National Anthems

[Derek]

GB is only 'country' I know that doesn't have a National Anthem.

GB's anthem is to the queen...

'God save our gracious...'

Other countries sing about their 'green and pleasant land' and 'victory'-type stuff.

[Cultcha]

Re: National Anthems

The USA anthem is really not much of an anthem either. Basically just describing a raging battle.

Edited to add.... I always thought that God Bless America was a more fitting anthem than the Star Spangled Banner.

[Emperah]

Re: National Anthems

out of all anthems I've heard Ethiopia, Jamaica and Canada have the best.There could be better but I haven't heard dem yet.

[twiney]

Re: National Anthems

Got to agree with the jamaica/canada one ... need to go listen to Ethiopia own ...

[Yuriatin]

Re: National Anthems

<span style="font-style: italic">National anthem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


&quot;A national anthem (also national hymn, song etc.) is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people. The majority of national anthems are either marches or hymns in style. The countries of Latin America tend towards more operatic pieces, while a handful of countries use a simple fanfare.&quot;
</span>

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

[queenb]

Re: National Anthems

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KF_Milo</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The USA anthem is really not much of an anthem either. Basically just describing a raging battle.

Edited to add.... I always thought that God Bless America was a more fitting anthem than the Star Spangled Banner. </div></div>

Good one, but in today's pc age, maybe not appropriate given non-religious rights/feelings. I've always thought &quot;America the Beautiful&quot; was a great anthem. It speaks of the beauty of the land, and does incidentally throw in some &quot;God&quot;, but it's not the overall theme.

America the Beautiful

Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
Melody by Samuel Ward

Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Although &quot;whiter&quot; is a theme no longer germaine!

[WitchyOoman]

Re: National Anthems

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KF_Milo</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The USA anthem is really not much of an anthem either. Basically just describing a raging battle </div></div>
No, it's not; that's not true.

The song - an anthem, really not a mere song - is <span style="font-weight: bold">all about the star-spangled banner</span> itself... <span style="font-weight: bold">the flag</span>... <span style="font-weight: bold">the flag of the United States of America</span>! Not the battle, per se.
<span style="font-weight: bold">It's about still seeing the flag, above all else</span>, during the raging battle.
Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics the morning after the battle, when he first laid his eyes on the American flag again... the sight of which let him know that it still flew, that we had won (or had not lost) the battle. We know this because he [Key] said so, wrote it [the flag], and it remains for posterity.



<span style="text-decoration: underline">The Star-Spangled Banner</span>

Oh, 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 thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists 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! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory 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: &quot;In God is our trust.&quot;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!



See how the lyrics keep coming back 'round to <span style="font-weight: bold">the sight of the American flag</span>?
That's what the anthem is all about.

[WitchyOoman]

Re: National Anthems

All that ^ said... it's a bee-atch of a song to sing, and it's terribly unsuited to the vast majority of vocal singing ranges. That's a well-known fact.

It would be nice to have a national anthem that the majority of the country's population could actually sing without strangling (or harming the ears of all listeners!)...

[WitchyOoman]

Re: National Anthems

I, too, like &quot;God Bless America&quot; as a possibility for a national anthem replacement.

Then again, I'm a transplanted Philadelphian... and a Broad Street Bullies fan... so naturally <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">I</span></span> love &quot;God Bless America&quot; ..... and NO ONE can ever sing it better than Kate Smith did!

[Wahalla]

Re: National Anthems

Sorry but... &quot;Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika&quot; is the greatest natioanl anthem ever (not the Afrikans vesres !!!)... It gives me goosebumps every time....a version of it was the national anthem of Zimbabywae and Nambia... and I beleive of Tanzania

I love the Scotish Flower of Scotland...(so does Andy Murray)

But u want to be fired up Le Mar- si - less....is it...

[Emperah]

Re: National Anthems

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[mountaingal]

Re: National Anthems

wallie i learned la marseillaise in french class during high school and you're right, it is a going into battle hymn of the first order. the lyrics have stayed with me.
<span style="font-style: italic">allons enfants de la patrie
le jour du gloire est arrivé !

</span>

but today for the first time i heard the japanese national anthem at a medal ceremony and fell in love with it. one of those tunes if you didnt know what it was, you'd immediately assume it was japanese.

it has the distinction of being one of the world's shortest national anthems, and it was adapted from a poem written about the emperor. sounds very solemn, but that's what i love about it. It's called Kimigayo (The Emperor's Reign)


Kimigayo - instrumental
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Kimigayo wa
Chiyo ni yachiyo ni
Sazare-ishi no
Iwao to narite
Koke no musu made

May your reign
Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations,
Until the pebbles
Grow into boulders
Lush with moss

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[mountaingal]

Re: National Anthems

actually, now that u mention it, the japanese national anthem is also about their monarch, the emperor.

[Derek]

Re: National Anthems

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">actually, now that u mention it, the japanese national anthem is also about their monarch, the emperor. </div></div>

Yes...

[Magician]

Re: National Anthems

I've always loved the South African national anthem (especially the first 1/3 of it.

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