History
National anthems rose to prominence in Europe during the 19th century, but some are much older in origin. The oldest national anthem is the "Wilhelmus", the Dutch national anthem, written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt, which became the official Dutch national anthem in 1932. The Japanese anthem, "Kimi ga Yo", has its lyrics taken from a Heian period (794–1185) poem, yet it was not set to music until 1880. "God Save the Queen", the national anthem of the United Kingdom and one of the two national anthems of New Zealand, was first performed in 1745 under the title "God Save the King". Spain's national anthem, the "Marcha Real" (The Royal March), dates from 1770 (written in 1761). The oldest of Denmark's two national anthems, "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast" was adopted in 1780 and "La Marseillaise", the French anthem, was written in 1792 and adopted in 1795. Serbia was the first Eastern European nation to have a national anthem, Rise up, Serbia! in 1804.
Read more about this topic: National Song
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)