Patriotism & the British national anthem

I'm a republican. So I find the stupid dirge offensive and won't be singing it or standing up for it any time soon. In fact ever. That doesn't mean I'm not 'patriotic' though.

Very few (if any) nations sing a song about saving the unelected head-of-state. They sing about the glory of their nation as a concept instead which is a very different thing. So, come the republic, which will arrive at some point as surely as day follows night (see what I did there?), then we'll have a new ditty which I'm sure I'll be able to sing along with.

Your issues aren't the only ones Squibba, real as I'm sure they are (although also recently somewhat semantic). You don't enamour yourself to the rest of us by insisting that it's your issues alone that are important. You simply come across as self-indulgent. Which, given the context, isn't particularly surprising.

 

'I vow to thee my England' is another cracker

Works for a monarchy or a republic

 

At least the composer, Thomas Arne, was one of our own.

The Germans are so short of composers that they had to get an Austrian, Joseph Haydn, to write theirs.

 

Well, sort of:

"Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote the music in 1797, during the Napoleonic wars as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II. As "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser"(God Save Franz the Emperor), it was first performed on the Emperor's birthday, February 12, 1797 and the song subsequently became Austria's national anthem. New words were set to the music in 1841 by a German poet, August Heinrich Hoffmann, and his "Das Lied der Deutschen," (The Song of the Germans) was considered revolutionary at the time. In order to endorse its republican and liberal tradition, the tune was chosen as the national anthem of Germany in 1922, during the Weimar Republic. By now the song was being titled "Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles," (Germany, Germany over All)."

 

Of course. Germany didn't actually exist when Haydn was alive.

 

Indeed. Hadn't appreciated that the Germans pinched it from the Austrians though.

 

I seem to remember that the Imperial Russian anthem was "God Save the Czar" and I've always wondered if this was the same tune.

 

You mean 'I vow to thee my Country'? Racist!





"I seem to remember that the Imperial Russian anthem was "God Save the Czar" and I've always wondered if this was the same tune"

That one has a different tune.

But the Russian Imperial anthem prior to that (1816-1833) was "The Prayer of Russians" which does..

 

American's still sing 'My country tis of thee', which is the same tune as God Save the Queen.

I was so baffled when I first discovered that.

 

Have a look back to my previous post #65.


The title sounds funny to me now because 'Tis' is Norwegian for p*ss

 

I did suspect that the topic might have come from a previous post about that song, but I couldn't be bothered to look at previous pages!