环球英语—880：National Songs

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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Bruce Gulland.
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And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand - no matter where in the world they live.
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The young man stands tall and straight. His eyes shine with pride and joy. He has won his event at the Olympic Games. The young athlete has trained hard in his sport for this experience. He bends down while the gold medal is placed over his head. Everyone listens to the music of his national anthem. The crowds cheer and people all over the world watch on their televisions. He has brought honour to his country. He feels great emotion and happiness.
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Today’s Spotlight is on national anthems – the national songs from every country in the world. Where do they come from? And why are they so important?
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The 2012 Olympics will be in Great Britain. Two hundred and five nations are competing. And everyone who competes in the Olympic Games hopes to be part of the victory ceremony. To prepare for these ceremonies, the organizers must have each anthem ready to play.
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Philip Sheppard is the conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He leads all of the musicians in this large group. The organizers of the Olympics asked the orchestra to play and record the music for each of the anthems. Sheppard agreed. It was a great honour!
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But Philip Sheppard had one very important step, before recording. First, he had to find the right anthem for each country. Many people have heard the anthems of big nations like the USA, the UK and France. However, most people have not heard the anthems of much smaller nations like Tuvalu or Comoros. Sheppard had to work very hard to find all the anthems. He used the famous British Library - a large collection of books and other documents. He talked about this process to reporter Adam Sweeting.
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‘No-one gave me the anthems. I had to find them for myself. Luckily, I love the British Library. I also enjoy investigating things like that’.
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He says he knows a lot more about the smaller countries of the world than he did before!
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But are there any bad anthems, musically? Philip Sheppard says no. Some anthems sound strange to people from different cultures. However, each anthem represents the music of that particular country. They come from different musical traditions. Sheppard says that all the anthems are good, when he thought about these different musical traditions and histories. For example, one of Sheppard’s favourite anthems was from the country of Bhutan. He said,
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“It is an incredible piece of music. It is probably the most foreign, ethnic and distant to Western people. All I had was an obscure recording. It was someone singing in a temple, without instruments.”
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National anthems became popular in the nineteenth century. However, some anthems are much older. The oldest anthem in the world belongs to Holland. It was written between 1568 and 1572.
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The words of the Japanese anthem are much older than that. They come from a very ancient poem. But the words were not set to music until 1880.
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However Spain’s anthem has no words at all. The music was written in 1761. In 2007, Spain held a national competition. It was for people to write words to fit the music. However, the winning words were not popular! People still do not use them regularly.
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Some anthems are written by famous musicians. For example, Haydn wrote the music for the German anthem. Mozart wrote the music for the Austrian anthem. And Rabindrath Tagore wrote both India’s and Bangladesh’s anthems.
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In other cases, the country’s leaders wrote the words for the anthem. This is true of Colombia, Senegal, Belgium and Ecuador. It is a great honour to write such an important song.
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But for one writer, it was not a happy experience. Manuel Maria Gutierrez wrote the anthem for Costa Rica. In 1853, authorities put him in prison until it was complete!
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Sometimes, people do not know who wrote an anthem! There are many different ideas about who wrote the British anthem. But no one knows for sure. Other anthems come from traditional native music.
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Many anthems are directly connected to the history of the country. They make people think of great events in the past.
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Perhaps this is why some anthems are so long! The longest anthem is from Greece. It has 158 verses. The anthem for Uruguay is also very long. It takes more than five minutes to sing!
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This caused some problems for Philip Sheppard when he recorded the anthems for the Olympic Games. For this event each anthem must only last between 60 and 90 seconds. This means that, in many cases, he could only use the main theme of the music. It had to be the part of the music that people would immediately recognise.
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Many national anthems praise the country itself and the people who live there. Some anthems are prayers to God. They ask God to bless the country and bring peace and wealth to the people. This is true of the anthems from Antigua, Kenya, Papua New Guinea and Slovenia. The anthem for some countries, such as the UK, asks God to especially bless and protect the king or queen.
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A few countries such as Denmark, Thailand and Sweden have two anthems. One is the national anthem that praises the country and the people. The other one is the royal anthem that praises the king or queen. This anthem is used for special royal events.
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Almost every country has a national anthem. It represents their country to the world. Each anthem also represents something of that nation’s qualities. It unites the people of that country. People identify with their own anthem. When they hear it, they feel great pride.