Abstract
Many national anthems emerged in the heat of combat, the struggle for independence, or civil war between political factions, and they are therefore loaded with emotions. Their intention was to exalt the patriotism of those who were fighting to defend their cause against the enemy, either a former empire or colonial power, the monarchy, or some other political alternative. After a while, some of these national anthems became symbols of a new political community: the national republic, understood as an ensemble of citizens. The lyrics may not have the same effect among listeners when they have left the war behind to live in a context of peace, but if the music has been rooted in the citizens’ souls, it will continue to provoke a feeling of belonging within that given political community. Moreover, the legacies of empire and traditional regimes found their way into the songs of the new republics, since some inherited cultural characteristics, such as language, religion, and territorial boundaries that continue to be prevalent. Emancipation and decolonization are processes that are visible in the evolution of national anthems. This chapter examines a series of republican songs from Latin America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, seeking to establish both connecting points and particularities for each region.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to Aurea Maya, who read very carefully this chapter and, with her observations, enlightened my musical vision of the anthems. I am also in debt with Will Fowler for making this chapter more readable.
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Notes
- 1.
“Oh Canada” is sung in English and in French and has its own history but not necessarily connected with Spanish America (Duffin 2020). As for the American anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, a poem written by an American lawyer, it was set to the tune of a popular British song, “To Anacreon in Heaven”. A thorough analysis of these anthems exceeds the purpose of this chapter.
- 2.
Similar phenomena occurred if we consider the Independence from Portugal, the British Empire, and the Netherlands in a minority of the anthems we analyse here.
- 3.
The woman was Catalina Espinosa de los Monteros (Jiménez Codinach 2005, 66).
- 4.
- 5.
In Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story, the Sharks sing La Borinqueña as a revolutionary anthem. “La Borinqueña”, en Amino, https://aminoapps.com/c/comics-es/page/item/la-borinquena/N08u_WIldap1YJePbYgxp5Ro6lJBgg7 (Access February 14, 2022). And there is even a comic heroine with that name. https://aminoapps.com/c/comics-es/page/item/la-borinquena/N08u_WIldap1YJePbYgxp5Ro6lJBgg7
- 6.
Poesía de Cuba n.d.
- 7.
Who is Archibald… 2019
- 8.
- 9.
The programme excludes automatically short words such as articles and conjunctions, and it is pretty accurate.
- 10.
As Françoise Martinez points out, the first hymns were odes to the glory of divinities and later on became odes to the glory of people and nation. (Martinez 2017, 74-75).
- 11.
Lengua indígenas… n.d.
- 12.
On September 2021, the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas presented the Mayan translation of the national anthem at the Festival of Indigenous Languages. Teachers, ethnomusicologists, interpreters, translators, and musicians worked together. They were very careful to adjust the Mayan rules of writing, to analyse each word, ways of expression, syllabic patterns, and musical notes. See https://www.inali.gob.mx/es/comunicados/913-2021-09-15-20-36-29.html.
- 13.
Letter published by Debali in El Nacional, Montevideo, 23 de julio de 1855, included in Ayestarán, 723 (Himno Uruguay 2017).
- 14.
A few years ago, César Manuel Barrios published a book and spoke in different places about the secrets of the anthem https://www.listennotes.com/es/podcasts/nambi-ret%C3%A3-arte-y/53-secretos-del-himno-MdCAkuphb6R/?t=775 (Barrios 2017).
- 15.
http://anterior.mensuarioidentidad.com.uy/cartas/himno-10-de-diciembre-de-2017. Lauro Ayestarán considers that “la noble música itálica engendra todos los himnos nacionales de Sudamérica” (Ayestarán 1953, 551).
- 16.
There are more than fifteen pieces of music that include notes from “La Marseillaise” by authors such as Rossini, Schumann, Wagner, and Verdi. However, we can also find that the most famous notes at the beginning of the anthem come from Mozart’s concert n. 25 for piano, written six years before Rouget de Lisle gave birth to the most famous anthem (Máynez Champion, 2020).
- 17.
Mexican laws forbid the interpretation of any arrangement made to the anthem, so this piece is hardly ever played because it needs an official permission.
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Appendix
Appendix
Country | Title | Year | Lyricist | Country of origin L | Composer | Country of origin C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Antigua y Barbuda | Fair Antigua, we salute thee | 1967 | Novelle Hamilton Richards | Antigua | Wallet Garnet Picart Chambers | Antigua |
Argentina | Himno nacional argentino | 1813 | Vicente Lopez y Planes | Argentina | Blas Parera | España |
Bahamas | March On, Bahamaland | 1973 | Timothy Gibson | Bahamas | Timothy Gibson | Bahamas |
Barbados | In Plenty and In Time of Need | 1966 | Irving Louis Burgie | U.S.A. | C. Van Roland Edwards | ? |
Belice | Land of the free | 1981 | Samjuel Alfred Haynes | Belice | Selwyn Walford Young | Belice |
Bolivia | Canción patriótica | 1845 | José Ignacio de Sanjinés | Bolivia | Leopoldo Benedetto Vincenti | Bolivia |
Brasil | Hino Nacional Brasileiro | 1831 | Joaquim Osorio Duque Estrada | Brasil | Francisco Manuel da Silva | Brasil |
Chile | Canción Nacional de Chile | 1847 | Eusebio Lillo y Bernardo de Vera y Pintado | Chile | Ramón Carnicer | España/Cataluña |
Colombia | Oh gloria inmarcesible | 1887 | Rafael Núñez | Colombia | Oreste Sindici | Italia |
Costa Rica | Himno Nacional de Costa Rica | 1852 | José María Zeledón Brenes | Costa Rica | Manuel María Gutiérrez | Costa Rica |
Cuba | La Bayamesa o El Himno de Bayamo | 1867 | Pedro Felipe Figueredo, a.k.a Perucho | Cuba | Perucho Figueredo | Cuba |
Dominica | Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour | 1967 | Wilfred Oscar Morgan Pond | Dominica | Lemuel McPherson Christian | Saint Kitts and Nevis |
Ecuador | Salve Oh Patria | 1870 | Juan León Mera | Ecuador | Antonio Neumane | Francia/Alemania |
El Salvador | Himno Nacional de El Salvador | 1879 | Juan José Cañas | El Salvador | Juan Aberle | Italia |
Grenada | Hail Grenada | 1974 | Irva Merle Baptiste | Grenada | Louis Arnold Masanto | Grenada |
Guatemala | Himno Nacional de Guatemala | 1896 | José Joaquín Palma | cubano | Rafael Alvarez Ovalle | guatemalteco |
Guyana | Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains | 1966 | Archibald Leonard Luker | Great Britain | Robert Cyril Gladston Potter | Guyana |
Haití | La Dessalinienne | 1904 | Justin Lhérisson | Haití | Nicolas Geffrard | Haití |
Honduras | Himno Nacional de Honduras | 1915 | Augusto Constancio Coello | Honduras | Carlos Hartling | Alemania |
Jamaica | Jamaica, Land We Love | 1962 | Hugh Sherlock | Jamaica | Robert Lightbourne | Jamaica |
Mexico | Himno Nacional Mexicano | 1854 | Francisco González Bocanegra | Mexico | Jaime Nunó | España/Cataluña |
Nicaragua | Salve a ti, Nicaragua | 1918 | Salomón Ibarra Mayorga | Nicaragua | salmo litúrgico del XVIII de Anselmo Castinove | España |
Panamá | Himno Istmeño | 1925 | Jerónimo de la Ossa | Panamá | Santos Jorge | España |
Paraguay | Himno Nacional Paraguayo | 1846 | Francisco Acuña de Figueroa | Uruguay | Francisco José Debali, Francisco Sauvageot de Dupuis, Francesco Cassale, Luis Cavedagni, Remberto Giménez | Hungría/Francia/Italia/Paraguay |
Perú | Himno Nacional del Perú | 1821 | José de la Torre Ugarte y Alarcón | Perú | José Bernardo Alcedo | Perú |
Puerto Rico | La Borinqueña | 1867 | Lola Rodriguez de Tió/Manuel Fernández Juncos | Puerto Rico | Félix Astol Artés | España/Cataluña |
República Dominicana | Himno Nacional | 1934 | Emilio Prud’Homme | República Dominicana | José Rufino Reyes y Siancas | República Dominicana |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | O Land of Beauty! | 1983 | Kenrick Georges | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Kenrick Georges | Saint Kitts and Nevis |
Saint Lucia | Sons and Daughters of Saint Lucia | 1979 | Charles Jesse | Saint Lucia | Leton Felix Thomas | Saint Lucia |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Saint Vincent, Land so beautiful | 1979 | Phyllis Joyce McClean Punnett | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Joel Bertram Miguel | ? |
Surinam | God zij met ons Suriname | 1959 | Cornelis Atses Hoekstra and Henry de Ziel | Surinam | John Corstianus de Puy | Surinam |
Trinidad y Tobago | Forged from the Love of Liberty | 1962 | Patrick Castagne | Guyana | Patrick Castagne | Guyana |
Uruguay | Himno Nacional | 1848 | Francisco Acuña de Figueroa | Uruguay | Francisco José Debali | Hungría |
Venezuela | Gloria al Bravo Pueblo | 1881 | Vicente Salias | Venezuela | Juan José Landaeta | Venezuela |
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Zárate Toscano, V. (2024). A Connected History of Republican National Anthems: Independence and Nationalism in Latin America. In: Moreno-Luzón, J., Nagore-Ferrer, M. (eds) Music, Words, and Nationalism. Palgrave Studies in Music and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41644-6_4
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