The Function that national anthems have on society

GoingNowhereGoingNowhere Global Moderator
edited January 2012 in Spurious Generalities
Hey chaps, here's another one of my essays I did for college :) This essay explores what meaning and function that national anthems have on society, using the Polish, French, and Russian national anthems. I must admit, I enjoyed this one and I thought it was interesting!

This function that national anthems have on society

National anthems are an integral part of a nation’s history, culture, and traditions of a country/government. They are created generally as a patriotic musical composition (instrumental or song) that can include the history of a particular country, verses that eulogise how great that country is, and a military based composition style which contains elements of marching music or references to military might. Most national anthems are either hymns (in that the express admiration and praise to that country) or marches (because they keep a regular tempo, and with created most often by the military). There are many general functions in a national anthem, mainly as social and political commentary on what was happening at the time of the creation of that music, tribalism in that you are recognising a race of men by one particular piece of music, and military music which is how many anthems are created. Their main reason that this music was created was to evoke a sense of nationalism and pride in one's country and a strong sense of identity. In many countries, it is the most revered piece of music that can be played and it evokes strong emotions. Some countries choose to sing their anthem in the language that most represent them (eg. Wales) rather than the most common language sung, for example Switzerland which has four official languages and therefore the national anthem is sung in those four languages with slightly different lyrics. National anthems are sung at many different events and many different situations, for example during a sporting event like a rugby match or even a national day of mourning. On every occasion, it is usually sung in a sense of pride, love, and patriotism towards their country.

The history of national anthems goes about all of the way to the 15th century where the national anthem Wilhelmus was written between 1568 and 1572 and became the official Dutch national anthem in 1932. The United Kingdom national anthem is the oldest anthem to be adopted, as it was believed to be created in the 16th century and then adopted in 1745 under the title God save the King. Other Western countries soon followed as when they visited Britain in the 18th-century, they noticed the advantage of possessing such an iconic symbol which they could use to represent their country. Following suit, Spain's national anthem was adopted in 1770, Denmark's national anthem adopted in 1770, and French national anthem was adopted in 1795. Serbia was first Eastern European nation to have a national anthem, which was adopted in 1804 and is called Rise up, Serbia! National anthems are continuously being revised and created as new governments are set in place, and as the history of the country is for ever-changing. An example of this is that South Sudan has recently created in national anthem to celebrate their independence as a nation, so as we can see when nation's have been created or new governments have moved into power then an anthem can be changed or created, although with established nations like America, France, and Britain this is rare. National anthems were either created by a specific composer/s and songwriter/s like the French and Russian national anthem, combined from a poem and a piece that had already been created like the United States anthem, or like the anthem of the United Kingdom relatively unknown where the melody or the lyrics came from.

Let us first deal with their social and political function that the national anthem fulfils. Many anthems were created at a time of great social and political change, where the political landscape changed drastically and/or it appeared that liberty had been achieved from so many years of oppression. This political change would form in a new government, which usually brought liberty and freedom which the general populace had worked so hard to get. Therefore in this circumstance, it is a celebration of change and the rejection of what had happened in the past. An example of this is Russia.

This first national anthem used the same melody as the British national anthem with the lyrics by Zhukovsky. The political situation changed when the Russian czar Nicholas the first decided he wished to have a meeting Russian anthem composed instead of using the British one, thus “A Prayer of the Russian People” was created by Vasily Zhukovsky and Lvov. Now, the real social and political change came about when to czar abdicated in 1917 due to the effect of World War I and his attempts to quell the protests by using soldiers to shoot civilians. Therefore, due to the massive social upheaval that left various factions fighting for the power vacuum that was left, different unofficial anthems were used by various different factions. Therefore, during this period the function of these various national anthems was to present the social and political ideas of anarchism and spur the revolutionaries on to greater change. Of these revolutionary factions, the most common anthem was The Marseillaise but was replaced by The Internationale was the Bolsheviks anthem. It is very hard to grasp how important the October Revolution was to the ordinary citizens of Russia, as they were oppressed by the czar's so many years and they truly believed that they were fighting for freedom and for the communist ideology. The revolutionary anthems falls into the social idea for a revolution that will grant the worker a classless and stateless society that would be so different from the hierarchy that governed them for so many years, and the political conviction that Bolshevik party were the ones who work to make that change. The next change of national anthem was the idea of Stalin’s, who believed in these communist theology that the lyrics of the Internationale spoke of trying to achieve a goal that he already thought had been achieved through his party. The Soviet national anthem is a prime example of the fact that the current national anthem the Internationale did not present the correct social and political function that it was required of by the new government. Stalin wished for a new national anthem because it was no longer needed all the particular sociological purpose of anarchism and the political need to overthrow the government/state. The new Soviet national anthem was created as a political reminder of what the Soviets had achieved and what they have accomplished. Another massive political and social change occurred after the fall of the Soviet Union. When Russia became independent from the Soviet Union, it was clear that you had to adopt a new anthem. Russia had just come out of the Cold War which meant the dissolution of the Soviet State, and final freedom to all its citizens. It was very important that they adopted a new national anthem as it was imperative that the history of the Soviet state and all its horrific crimes (the deaths of 61 million people) were forgotten. You can see that the social and political function of the anthem had changed, as they no longer wanted in national anthem was associated communist rule. This is highlighted when in late 2000; Russia's president Vladimir Putin brought back the old Soviet anthem but added different lyrics to it. This was controversial as it brought back old memories from the communist era. Throughout the history of Russia the national anthem has always changed with each era of political rule, from the reign of the czar's, Soviet rule, and finally the Russian Federation saw as we reflect back on history the Russian national anthem has truly reflected the country's chequered history.

Tribalism has always been a feature in all national anthems, because it is a piece of music that represents a group of people who come together under one flag. Each national anthem you will hear goes into explicit detail of why they are so proud to be in that country and how great that country is, thusly the function of tribalism is to express patriotism and nationalism which I believe is a subset of tribalism. I believe that one of the best examples of this is the Polish national anthem. Throughout Poland's history, it has been invaded time and time again by many different nations (Germany, Sweden, Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Turkey) and so they are strongly nationalist, and that is reflected in the anthem in English translates to ’Poland has not Perished’. The idea behind the anthem was that no matter how many times Poland was invaded, as long as there were still Polish people alive and fighting in its name it will not disappear. It is also why national anthems sung/played across the world in sporting events and occasions where heads of state and heads of government are present, because they represent the country that they come from and therefore they are under one flag and one anthem.

Conclusion
I believe that I have fully explored the two functions of national anthems, this social political function of the national anthem and also tribalism aspect of it. National anthems are exceedingly important to each and every country around the world because as I have discovered each national anthem has a history behind it, and an opportunity to bring people closer together and to feel proud about where you come from. It is no mistake that when a new government is formed or independence of a country has been made, a new national anthem quickly follows for it is the bedrock of the state.


Bibliography
http://www.nationalanthems.info/
http://www.music.co.uk/misc/history-national-anthem.html

Comments

  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited January 2012
    Bookmarked :)
  • RemadERemadE Global Moderator
    edited January 2012
    Very interesting read :) I like!
  • GoingNowhereGoingNowhere Global Moderator
    edited January 2012
    Hey, thanks guys most kind of you :) I feared it might be a tad boring to read as on our course its quite a dry subject, but Im glad you liked it.
  • chippychippy <b style="color:pink;">Global Moderator</b>
    edited January 2012
    Put me in mind of this:

  • RemadERemadE Global Moderator
    edited January 2012
    Al Murray is a national treasure, and one of the reasons I chose to do a History degree. Gotta say, the whole tribal aspect of National Anthems is overlooked, but glad you picked up on it. Did you just use those two sources linked? Maybe I should put some of my essays up here? Hmm. I operate a "plagiarise, edit and share the hell out of them" policy. I'm a crowdsource kinda guy.
  • SlartibartfastSlartibartfast Global Moderator -__-
    edited January 2012
    The same reasons can be appied to the functions of public broadcasting.
  • GoingNowhereGoingNowhere Global Moderator
    edited January 2012
    Thanks Remade :) I'd love to see your essays too, and If they passed the uni censors chances are we wont notice any plagiarism lol Aye, only the two sources were used there as they are quite in-depth and gave me all the info I needed to know. I may have used Wikipedia a little bit too, but I would definitely not admit to that on my essay lol :p Teachers would not be happy!
  • Darth BeaverDarth Beaver Meine Ehre heißt Treue
    edited January 2012
    Here is the oldest national anthem with lyrics in both Dutch and English.
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