Harry's Place

France has an anthem about killing Austrians (fertisiling the fields with their impure blood no less), the Brits about beating all comers (rebellious Scots in a deleted verse), the Scots about their only victory over the English, the Irish about giving the English a doing…

Was he thinking of Mexico (which according to the translation on this “ten most violent anthems” website) goes like this:

Oh Fatherland, ere your children, defenseless
bend their neck beneath the yoke,
may your fields be watered with blood,
may they leave their footprints in blood.

http://www.thesharkguys.com/2008/08/08/top-10-most-violent-national-anthems-part-i/

Given I have just been writing about Cambodian Communists, the national anthem of Democratic Kampuchea comes to mind. Here are the first lines:

Bright red blood which covers towns and plains
Of Kampuchea, our Motherland,
Sublime Blood of workers and peasants,
Sublime Blood of revolutionary men and women fighters!
The Blood changing into unrelenting hatred…

I do not think it really requires much comment.

the Dutch have a line in their anthem that proclaims they’re “of German blood”.

it’s traditionally a confusing line in loaded stadiums where the Dutch soccer squad takes on its Angstgegner.

Biladi mentions guns, revenge, fire, war and volcanoes.

“volcanoes”

Yeah, that’s got to be a first for a national anthem. But what about Iceland or Hawaii?

The great Dundee singer-songwriter Michael Marra wrote “Hermless” as a tongue-in-cheek Scottish national anthem, because he thought most other ones were too militaristic. It concentrates on the values of a civilised society:

“Hermless, hermless,
There’s never nae bother fae me
I ging to the libry, I tak’ oot a book
And then I go hame for ma tea ”

It’s in broad Dundonian but I’m sure you get the gist. Full lyrics at: http://www.stamp-shop.com/songs/Scottish-National-Anthems.html#hermless

a

You beat me to it. Here are some of the rarely sung verses of the National Anthem:

O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O’er her thine arm extend,
For Britain’s sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!

Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!

I really like that cat.

I really like that cat.

I think you’ve found your soul mate, mesquito.

The Portuguese anthem was original written as a call to take arms and rise against the Britons. This was after an incident in 1890 called the british ultimatum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Ultimatum which was really just one more humiliation among many that Portugal had to endure on the hands of the great powers in the 19th Century. The chorus says ‘Às armas!’ and it ended by ‘contra os bretões marchar, marchar’.

This incident was a huge blow for the monarchy, which was eventually overthrown in 1910, and this anthem was then adopted by the republicans, but the word ‘britons’ was replaced by the word ‘cannons’, because it’s one thing to be in the opposition, a different one to be in power…

Some people in Portugal sometimes remind us that a bellicose anthem is no longer appropriate. This is one thing that separates me from some of my friends and like minded bloggers, I really like it, as well as the national flag, both are very progressive for the context of the time when they were created, no appeals to god and stuff like that…

The anthem sung by the cat in the cartoon reminds me of this one:

http://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/nationalanthemslyrics/bosnianationalanthemlyrics.html

The old Apartheid national anthem is actually quite innocuous – Die Stem (The Voice)

Crushed Scots apart, you really can’t beat the sheer bloodthirstiness of the Marseillaise with all that revelling about getting their enemies’ impure blood soaking into their fields.

Here’s a Wikipedia translation of the relevant words of Biladi:

My country, my land, land of my ancestors
My country, my country, my country
My people, people of perpetuity
With my determination, my fire and the volcano of my revenge
With the longing in my blood for my land and my home
I have climbed the mountains and fought the wars
I have conquered the impossible, and crossed the frontiers
My country, my country, my country
My people, people of perpetuity
With the resolve of the winds and the fire of the guns
And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle
Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire, Palestine is my revenge and the land of endurance
My country, my country, my country
My people, people of perpetuity
By the oath under the shade of the flag
By my land and nation, and the fire of pain
I will live as a fida’i*, I will remain a fida’i, I will end as a fida’i – until my country returns
My country, people of perpetuity.

Wonder if the composers were into S/M?

Does Hamas get them singing Biladi at their endless series of Victory fests? I bet they don’t. Surely they have some nicely worded song we can share? And what’s the current Hizbollah anthem? Where’s DaveM when we could do with the words of the Syrian national anthem?

To be fair to Marylandsters, Gene, they may have been provoked:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.”

“He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:” etc.

Quite right, too.

It’s an abolitionist song.

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

I thought it was “popish” tricks?

Anyway, I do like that cat as well.

Israeli patriotic songs, including the national anthem Hatikva, are rather wet and weedy when it comes to bloodthirstiness content. I’ve always felt this was a point in our favor, rather than the opposite. However, predictably the right-wing underground movements were an exception in this regard. The Betar/Irgun anthem talks about ‘to die or to conquer the mountain! Yodfat, Masada, Betar!’ (the last three being sites of glorious defeats at the hands of the Romans during the Revolt.) For sheer ghoulish weirdness, however, the prize goes to the ever-popular-at-Harry’s-Place Yair Stern, who was fond of writing mad poetry in his spare time, including one song in which he recommends that we ‘lay before the Messiah a carpet of blood, on which our brains will blossom like white lilies.’

Not only is the Irish anthem the usual stuff about brave soldiers fighting to overthrow the oppressor, but it also contains the most unsubtle bit of political propaganda one could imagine in the opening line.

Sinne Fianna Fáil
A tá fé gheall ag Éirinn

(English versions generally translate this as soldiers are we/whose lives are pledged to Ireland).

But, like most bellicose anthems, it does sort of fall down from having a flaccid tune. This is what distinguishes the Marseillaise. Whereas the Italian anthem, say, sounds like a comic opera song, the French anthem has a properly rousing tune.

The converse of all this is the German anthem which now has lyrics about brotherhood, friendship etc. Unfortunately the rest of the world hears the tune and thinks “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt”.

Maryland, eh? How can you trust a state whose school mascot is a turtle that often ends up in soup.

re. crushing the rebellious Scots, the Jacobites really were about to march on London, and it was only treacherous Anglo-Scots misinformation that stopped them.

‘doesn’t excuse the clearances though.

I’m with the cat (and Morgoth) too (despite his misrepresentation of one of the usually omitted verses of GSOK/Q)

. Yer need something to gather round and get excited about. No airy-fairy namby-pamby committee-written-and-approved politically correct nonsense.

The Soviet national anthem/current Russian one is great – the tune is thoroughly stirring, and the lyrics have (so far) survived three rewrites, and all by the same man, too; praising Stalin; then Lenin; then God, more or less. No doubt a fourth rewrite will (alas) be on the cards before very much longer (and not in praise of Dmitrii “Every dog has his day” Medvedev either), although the author seems to be almost at death’s door.

As regards GSTQ: the rebellious Scots verse was in the original version but does not form part of the official version. As Venichka has pointed out with regard to the Russians, these things get rewritten from time to time. (See also the American My Country Tis of Thee.)

Then again the Star Spangled Banner is a) set to the tune of a drinking song, b) an over-extended question, c) commemorates a British attack on Baltimore during a war in which the Americans generally came off second best and d) a bugger to sing.

I doubt the cat would really approve of all that.

Then again the Star Spangled Banner is a) set to the tune of a drinking song, b) an over-extended question, c) commemorates a British attack on Baltimore during a war in which the Americans generally came off second best and d) a bugger to sing.

Just so. I’m for changing it.

And crown thy good with siblinghood….

If I remember correctly, the US national anthem used to be ‘My Country ’tis of Thee’, sung to the tune of ‘God Save the King/Queen’.

The Polish anthem is quite fruity as well, as it talks about national liberation/fighting foreign rule. It calls on all of Napoleon’s Polish troops to march from Italy to liberate the motherland (which would date its composition around the 1790s).

‘Jeszcze Polska nie zgiela
Poki my ziemy.
Co nam obce przemoc wiela,
Szalba odbierzemy,
Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski,
Zielma Wloski do Polski,
Na twoim, przewodem,
Zlaczyl sie, narodem’

(I’ve probably buggered up the spelling, but this loosely translates as ‘Poland will not die/As long as we live/What foreign powers have taken from us/We’ll win back/March, march, Dabrowski [Napoleon's subordinate]/ From Italy to Poland/ It’s your duty/ To liberate the people’).

I’ve got a soft spot for the Italian anthem, because it’s got an overture.

c) commemorates a British attack on Baltimore during a war in which the Americans generally came off second best

But at least our flag was still there.

It’s your duty/ To liberate the people… unless the French send you off to Haiti/to crush a slave revolt.

the Star Spangled Banner is a) set to the tune of a drinking song,

- a British drinking song, no less, I seem to remember.

Bill,
No, I hear the Haydn quartet from which it is borrowed ;-)

And imo the American anthem has a great tune, but I can see how the words are a bugger to remember.

From the musical point of view I find all the anthems pretty awful, the whole idea of a national anthem disgusts me.

God save the Queen is not the worst. Before South Africa became a Republic, both the British and the S.A. one had to be played at important events. I remember, at the end of a symphonic concert a conductor who played Die Stem very rousingly, and then the British anthem very lovingly, andante cantabile. There are many ways of protesting.

As a music student at Rhodes in Grahamstown, I was suddenly told that we all had to play the S.A. amthem in all keys. Either you did it or you failed your exams. The Austrian professor had been a lifelong arse-licker with whoever was in power, Nazis, apartheid regime, (the Queen, if necessary)

I flatly refused to play the anthem and said I would play the African one instead. When the Prof told me I had no choice, I showed him a letter I had drafted to send to a newspaper. He said, “One day you will be put against a wall and shot.”

When my turn came in the exams, the request was quietly dropped.

I did take part in a competition to compose some kind of S.A. national anthem. I did it for the money. I did not make it even as a finalist, but my anthem was infinitely better than those who did. I wrote mine with strong harmonic progressions, and those who came top used the style of sickly Wesleyan church music.

“the Star Spangled Banner is a) set to the tune of a drinking song,
- a British drinking song, no less, I seem to remember.”

Well, they were English people after all.

P.S. I would willingly have played the Austrian anthem composed by Haydn for my exams. Both he and Beethoven wrote variations on it. But they had an eye for simple tunes that could be developed symphonically (-the music of Quartets is symphonic in natrure) and that is what really mattered to them. Haydn wrote his tune because he was impressed by the British anthem. He was both naive and one of the most complex of composers. A genius disguised as Papa Haydn.

bill,

The legions of the rearguard picked the name after the military not the other way round. The uniform of the Irish volunteers and the badge of the Irish armed forces (who claim the descent) all have “FF” on them – for “Fianna Fail” which means “Soldiers of Ireland” if properly translated or “soldiers of destiny” in popular myth.

Sorry, I meant, I meant that Beethoven wrote variations on God save the Queen/King. I can’t remember whether Haydn did as well.

(I’ve gone back to my original name as it blends into all my artistic endeavours. After all, I was named after the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn).

Late to the thread; see you’ve done the Marshal Wade stuff.

Can I just ask everyone to sing along?

Well, you can ask….

You seem too decent a chap to shoot those who would refuse, at least

O Roma felix – O Roma nobilis.
Sedes es Petri, qui Romae effudit sanguinem,
Petri, cui claves datae sunt regni caelorum.

Catchy innit?

Felix,
Haydn was hardly naive ;-)
He managed to negotiate the politics of the difficult Esterhazy family, remaining in their service for 3 decades.
Despite being quite plain-looking and pock-marked, he enjoyed the love of many beautiful women. He must have been quite a clever fellow.
Definitely a genius, of course.

a, sorry, I was just making a not very good or well-delivered joke about the urban myth, which I have heard from various sources, that De Valera had Peadar Kearney’s words re-written to suit his purposes when an extra verse was added in the Thirties. It says something that people believe it, not sure what though.

In some ways the Spanish anthem is the best: I enjoyed hearing the fans duh-duh-duh-ing along to it at the start of matches in Euro 2008. That it can mean almost anything you want it to is surely the essence of true patriotism.

The Australian national anthem is not far off the cat’s parody. But a little too early for socialised health care:

“Beneath our radiant southern Cross,
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing
“Advance Australia fair!”"

Mikey: “Can I just ask everyone to sing along? [youtube - the internationale - billy bragg]”

That must be just about the most painfully uninspired version of The Internationale ever recorded. Billy Bragg aka Dave Spart with a headache doesn’t sing anywhere near as well as our cat – or the admirable one in the cartoon. As for the accompanying illustrative clichés – no comment. But the depicted Arab workers certainly have massive tools.

The absolute best anthem has to be Land of my Fathers

Mikey, interesting to see the Arabic=socialism, Israel=oppression and Blair and Bush=the contemporary world’s greatest tyrants images that accompanied the Billy Bragg version of The International in your YouTube link. Sorry, I won’t sing along to a video that indicts Israel, the US and the UK as the greatest foes culpable for thwarting the imminent manifestation of international harmony and justice.

Simply adding Tony Blair and either the US or Bush in square brackets after the mention of Jews, Paul Berman’s line, below best explains the unquestioned and sadly unquestionable assumptions informing the person(s) who uploaded that video to You Tube to accompany the singing of The International:

The universal system for man’s happiness would right now have achieved perfection – were it not for the Jews [the US and/or Bush and Tony Blair]. The higher one’s opinion of oneself, the more one detests the Jews [the US and/or Bush and Tony Blair].

Point taken – OK can we all sing along to this?

But the depicted Arab workers certainly have massive tools.

Would you care to rephrase that?

The absolute best anthem has to be Land of my Fathers

Yes, an absolute beauty!

Point taken – OK can we all sing along to this?

Great video, Mikey. Is it from Israel? Is that Yossi Sarid at the front?

I once attended a May Day demonstration in Haifa, which concluded with the singing of the Internationale (in Hebrew of course) followed by the singing of HaTikvah.

Internationale in Hebrew did you say?

I actually do not know who is in the earlier video but it is clearly in Israel.

Jesus – all those eccentric antique Bundists sounded as uncertain as John Redwood mouthing Hen Wlad fy Nhadau; unlike him they at least knew the language but had forgotten the words. If the subtitles had been in transliterated Yiddish, and not Hebrew I could have sung along to help the old, unrepentant commies out. Bless.

None of this has told me how Maryland (The US state, not the next railway station east of Olympic Stratford, centre of world attention) got such a tune.

My modest knowledge of the US Civil War tells me that a few slave states remained loyal to the Union and did not secede; Maryland was one of those. So how did a rebel yell become the official song of this state?

‘c) commemorates a British attack on Baltimore during a war in which the Americans generally came off second best’

If ‘The Wire’ is anything to go by, I’m surprised the Redcoats didn’t come a cropper in Pimlico.

‘It’s your duty/ To liberate the people… unless the French send you off to Haiti/to crush a slave revolt.’

Yes, indeed. The Poles were under the fatal impression that Napoleon was their friend. ‘Za Wasza Wolnosc i Nasza’ was a bit of a sick joke when it came to Haiti.

‘The absolute best anthem has to be Land of my Fathers’

Well done that man!

Alan Ji: “Maryland, my Maryland” got to be Maryland’s state song as a post-Civil War concession to the state’s wartime secessionist minority in the interests of reconciliating Union & Confederate sympathizers within the state.