Your Top Five Favorite National Anthems (Excluding Your Own)

Started by Florestan, September 02, 2020, 02:09:25 PM

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Florestan

Go for it, folks!

My list, in order:

1. Poland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJsWz9SlpfA

2. Italy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04ckV9QueXc

3. Brazil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyyOahYXhUQ

4. Ireland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2MUaHiCo9k

5. Belgium:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9u_Ituu2Q8

Honorary mentions:

1. France --- for the tune alone, the lyrics are bullshit-ish nationalist rubbish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laWIjgWDesE

2. Germany --- Haydn and partially ditto, although overall Hoffmann von Fallersleben's lyrics are less aggressively nationalist than Rouget de Lisle's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIff7EB7pvc

3. Spain --- no lyrics but a great tune, although less so than Cara al sol, whose lyrics are fairly neutral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjrrVrmdK0M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRwjdeGx6rg

4. Greece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VkPRU6C-JQ

5. Scotland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPaJhlIIYjM
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

springrite

Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: springrite on September 02, 2020, 04:29:57 PM
South Africa

Italia

France

Japan

Luxembourg

Many anthems are so feverish that sometimes they sound comical. While I like Russia, I am looking for anthems a little less ecstatic.  As for Japan, I wish the ending sounded like really ending or resolving.

Jo498

Brazil sounds like early Verdi...

Interestingly, national anthems might have been a factor of getting me interested into classical music. I probably got interested into the anthems during the 1984 Olympics which was the first one that had me glued to the TV for hours (and already the winter games in Sarajevo, but mainly L.A.). My father had an LP with about 20 or so of the more famous ones. And national anthems brought me to the 1812 ouverture and Wellington's victory...

Without extensive re-relistening, my favorite tunes are a very odd bunch (and with no politics behind it, recall that the preferences were formed by an unpolitical young teenager during cold time). I tend to prefer the more hymn-like ones vs. the marches. I'd guess that in a fashion the Marseillaise is the mother of the marchlike hymns and God save the Queen of the more hymn-like ones.

Soviet Union (and apparently Russia is now again using the same tune with a different text)
Israel
USA
Netherlands
France

Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Papy Oli

Definitely Wales and Italy in the top 2 spots, then Scotland.

Then it would be England if they had Jerusalem instead of God save the Queen.

Then Ireland.

What can i say, I'm a 6 Nations guy.

I'm obviously biased but the French lyrics do get you really fired up.

Just because the lyrics are a bit on the heavy side, it doesn't mean you want to go on and dismantle an opponent or an opposing supporter  ;) i'm not sure singing the recipe of a duck cassoulet would be as rousing  :P hmm ...actually.... 8)
Olivier

Florestan

Quote from: Jo498 on September 02, 2020, 11:21:31 PM
Brazil sounds like early Verdi...

Yes.  Actuallly, most, if not all, South American anthems sound like taken straight from an Italian opera.  :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vandermolen

Quote from: Papy Oli on September 03, 2020, 12:02:48 AM
Definitely Wales and Italy in the top 2 spots, then Scotland.

Then it would be England if they had Jerusalem instead of God save the Queen.

Then Ireland.

What can i say, I'm a 6 Nations guy.

I'm obviously biased but the French lyrics do get you really fired up.

Just because the lyrics are a bit on the heavy side, it doesn't mean you want to go on and dismantle an opponent or an opposing supporter  ;) i'm not sure singing the recipe of a duck cassoulet would be as rousing  :P hmm ...actually.... 8)
England would be my No.1 as well if it was 'Jerusalem' and if I was allowed to vote for it.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

The new erato

I always liked Eastern Germanys, written by Hans Eisler, an extremely underrated composer. Luckily, it is no longer relevant.

Jo498

I also like the Becher-Hymne. The lyrics were not used after the first few years because it an be construed as referring to the hope/promise of a unified Germany (Auferstanden aus Ruinen und der Zukunft zugewandt, lass uns dir zum Guten dienen, Deutschland, *einig Vaterland*"
There used to be the charge of plagiarism against Eisler because there is a similarity to "Goodbye Johnny"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rR-SL3OCMU

Another fun fact: The lyrics of Fallersleben's "Lied der Deutschen", Becher's Auferstanden... and Brecht's "Kinderhymne" can all be sung to both the Haydn as well as the Eisler tune.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

springrite

Quote from: springrite on September 02, 2020, 04:29:57 PM
South Africa

Italia

France

Japan

Luxembourg

BTW, Luxembourg's is God Save the Queen without the lyrics.
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Jo498

God save the Queen with different lyrics was also used in 19th century Prussia and Germany as hymn for the king/Emperor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_dir_im_Siegerkranz
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

DaveF

Quote from: Papy Oli on September 03, 2020, 12:02:48 AM
Definitely Wales

Thank you :) - words are very good, too, all about what a great place Wales is (not a word about dismembering one's enemies etc.)

+1 for South Africa - in the early days of democracy I used to find it terribly moving how they played Die Sterne followed by Nkosi Sikelele Africa (or was it the other way round?)

ditto for Netherlands - as well as being a very good tune, it starts in 2/4 and ends up in 3/4, so who could resist? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VZG7S1oek

France, obviously
likewise Germany

and the short-lived and war-torn country of Biafra adopted the big tune from Finlandia - why the Finns didn't get in first I can't understand.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

Papy Oli

Quote from: DaveF on September 05, 2020, 02:26:11 AM
Thank you :) - words are very good, too, all about what a great place Wales is (not a word about dismembering one's enemies etc.)

Hearing it with the roof closed at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff many years ago in a 6 Nations game (against England to boot) was a special moment. It's been my favourite anthem ever since. I particularly love the crescendo on "Gwlad, Gwlad" at the start of the choruses. Shivers every time !! 
Olivier

DaveF

Actually, the US one isn't at all bad either (although I do like Kurt Vonnegut's description of the text as "gibberish sprinkled with question-marks").

But I should also have mentioned Yorkshire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUsQ9Qs2DQo (probably the only one in the world whose subject-matter is illness, death and cannibalism)

and of course God Save the Queen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMxqcgBhWQ
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

vandermolen

#14
France
Mongolia
Finland (although 'Finlandia' would be even better)
Russia
New Zealand

The U.S. one is good too.
Also Israel.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).