National Anthems
I’ve been on a bit of a National Anthem kick lately. I currently have sheet music for four nations’ anthems, but if people correctly use my Christmas list, I should have ~120 by next year. I’m going to be so popular at Olympics-watching parties.
I first acquired O Canada (…from Canada) three years ago when I was searching for free piano sheet music available on the internet. The range is great for singing along, which I do frequently. I particularly enjoyed being able to sing along to both national anthems at one semiprofessional soccer game I attended. (Heck, I think I’ve sung it enough that Jacob was able to sing along too.)
I decided I needed the sheet music for God Save the Queen (England and UK, but not Scotland or Wales) after watching the World Cup match in Scotland. When the English national anthem was played, one of the guys in the pub stood up and sang loudly. I figured this meant he was rooting for England, but that was the first time I specifically realized that Scotland had a separate national anthem. Separately, when I was in Wales, my friend Robbie would often play God Save the Queen on the piano, hoping that our English friends would join in. They never did, so I sometimes ended up singing the only lyrics I knew (My Country Tis of Thee) (Lynn: a bit of a dick.) Wikipedia claims these lyrics were not intended as a snub at England, but since I know the history of the tune it feels pretty mean to use them. Anyways, I was ashamed I still didn’t know the real lyrics to God Save the Queen, so I needed the sheet music to practice.
I ended up downloading God Save the Queen on July 5th, when I was home from work on my Independence Day holiday. I’m not particularly patriotic (the US is big/powerful enough that it feels like bullying to be, plus I’m not happy about our recent foreign actions), but repeatedly singing England’s national anthem on the Independence Day holiday felt wrong. A couple of days later, I downloaded The Star Spangled Banner (US).
I fell in love with the Uruguayan national anthem (which as far as I can tell is actually named The National Anthem of Uruguay) during the World Cup. As I later learned, Uruguay has the longest national anthem in the world. The entire song lasts five minutes, with a full minute of instrumental introduction. The World Cup used an abbreviated version, but even that version has a 30 second introduction. The chorus accompaniment doesn’t include the melody line, so the melody wasn’t audible whenever the camera cut away from the football players. The end result was this song with a crazy-long intro in which the singing had no relation to the music. I needed to learn more. I didn’t have much luck finding the sheet music online, but Jacob discovered a reference book at the library which included it. We made an emergency trip to the library to copy the music. The piano accompaniment is a little beyond me (although I’m slowly improving), but it’s fun to sing along to the full song.
I first acquired O Canada (…from Canada) three years ago when I was searching for free piano sheet music available on the internet. The range is great for singing along, which I do frequently. I particularly enjoyed being able to sing along to both national anthems at one semiprofessional soccer game I attended. (Heck, I think I’ve sung it enough that Jacob was able to sing along too.)
I decided I needed the sheet music for God Save the Queen (England and UK, but not Scotland or Wales) after watching the World Cup match in Scotland. When the English national anthem was played, one of the guys in the pub stood up and sang loudly. I figured this meant he was rooting for England, but that was the first time I specifically realized that Scotland had a separate national anthem. Separately, when I was in Wales, my friend Robbie would often play God Save the Queen on the piano, hoping that our English friends would join in. They never did, so I sometimes ended up singing the only lyrics I knew (My Country Tis of Thee) (Lynn: a bit of a dick.) Wikipedia claims these lyrics were not intended as a snub at England, but since I know the history of the tune it feels pretty mean to use them. Anyways, I was ashamed I still didn’t know the real lyrics to God Save the Queen, so I needed the sheet music to practice.
I ended up downloading God Save the Queen on July 5th, when I was home from work on my Independence Day holiday. I’m not particularly patriotic (the US is big/powerful enough that it feels like bullying to be, plus I’m not happy about our recent foreign actions), but repeatedly singing England’s national anthem on the Independence Day holiday felt wrong. A couple of days later, I downloaded The Star Spangled Banner (US).
I fell in love with the Uruguayan national anthem (which as far as I can tell is actually named The National Anthem of Uruguay) during the World Cup. As I later learned, Uruguay has the longest national anthem in the world. The entire song lasts five minutes, with a full minute of instrumental introduction. The World Cup used an abbreviated version, but even that version has a 30 second introduction. The chorus accompaniment doesn’t include the melody line, so the melody wasn’t audible whenever the camera cut away from the football players. The end result was this song with a crazy-long intro in which the singing had no relation to the music. I needed to learn more. I didn’t have much luck finding the sheet music online, but Jacob discovered a reference book at the library which included it. We made an emergency trip to the library to copy the music. The piano accompaniment is a little beyond me (although I’m slowly improving), but it’s fun to sing along to the full song.