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ZoCher: I think you may be mistaken about the hymn tune used for "God Save the Queen." the hymn tune you cite, Ein' feste burg, is best-known to the Anglophone world as "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (familiar to American TV viewers as the theme tune to Davey and Goliath). "God Save the King/Queen" is probably adapted from a tune by Jean-Baptiste Lully (b. Giambatista Lulli) Italian composer resident in France in the 16th c. (and also infamous for dying of blood poisoning after stabbing himself in the foot with the cane he used as a conductor's baton—he was beating time with it and, uh, missed the floor...), although an entry at www.cyberhymnal.org claims that Samuel Smith (who wrote "America," which uses the same tune) found the tune in a German songbook called Thesaurus Musicus, published 1744. Hard to say for sure without further research: but 1744 would've been long after "GStK" was sung for Bonnie Prince Charlie (allegedly its first public performance).
Anyway.
I loathe "The Star-Spangled Banner," always have: is this the best we can say about our country, that we kicked ass in the war of 1812?
I've always thought that "America the Beautiful" would be a much better anthem. For my money it's the only "patriotic" song worth a damn—not only because it celebrates landscape over martial prowess, but because (in its later verses) it has one a succinct acknowledgment of the moral burdens of power...
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!
...and even expresses humility: it dares to suggest that this country can be improved:
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine!
It's just a beautifully-written lyric. We were singing this a lot in church after September 11th, and there were verses that were hard to get through...
O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life...
O beautiful for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears...
Try hitting those notes with a lump in your throat. Fuck, I'm tearing up typing this. That's what an anthem should do: pay tribute to the country not as it is, but as it could be. Should be.
A sidenote: a Google search reveals the original poem had eight verses, not our familiar four, and that this gem did not make the cut...
America! America! God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free!
...which is a shame.
Mad props to the Ray Charles version, too. |
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