My favorite song the past week or so has been the Tajik national anthem from the Soviet years (the tune is still used today but with different lyrics). I have no idea what those poor people are singing about. I tried doing a google translation of the lyrics and there’s a lot about Lenin’s call and flags illuminated by crimson lightning and fighting enemies. Whatever it is, the song sound very dramatic and just slightly sad.
I’ve gotten to listening to a bunch of anthems. The Armenian one is good and so is Russian one. The Germans have a very dignified song and the Japanese have an extremely solemn one that’s about the emperor. I think the French have the best national anthem, it really ignites a franco-fire in my soul.
I’ve also been listening to the Star Spangled Banner a lot since Obama became president. Here are my thoughts about our national song. 1) As it is popularly sung it is a terrifying noise, everything is drawn out – the song was once a bar song and it needs to be snappy and fun. 2) Singers who especially draw out the end of the song (the land of the free and home of the brave part) are terrible people. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE AMERICAN PEOPLE 3) The song should always be sung in its full form – or the final verse only should be sung. That verse is genuinely rousing, especially when it comes as a crescendo at the end of the entire song.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Also stirring is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s lyrics written during the Civil War…
When our land is illumined with liberty’s smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.
When I listen to the Star Spangled Banner in its full form (as sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale) I genuinely get goosebumps (it might also be because I’m thinking of Obama). I have never gotten goosebumps from the Star Spangled Banner before hearing it in its entirety – I’ve always felt that it fetishized the flag and didn’t really say much about our country. The Marseillaise, by contrast, is about the birth pangs of their Republic and in the right situation can make earnest French people cry.
That’s what I think is the true mark of a great anthem – the ability to stir up such feelings about a country that at a crucial moment can bring its listeners to patriotic tears. It’s nice that we have songs to sing about our country for when we feel inclined to sing about it and that new Americans can learn the tune and the words and thus automatically be members. The same goes for clubs and groups, sharing songs seems like a great lost art-form, schools had songs that students actually knew how to sing. Did Masons have a song like the Stonecutters song in the Simpsons?
