Collecting national anthems

[Banedon]

No political intent here, I'm just listening to the various national anthems for musical content. English national anthems would be best, although English subtitles are OK as well. So far I like the Soviet national anthem, though the country no longer exists (there's an English version on YouTube). The Australian national anthem is rather weird - it contains a line "for we are young and free", which can almost be read as an insult to those who aren't young. The Polish national anthem is almost like a history lesson, which is weird to say the least ...

Anyone have any to suggest? Or perhaps their own country's anthem?

[ThunderTitan]

Communist, or non-communist?

[Banedon]

No political intent here, I'm just listening to the various national anthems for musical content.

Don't really care ...

[ThunderTitan]

Great, now i'm gonna have to look for both...

[ThunderTitan]

The current one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FtALatAkSM

finally found one where the comments didn't end up being a fight with the hungarians...

and the communist one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK2AHnG3xhE (i see someone translated the lyrics in the comments).

[ThunderTitan]

Heh, the romanian wikipedia has them all (look for the to listen to them):

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imnul_Regal

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zdrobite_c%C4%83tu%C5%9Fe

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_sl%C4%8 ... m%C3%A2nie!

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trei_culori

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/De%C5%9Fte ... om%C3%A2ne!

[Kalah]

Just FYI, the Russians re-adopted the music from the Soviet national anthem in 2000 - with new lyrics. A great move, I find, since Alexandrov's music is quite spectacular. In other words, the music you hear when the Russians play football, is the same music you'd hear during the Soviet era.

Anyway, you also have the British one, the music of which has spurred lots of anthems, including the Norwegian King's song and the old U.S. national anthem "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" (which was sort of used unofficially before they got "Star Spangled Banner"). The Norwegian anthem, "Yes, we love (this country)" is also quite nice, although it's quite a lot of vocals and not so much music.

[Shyranis]

If you search the wikimedia commons, you can find tons of fully orchestrated national anthems. And yes, communist and non-communist.

[durin]

Here is the Scottish national anthem Flower of Scotland

The original version sung by the writers -The Corries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyx1xeZo ... re=related

Sung at Murrayfield at a rugby match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6cnXFi ... re=related

[Gaidal Cain]

In other words, the music you hear when the Russians play football hockey, is the same music you'd hear during the Soviet era.

That's better.

As for the original question
This is a rather badly sung version of the Swedish anthem, but with subtitles. This has a better singer. This is from a World Championship game.

[Banedon]

Listened to most these anthems. Scottish national anthem was rather plain in my opinion, sounds rather monotone. Swedish national anthem was strange. First there's a line with "your throne over memories of great olden days", which implies that the great days are over ... not something I'd expect in a national anthem. Next it says "I want to die in the North" and similar, but Sweden isn't the only country in the North. What about Denmark and Norway and Iceland and Canada?

The Norwegian national anthem is rather verbose I agree, with another problem being I can't understand Norwegian. The British national anthem is unique in the sense that I actively hate it. Those who may be offended might not want to read the following part.

****

Two reasons for the active dislike. First, I've drilled into myself the idea that the best student is the kind who does not need a teacher to teach him, the best patient is the kind who does not need a doctor to heal him, and so on. Yet the British national anthem goes "God save the queen". Surely the best queen (or anyone, for that matter) is the kind who does not need God to save her!

The other reason is in the second stanza, with "confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks". This really looks very underhanded. In competition I want to win, but I also want to win by virtue of my own brilliance, not because of my opponents failing. God intervening on Britain's behalf by confounding and frustrating her foes sounds almost be like beating your rival in a race by slipping some poison into his food so he can't run properly.

So yeah I hate the anthem. Advance apologies to anyone offended.

***

I now find the Australian national anthem quite good, with grand music. I do have another comment on it though: the title is "Advance Australia Fair", which can be interpreted in all sorts of ways. Advance can mean to move forward physically (military advance), or to improve (technological advance). Fair can mean beautiful or light (fair skin) or an exhibition / festival (science fair). The result is that "Advance Australia Fair" can have all sorts of meanings - in fact I find myself thinking of a fair named "Advance Australia" [help Australia get more technologically advanced], modelled after the Great Exhibition UK, 1851.

Any other anthems to suggest? I'd cast the net wider and count all patriotic songs as well as anthems. I enjoyed "God Bless the USA", but my knowledge of patriotic songs really is pretty narrow, so hope to pick up a few more titles

[Kalah]

The Norwegian national anthem is rather verbose I agree, with another problem being I can't understand Norwegian.

Of course. Did you see the wiki article, btw? There's a translation to English there.

[Yurian Stonebow]

The national anthems of Finland and Estonia share the same melody and musical form with the only major difference being the lyrics. Just thought that Banedon here might find it interesting trivia.




Yurian

[Milla aka. the Slayer]

Well, here's the Danish national anthem for ya. Roughly translated the title is "There is a pretty country". Yeah...that's something
I quite like it cause it reminds me of calm and trees waving in the wind..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtDHKw-WIJQ

Our football team though...man, do they suck at singing it. They usually tear it to pieces. Gah!