National anthems are meant to bring a country together under one single song, and since
you probably can’t assemble an orchestra out of fifty-thousand random spectators at
a football match, the best way for the audience to participate is to sing the words, to which
some countries go to huge efforts (South Africa), whereas others might not even have lyrics
at all.
There are even a few countries whose anthems have lyrics that you’re not actually supposed
to sing.
Now, this might come as somewhat of a shock to find out that a country will go through
the effort of putting in lyrics, only to tell everyone not to even use those lyrics.
However, there is actually a very good reason for this to happen; short answer, history.
Long answer, this video.
If a country’s anthem has lyrics in it, which you aren’t supposed to sing, that’s
a good sign that the lyrics were probably used in the past.
As in, when the country’s government was quite different, or when the country’s values
have changed too much since then for the lyrics to be appropriate.
One of the best known instances of this is Spain’s anthem, La Marcha Real (The Royal
March), which is officially meant to be played instrumentally, but does still have lyrics
that some people may still sing.
It was first adopted in 1770, and has been used all the way up to the current day, including
from 1938-75, when it finally got lyrics.
There’s just one problem with that, which is that, from 1938-75, Spain was ruled by
this crazy, fascist, despotic, not-so-nice guy named Francisco Franco, who kind of did
a lot of bad things.
So, basically, Franco turned out to be someone that most Spaniards probably wouldn’t want
to associate themselves with today.
Another good example is, of course, Germany.
Now, the German national anthem does have lyrics, but the part of the anthem (Das Lied
der Deutschen, or Das Deutschlandlied) which is actually sung is the third stanza, the
one that starts off with Germany’s national motto, “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit”
(Unity and justice and freedom).
However, what about the other two stanzas?
Well, the second stanza starts with “Deutsche Frauen, Deutsche Treue, Deutscher Wein, und
Deutscher Sang” (German women, German trust, German wine, and German song), which I guess
is a bit weird to start off a national anthem with.
However, the real problem was with the start of the first stanza, which went something
like “Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles, über alles in der Welt” (Germany, Germany,
above all, above all in the world), which…
yeah.
The intended meaning of “Deutschland über alles” was actually quite different, back
when it was first being thrown around.
You see, up until 1871, Germany was divided up into a bunch of little kingdoms and city-states,
so the original message was that a united Germany was what everyone should strive for,
not a disunited collection of squabbling states.
However, nowadays, “Deutschland über alles” harkens back to a bit of a different time
in Germany history, one which most Germans also probably wouldn’t want to associate
have lyrics.
This was meant to avoid favoritism for any particular ethnic group, as this region has
had some troubles with that in the past.
The song wasn’t chosen until after they first declared independence, so at first they
used Ode to Joy, in homage to the EU.
They really like the EU.
As mentioned in the previous episode of Behind the Anthem, the European Union uses Ode to
Joy as their national (or… multinational?) anthem.
However, though it does have its original German lyrics, which you can still sing, the
anthem is officially instrumental.
Though this does kind of make sense, since they also try to put as few words on the Euro
as possible, so yeah.
Either way, it really seems like Bosnia and Kosovo both really like to inspire themselves
off the European Union itself.
There are also numerous other anthems that don’t have lyrics, including San Marino,
the Basque Country, Sealand, Krakozhia and the United Federation of Planets.
While most countries do have lyrics in their anthem, some countries impose plenty of rules
on when and how you can officially sing the anthem, like in India, where Jana Gana Mana
can only be sung out in the open, to the sky.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, there are rules in place where one needs to sing both verses of the
anthem in verbal, or one or both in instrumental performances.
So, in a way, I guess you could kind of say that Brazil has laws saying when you can’t
not sing the anthem.
So, if a lot of these countries, like Germany and Spain, don’t want to sing the anthems
used by their fascistic predecessors, why do they still have them as official anthems?
Well, it’s important to realize that they often have huge historical precedent, I mean
take a listen to the old Holy Roman hymn Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser []. But also, a lot
of them still precede these times, and may have only gotten their lyrics during the times
the country might not want to remember very fondly, as with La Marcha Real.
Making lyrics for a national anthem can also be tough, especially if your country is especially
fractured, something really only done well by South Africa.
Thank you as always for watching this video.
I asked in the previous episode of Behind the Anthem if you wanted more of this, and
the votes tallied to a resounding “yes”, which is great, because I like making them.
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