Your favorite national anthem (your native country's aside)

[slide_advantage_redoux]

I recently bought an LP of national anthems performed by the Vienna Opera Orhestra. Of course, on a single LP there was no way they recorded anywhere near all the national anthems of the world, but I think they covered the major powers.

At any rate, this made me think of a new thread topic.

Excluding your own country's national anthem, what is your favorite?

For me, I have always been moved by "Deutschland Uber Alles" (Germany). It is emotionally stirring and very melodic. A close second and third would be the anthems of Canada and Great Britain.

You?

[Alexander]

I've always liked "O Canada."

[Bright Moments]

Hatikva

[Edward]

La Marseillaise

[Big Wheel]

Via Bill Simmons, this version of O Canada gives me chills every time.

. The Mighty Ducks goalie in this video looks exactly like my buddy Mike.

La Marseillaise has the goriest lyrics ever!

[chris olivarez]

La Marseillaise

Same here. Most anthems soun dour and pompous. Le Marseillase sounds very uplifting.

[kenny weir]

La Marseillaise

Same here. Most anthems soun dour and pompous. Le Marseillase sounds very uplifting.

Yep. Check out the version on this:

[Free For All]

I wish the US anthem was "America The Beautiful".

Better message than the other, and a much hipper tune.

[chris olivarez]

I wish the US anthem was "America The Beautiful".

Better message than the other, and a much hipper tune.

Considering that FS Key lifted it from drunken Brits I would tend to agree.

[Edward]

La Marseillaise has the goriest lyrics ever!

Exactly, that's why I like it so!

But seriously, as Chris has already noted, La Marseillaise is like a breath of fresh air compared to its mostly sullen sounding peers. Its appearance in Casablanca further reinforces this image.

[brownie]

La Marseillaise has the goriest lyrics ever!

Exactly, that's why I like it so!

But seriously, as Chris has already noted, La Marseillaise is like a breath of fresh air compared to its mostly sullen sounding peers. Its appearance in Casablanca further reinforces this image.

Not to mention Albert Ayler's variations on the anthem in 'Spirits Rejoice'

[bichos]

i like "the national anthem of bop": "how high the moon".

and beside that, i think the melodie from the russian anthem is very pretty.

keep boppin´

marcel

[couw]

Völker, hört die Signale

Auf, zum letzten Gefecht

Die Internationale

Erkämpft das Menschenrecht

[Claude]

For me, I have always been moved by "Deutschland Uber Alles" (Germany). It is emotionally stirring and very melodic.

It's actually a faux-pas to use that line.

In its historical context, the opening line "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt" ("Germany, Germany above all, above anything in the world") has to be understood as an appeal to the various German sovereigns to give the creation of a united Germany a higher priority than the independence of their small states. Any claims to German supremacy on an international level, as interpreted nearly a century later by the Nazis, were virtually unthinkable in the international situation of the 1840s. Mainly due to the use by the Nazis, the anthem is still known in most of the English-speaking world by its first line, even though only the third stanza constitutes the official anthem.

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

Edited November 23, 2006 by Claude

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrica (South Africa)

That's for "official" anthems.

Unofficially, Avery Parrish's "After hours" used to be known as the black national anthem.

Slightly more officially, "Lift every voice" is the anthem of the NAACP.

MG

[king ubu]

La Marseillaise

Same here. Most anthems soun dour and pompous. Le Marseillase sounds very uplifting.

Yep. Check out the version on this:

I prefer Cirribiribin... no national anthems for me, pulleaze! This is the weirdest thread ever since this board got started, methinks...

for the cuteness factor, maybe that little tune them hippies did sing?

another good one:

Max Schneckenburger, 1840

1. Es braust ein Ruf wie Donnerhall,

Wie Schwertgeklirr und Wogenprall:

Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutschen Rhein,

Wer will des Stromes Hüter sein?

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

2. Durch hunderttausend zuckt es schnell,

Und aller Augen blitzen hell;

Der deutsche Jüngling, fromm und stark,

Beschirmt die heil'ge Landesmark.

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

3. Er blickt hinauf in Himmels Au'n,

Wo Heldengeister niederschau'n,

Und schwört mit stolzer Kampfeslust:

Du Rhein bleibst deutsch, wie meine Brust!

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

4. So lang ein Tropfen Blut noch glüht,

Noch eine Faust den Degen zieht,

Und noch ein Arm die Büchse spannt,

Betritt kein Feind hier deinen Strand!

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

5. Und ob mein Herz im Tode bricht,

Wirst du doch drum ein Welscher nicht,

Reich, wie an Wasser deine Flut,

Ist Deutschland ja an Heldenblut!

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

6. Der Schwur erschallt, die Woge rinnt,

Die Fahnen flattern hoch im Wind:

Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutschen Rhein,

Wir alle wollen Hüter sein!

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

7. So führe uns, du bist bewährt;

In Gottvertrau'n greif' zu dem Schwert,

Hoch Wilhelm! Nieder mit der Brut!

Und tilg' die Schmach mit Feindesblut!

|: Lieb' Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, :|

|: Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein! :|

english version:

Tr. Frank 1998

1. The cry resounds like thunder's crash,

Like ringing swords and waves that clash:

The Rhine, the Rhine, go to our Rhine,

Who'll guard our River, hold the line?

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

2. A hundred thousand hearts beat fast,

The eyes of all to you are cast,

The German youth, devout and strong.

Protects you, as he has so long.

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

3. He casts his eyes to heaven's blue,

From where past heroes hold the view,

And swears pugnaciously the oath,

You Rhine and I, stay German, both.

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

4. While still remains one breath of life,

While still one fist can draw a knife,

One gun still fired with one hand,

No foe will stand on this Rhine sand.

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

5. Should my heart not survive this stand,

You'll never fall in foreign hand,

Much, as your waters without end,

Have we our heroes' blood to spend.

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

6. The oath resounds, on rolls the wave,

The banners fly in wind. We'll save

The Rhine, the Rhine, the German Rhine

Together we will hold the line.

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

7. So lead us with your tried command,

With trust in God, take sword in hand,

Hail Wilhelm! Down with all that brood!

Repay our shame with the foes blood!

|: Land of our fathers, have no fear, :|

|: Your watch is true, the line stands here. :|

cute, huh? yuck!

oh, and I have my own national anthem, of course, the "King Ubu Stomp"

[king ubu]

brothers, uhm sisters in song:

[Dmitry]

I am partial to this one.

[JSngry]

[slide_advantage_redoux]

For me, I have always been moved by "Deutschland Uber Alles" (Germany). It is emotionally stirring and very melodic.

It's actually a faux-pas to use that line...

I am puzzled why you feel that way. I like the song for what it is.... a song. I am not making a political statement. I do not condone the aggression that Germany displayed over two world wars. I am talking about music and music only.

If I say that enjoy listening to the "The Star Spangled Banner", does this mean I condone hundreds of years of ethnic cleansing (the native americans)? Does it mean I condone what the current administration has been doing around the world? I don't think so. It only means that I like the music. No more, no less.

[Dmitry]

For me, I have always been moved by "Deutschland Uber Alles" (Germany). It is emotionally stirring and very melodic.

It's actually a faux-pas to use that line...

I am puzzled why you feel that way. I like the song for what it is.... a song. I am not making a political statement. I do not condone the aggression that Germany displayed over two world wars. I am talking about music and music only.

[slide_advantage_redoux]

For me, I have always been moved by "Deutschland Uber Alles" (Germany). It is emotionally stirring and very melodic.

It's actually a faux-pas to use that line...

I am puzzled why you feel that way. I like the song for what it is.... a song. I am not making a political statement. I do not condone the aggression that Germany displayed over two world wars. I am talking about music and music only.

Hess needed to have that monobrow trimmed up a bit.

[Niko]

For me, I have always been moved by "Deutschland Uber Alles" (Germany). It is emotionally stirring and very melodic.

It's actually a faux-pas to use that line...

I am puzzled why you feel that way. I like the song for what it is.... a song. I am not making a political statement. I do not condone the aggression that Germany displayed over two world wars. I am talking about music and music only.

If I say that enjoy listening to the "The Star Spangled Banner", does this mean I condone hundreds of years of ethnic cleansing (the native americans)? Does it mean I condone what the current administration has been doing around the world? I don't think so. It only means that I like the music. No more, no less.

to clear up what Claude meant: today's German anthem originally had three stanzas (right word?), the first two of which were (for good reasons - they were in the spirit of the thing Ubu posted) considered not politically correct anymore after 1945 while the third one (by the same author ) was considered fine. (if you ask me it would have been a substantially better idea to throw away the whole text and keep only the much older music). Thus the third stanza which begins with "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" is the text of today's German national anthem while "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" is the beginning of the "illegal" first stanza (which is of course still sung by a luckily very small minority - this is what claude meant with "faux-pas")

Haydn's (btw Austrian ) melody is great, he himself used the melody several times iirc, it deserves a much better fate than being a national anthem...

[king ubu]

I think our western european post-enlightenment and even moreso post shoah and WWII negative or precautious opinion on national symbols and patriot feelings may be something not easily understood in other parts of the world, probably not even in the US, for large parts of it... just thinking aloud, correct me if I'm wrong, please.

The Swiss national anthem is pretty peculiar, btw. We had an old one that used I think the same melody as the (old? current?) UK one (or is that the english? Do they have four or one?), but it was replaced by some pretty weird old song.

[Niko]

I think our western european post-enlightenment and even moreso post shoah and WWII negative or precautious opinion on national symbols and patriot feelings may be something not easily understood in other parts of the world, probably not even in the US, for large parts of it... just thinking aloud, correct me if I'm wrong, please.

of course i can't correct you... imho that lesson was so bitter to learn (mostly bitter for others)

that the very least thing we can do is try not to forget it and try to convince others in a less harmful way... i really hate all those black red gold flags which are in people's windows since the Soccer World Championship - the face of the country has really changed (sometimes it is for the reasons you pointed out Ubu, sometimes because i find it is simply ugly as an object - i don't really understand myself in this point)