ALTERNATIVE NATIONAL ANTHEMS

Al-Buraq

Banned
National Anthems are funny old things. They sort of, just happened. God Save The King (Queen) was orginally just a patriotic hymn sung to George II and became popular because it slagged off the awful Scots. No one planned it. There wasn't a competition or a referendum. The country just got lumbered with it.
It must have appealed in its day as it was adopted by Russia, Norway, Sweden, Prussia/Imperial Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and the Kingdom of Hawaii (until that lovely land was raped and despoiled by evil American adventurers). But lets face it, it's boring!
In the same way that Britian, being the first to build railways, now has crap trains, being the first with a National Anthem means it has a crap one. Nothing as exciting as the French or the American one (Even if the American one is an English tune). Thanks to Michael Shumacher we all know how jolly the Italian anthem is and thanks to the 2010 Winter Olympics we know that the Canadians have one. The Australians and New Zealanders have sensibly developed their own and now that the Welsh and the ghastly Scots only play their own Anthems a new anthem is definitely needed, not for the UK, but for England alone.
There has been a tendency recently to use 'Jerusalem' as an English National Anthem (ENA), but two problems (a) Its about bloody Israel and Socialism and (b) It's still a hymn.
Rule Britannia is right out unfortunately as it isn't specifically English or true any more.
"Swing Low Sweet Chariot" has already be claimed by the English Rugby supporters and if adopted would undoubtedly give rise to the hand-signal translation of the lyrics being used in front of Her Maj.
Land of Hope and Glory is unfortunately both innaccurate and optimistic for the 2st Century.
The EU has already grabbed Ode to Joy.
"I vow to thee my Country" should be a shoo-in, but its still a hymn and a bit gloomy.
"Rose of England" by Novello is so 1930s

So it just HAS to be this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vh-wEXvdW8
 
For that matter, a simple turn of fortune at Fort McHenry might make Yankee Doodle the US national anthem, God forbid. :p

Actually, I could see the Battle Cry of Freedom filling the bill.
 
Funny thing. Sweden still doesn't have an official national anthem, though the inoffocial one is so widespread there's no alternative today. But back in the early 1900s there was a national competition to come up with a better song. Any one of those entries could have become the national anthem if the competition had gathered any political weight. Now I have no idea how any of those songs sound, since I've never heard them, but there were a whole bunch of them.

There's also this this song, which is the royal family's semi-official anthem. Not too inconceivable that it could end up a de facto or even official national anthem.
 

Susano

Banned
I think that's true of several countries.

Yeah, same here.
Another funny thing: The GDR anthem was composed so that its words could be played to the German (West German but also formerly German) anthem and vice versa, in case of reunification...
 

Goldstein

Banned
Independent Catalonia(no cathar crusades)-Se Canto

You mean Independent Occitania, which is different from Catalonia.

Alternatively, Els Segadors, the anthem of Catalonia.

Eusko Abendaren Ereserkia, the Basque anthem

Os Pinos,the anthem of Galicia, for those who may decide to independize it instead of giving it to Portugal :rolleyes:



For France, there is always this one...

Finally, I would like to know why the British have such an awesome and widely known piece and they dont use it as an anthem...
 
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You mean Independent Occitania, which is different from Catalonia.

Alternatively, Els Segadors, the anthem of Catalonia.

I said this because "During the Middle Ages, for five centuries (8th to 13th) of political and social convergence of these territories, there was no clear distinction or separation between the Occitan and the Catalan. For instance, the Provençal troubadour, Albertet de Sestaró, says: "Monks, tell me which according to your knowledge are better: the French or the Catalans? and here I shall put Gascony, Provence, Limousin, Auvergne and Viennois while there shall be the land of the two kings."[1] In Marseille, a typical Provençal song is called 'Catalan song'. (M. Milà i Fontanals, De los Trobadores en España, p. 487)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occitano-Romance_languages
An independent Occitania will be either called Catalonia or Provença.
 

Goldstein

Banned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occitano-Romance_languages
An independent Occitania will be either called Catalonia or Provença.

Oh, I stand corrected :eek:. Very interesting, by the way.



...going back to the topic, for an alternate Spanish republican anthem, there is always this one. It started as a light liberal propaganda song against Ferdinand VII, but I could see it eventually evolving into a serious anthem... it sounds quite awful, but then again the Himno de Riego does as well. It reached great notoriety as a symbol for Spanish liberalism, and it has revanchist and aggresive lyrics, as every anthem should :p Too bad the audio is horrible.

Also, the Marcha Granadera could well serve as an anthem under a republic, for a lack of a better thing. (No, it is not exactly the current anthem. It has a more martial rythm, for it is a military march) According to the link, IOTL there was a contest to change the anthem during the revolutionary period after 1868... the Marcha stayed because the other proposals were not as good.
 
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A New Anthem for England - by Flanders and Swan

A Song Of Patriotic Prejudice lyrics

Artist: King Singers
Album: Kings Singers Sing Flanders And Swann And Noel Coward
Buy Kings Singers Sing Flanders And Swann And Noel Coward CD
Lyrics: A Song Of Patriotic Prejudice


The English, the English, the English are best:
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!
The rottenest bits of these islands of ours,
We've left in the hands of three unfriendly powers,
Examine the Irishman, Welshman or Scot,
you'll find he's a stinker or not.

The Scotsman is mean, as we 're all well aware,
And bony and blotchy and covered with hair,
He eats salted porridge, he works all the day,
And he hasn't got bishops to show him the way.

The English; the English, the English are best:
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!

The Irishman, now, our contempt is beneath,
He sleeps in his boots and he lies in his teeth,
He blows up policemen (or so I have heard),
And blames it on Cromwell and William the Third.

The English are noble, the English are nice,
And worth any other at double the price!

The Welshman's dishonest, he cheats when he can,
And little and dark, more like monkey than man,
He works underground with a lamp in his hat,
And he sings far too loud, far too often, and
FLA-A-A-T.

And crossing the Channel, one cannot say much,
For the French or the Spanish, the Danish or Dutch;
The Germans are German, the Russians are Red,
And the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed.

The English are moral, the English are good,
And clever and modest and misunderstood!

And all the world over, each nation's the same,
They've simply no notion of Playing the Game:
They argue with umpires; they cheer when they've won;
And they practise beforehand, which ruins the fun!

The English, the English, the English are best:
So up with the English, and down with the rest!

It's not that they're wicked or naturally bad ...
It's knowing they're FOREIGN that makes them so mad!
For the English are all that a nation should be,
And the flower of the English are Donald
(Michael!) and me!!

I Rest My Case...
 
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