford Smithwho wrote the tune for "The Anacreontic Song",which became the tune for the U.S. national anthem,"The Star-Spangled Banner".The author of" God Save the King ", one of the oldest and best-known anthems in the world, is unknown and disputed.

Very few countries have a national anthem written by a world-renowned composer. Exceptions include Germany, whose anthem "Das Lied der Deutschen"uses a melody written byJoseph Haydn,and Austria, whose national anthem "Land der Berge, Land am Strome"is sometimes credited toWolfgang Amadeus Mozart.The music of the "Pontifical Anthem",anthem of the Vatican City, was composed in 1869 byCharles Gounod,for thegolden jubileeofPope Pius IX's priestly ordination. When Armenia was under Soviet rule, its anthem, the "Anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic"used a melody byAram Khachaturian.

The committee charged with choosing anational anthem for the Federation of Malaya(later Malaysia) at independence decided to invite selected composers of international repute to submit compositions for consideration, includingBenjamin Britten,William Walton,Gian Carlo MenottiandZubir Said,who later composed "Majulah Singapura",the national anthem of Singapore. None were deemed suitable. The tune eventually selected was (and still is) theanthemof the constituent state ofPerak,which was in turn adopted from a popular French melody titled "La Rosalie" composed by the lyricistPierre-Jean de Béranger.

A few anthems have words byNobel laureates in literature.The first Asian laureate,Rabindranath Tagore,wrote the words and music of "Jana Gana Mana"and"Amar Shonar Bangla",later adopted as the national anthems of India and Bangladesh respectively.Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsonwrote the lyrics for the Norwegian national anthem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet".

Other countries had their anthems composed by locally important people. This is the case for Colombia, whoseanthem'slyrics were written by former president and poetRafael Nuñez,who also wrote the country's first constitution, and in Malta, written byDun Karm Psaila,already aNational Poet.A similar case is Liberia, the nationalanthemof which was written by its third president,Daniel Bashiel Warner.

Languages

A national anthem, when it has lyrics (as is usually the case), is most often in thenationalor most common language of the country, whetherde factoorofficial,there are notable exceptions. Most commonly, states with more than onenational languagemay offer several versions of their anthem, for instance:

• The "Swiss Psalm",the national anthem of Switzerland, has different lyrics for each of the country's fourofficial languages(French, German, Italian andRomansh).
• The national anthem of Canada, "O Canada",has official lyrics in both English and French which are not translations of each other, and is frequently sung with a mixture of stanzas, representing the country'sbilingual nature.The song itself was originally written in French.
• "Flower of Scotland",the unofficialnational anthemofScotland,features some words written and spoken in theScots language
• "The Soldier's Song",the national anthem of Ireland, was originally written and adopted in English, but an Irish translation, although never formally adopted, is nowadays almost always sung instead, even though only 10.5% of Ireland speaks Irish natively.
• The currentSouth African national anthemis unique in that five of the country's eleven official languages are used in the same anthem (the firststanzais divided between two languages, with each of the remaining three stanzas in a different language). It was created by combining two songs together and then modifying the lyrics and adding new ones.
• The former country of Czechoslovakia combined the two national anthems of the two lands; the first stanza consisting of the first stanza of the Czech anthem "Kde domov můj",and the second stanza consisting of the first stanza of the Slovak anthem"Nad Tatrou sa blýska".
• One of the two official national anthems of New Zealand, "God Defend New Zealand",is now commonly sung with the first verse inMāori( "Aotearoa" ) and the second in English ( "God Defend New Zealand" ). The tune is the same but the words are not a direct translation of each other.
• "God Bless Fiji"has lyrics in English andFi gianwhich are not translations of each other. Although official, the Fi gian version is rarely sung, and it is usually the English version that is performed at international sporting events.
• Although Singapore hasfour official languages,with English being the currentlingua franca,the national anthem, "Majulah Singapura"is inMalayand, by law, can only be sung with its original Malay lyrics, despite Malay being a minority language in Singapore. This is because Part XIII of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore declares, "the national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in the Roman script […]"
• There are several countries that do not have official lyrics to their national anthems. One of these is the "Marcha Real",the national anthem of Spain. Although it originally had lyrics, those lyrics were discontinued after governmental changes in the early 1980s afterFrancisco Franco's dictatorship ended. In 2007, a national competition to write words was held, but no lyrics were chosen.Other national anthems with no words include "Inno Nazionale della Repubblica",the national anthem ofSan Marino,that ofBosnia and Herzegovina,that ofRussiafrom 1990 to 2000, and that ofKosovo,entitled "Europe".
• The national anthem ofIndia,"Jana Gana Mana":the official lyrics are inBengali;they were adapted from a poem written byRabindranath Tagore.
• Despite the most common language inWalesbeing English, the unofficial national anthem of Wales, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau"is sung in theWelsh language.
• An unofficial national anthem of Finland, "Maamme",was first written inSwedishand only later translated to Finnish. It is nowadays sung in both languages as there is aSwedish speaking minorityof about 5% in the country. The national anthem of Estonia, "Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm"has a similar melody with" Maamme ", but only with different lyrics and without repeating the second halves of strophes.Finlandiahas been repeatedly suggested to be the official national anthem of Finland.
• The national anthem ofPakistan,the "Qaumi Taranah",is unique in that it is entirely inFarsi (Persian)with the exception of one word which is inUrdu,the national language.

See also

• Personal anthem,for a monarch or representative of a monarch, often in addition to a national anthem or being a national anthem itself
• Earth anthem(unofficial), any song or music with the planet Earth in an exalted role
• List of national anthems
• Martial music
• List of former national anthems
• List of regional anthems

External links

• NationalAnthems.me– national anthems of every country in the world (and historical national anthems) with streaming audio, lyrics, information and links
• National Anthems (mp3 files)
• National anthem of India(in Hindi).Archived9 December 2018 at theWayback Machine.
• Nationalanthems.info,lyrics and history of national anthems
• Recordings of countries' anthems (mp3 files)
• Recordings of countries' anthems around the worldby theUnited States Navy Band