those ppl who do things like start blogs reviewing every national anthem for every nation ever
maybe with a photo of a bit of ebay kitsch bought for each nation, and then scores out of twenty under different facetious categories
those ppl
anyway, eschewing completeness and minimizing kitsch, it might be a good idea to talk about national anthems
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:29 (11 months ago) Permalink
it will be observed that there appears to be no prior national anthem thread on ilx
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:30 (11 months ago) Permalink
a lot of anthems are like this -- sententious lyrics, stirring if slightly cloying strings, repetitive and dispirting
nonetheless, in the right context it does convey some things -- russia is big, its people are purported to be dreamily maudlin, they have spent 800 years fighting other people, mostly successfully
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:37 (11 months ago) Permalink
I always liked Holger Czukay's reworking of the Chinese national anthem
― oh god here come the cardiacs fans (Matt #2), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:43 (11 months ago) Permalink
I love the formlessness of "The Star-Spangled Anthem" -- a buncha metaphors about rockets, dawns, and proudly hailing.
Best version:
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:46 (11 months ago) Permalink
lol BANNER
this seems important, a non-european nation that announces difference in vitalist terms far removed from the parade-ground stodge of its forebears - 'an intense dream, a vivid ray of love and hope' - and sounding lithe and animated while using more or less the same musical language
note also reference to 'star spangled banner'
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:50 (11 months ago) Permalink
no lyrics but plenty of credibility from spain here, a lumpen intro gives way to a neat descending figure suggestive of folksong innocence
there were probably falangist execution squads who had this jaunty little number in their heads while they went about their work
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:58 (11 months ago) Permalink
My friend is doing this. What are 'those people' meant to be like? How is doing this worse than 'Popular' (which, by posting on ilx, you are giving tacit approval to)? How is starting a blog on it worse than starting an ilx thread?
― emil.y, Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
that spanish anthem sounds like it could be in a movie: man comes home after having suffered through hard times, walks up triumphantly towards his wife and kisses her, spanish anthem starting as he approaches his wife, roll credits.
― Jibe, Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:03 (11 months ago) Permalink
tbf most national anthems sound like they could score moving moments of movies or whatever
man comes home after having suffered through hard times, walks up triumphantly towards his wife and kisses her = ferdinand and isabella uniting spain after the reconquista
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:06 (11 months ago) Permalink
Uruguay's is fairly buoyant:
Laibach's album where they reinterpreted various national anthems was good in parts.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:07 (11 months ago) Permalink
ftr i haven't actually seen any blogs reviewing national anthems, it is just something that would obviously already exist in several iterations because ppl would have noticed all these anthems, for all these countries but there is a finite number so they can all be listed and rated in some grandly positivist undertaking
apart from the maybe 10% of anthems that are notable outliers, it seems that most anthems are designed to sound like every other anthem to foreigners who seldom hear them and don't know the language, while efficiently touching on the most efficient national archetypes / metonyms for domestic consumption
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:21 (11 months ago) Permalink
too many efficiencies there
so,'deutschlandleid'
this is really gorgeous imo
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:27 (11 months ago) Permalink
lyrics by sedar songhor.....
Senegal, you the son of the lion's froth, Sprung from the night to the gallop of horses, Give us, oh! give us the honour of our ancestors, Splendid as ebony and strong as muscle, We say it clearly – the sword has no flaw.
Senegal, we take on your great work: To shelter the chicks from the falcons, To make, from east to west, north to south, Arisen, one single people, a people without seams, But a people turned to all the winds of the earth.
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:53 (11 months ago) Permalink
la marseillaise or gtfo
― cissymanwhore (k3vin k.), Saturday, 16 June 2012 13:29 (11 months ago) Permalink
the ne plus ultra of old school anthems but the lyrics are a bit overripe
Do you hear, in the countryside, The roar of those ferocious soldiers? They're coming right into your arms To cut the throats of your sons and women!
― too cool graham rix listening to neu (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 14:48 (11 months ago) Permalink
La marsellaise will always be number one for me but i'll admit i havent really listened to them all. I remember being like 9 and hearing midi versions of mostly every anthem in my encyclopedia britannica cd.
I find the lack of lyrics in the spanish one sort of lazy (which fits their culture, actually) but seeing masses of drunk spaniards attempting to sing along to its melody is a thing to behold.
― Moka, Saturday, 16 June 2012 15:21 (11 months ago) Permalink
The German national anthem written by Haydn is quite good too, specially in stripped, chamber music form.
Also the swiss anthem is slightly melancholic:
I like the American national anthem when played in one instrument or acapella, it makes for some haunting, cinematic moments.
― Moka, Saturday, 16 June 2012 15:44 (11 months ago) Permalink
I never realized how totally gory La Marseillaise was until I saw the Serge Gainsbourg biopic and they had the lyrics as captions. Star-Spangled Banner admits some bloodshed but not until the third verse:
And where is that band who so vauntingly sworeThat 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 slaveFrom 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.
When I was a kid I thought it would be cool to learn all the neglected additional verses, which I would sometimes read from the hymnbook while sitting around in church, but the song is just too tedious.
― Word of Wisdom Robots (Abbbottt), Saturday, 16 June 2012 15:55 (11 months ago) Permalink
the swiss one is excellent, though it sounds more russian-liturgical than central european
― dis civilization and its contents (nakhchivan), Saturday, 16 June 2012 15:56 (11 months ago) Permalink
I also like the last verse of SSB because it ends with this:Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."It's like one of those Beetle Bailey Sunday strips that could have been three panels, but they fill seven panels with a bunch of junk, and the last panel finally has some semblance of a junk. Key seems to have run out of steam by the end of the song. "What the hell do I do with this last couplet? I guess I'll just throw in our motto."
― Word of Wisdom Robots (Abbbottt), Saturday, 16 June 2012 15:59 (11 months ago) Permalink
In sixth grade I listened to MIDIs of *all* the national anthems from an Encarata CD-ROM and I concluded they were 99% the same.
― Word of Wisdom Robots (Abbbottt), Saturday, 16 June 2012 16:00 (11 months ago) Permalink