Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Can you play your own national anthem?

Good one!

I think I was only called upon to play them once or twice though.

Darn it -- not really.
I wasn't sure, so I sat down and tried it. I could play it, but with a few mistakes.
And I discovered something: I'm fine with knowing what's the harmony, but where I have trouble is being sure what note to put on top -- i.e. what's the melody note.
Which is not too bad if you're accompanying -- it works fine. But if you're just playing it solo, it sounds completely incompetent.

I tried the Canadian and Israeli anthems too. Same thing.
But I was especially glad that I was able to get the 'deceptive cadence' III chord where I wanted near the end of the Canadian.
I die when I hear a version that does just a "I" there.

I stumbled across the Star Spangled Banner one night on the black keys. Does that count?

I love the old USSR anthem, so I'd like to play that, if I can. Never mind that I'm Greek.

But I can play the Greek one too... :P

Nope, but I can sing it, and The Lord's Prayer, which seems to be another hard one for folks to sing.

Oh, wait....wrong forum.

One of the proudest days of his life was when he became an American citizen. That is why I play Rachmaninoff's transcription of the Star Spangled Banner in B Flat Major.

It is only two pages, and takes about a day to learn. I highly recommend it.

You can even fool people at parties by announcing that you are going to play some Rachmaninoff. Somebody usually groans, and then you whip out the Star Spangled Banner, and it really shuts them up, quick.

The musical "problem" with the "Star Spangled Banner" as a sung anthem is its range. No matter what key it is played it, its one and a half octave range puts it too high for some, too low for others, and is, therefore, not an ideal anthem to be sung by the masses.

I, personally, like both the music and the lyrics of "America, the Beautiful" much better. Those lyrics do portray a "gentler, kinder" message, do they not?

And, while on the topic, I think it is nothing short of a disgrace - may I even venture to suggest "anti-patriotic"? - to hear what some singers do to national anthems in large, public celebrations. This observation is not limited to performances of just the American anthem.

Regards,

Agree that the Star-Spangled Banner causes problems for a lot of singers, which is an issue.

While I don't like it musically as well as some other national anthems, I DO like the lyrics more than the music. Especially the particularly unsingable turn:

"...And the rockets' red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there."

That is, if not Shakespearean, at least Churchillian.

The Australian anthem gets butchered in a similar way. And so many of these singers augment the last two bars so that now you never know whether it's going to be sung in time or stretched out at the end (with predictable consequences when a group is singing it - a weird counterpoint results ).
And yes, I can play it. In any key you like (and a few you probably wouldn't like). It has quite a range, though not as much as Star-Spangled Banner, so it's pretty useful to be able to adjust the key according to the capacity of the singers.

It has 15 verses; so somewhere down the line you fall asleep from boredom. Thus, the answer is no.

Dave Horne, I read your post, here:

I play once in a while for my local government. I received a phone call today where they're in a bind and need someone to play their national anthem for an awards ceremony. I agreed to play and am doing them a favor - this is a freebie.

It's a matter of me playing two choruses while the mayor of my village performs. To his credit he has an excellent voice and is a nice guy.

I remember once back probably more than 40 years ago in the US where I was in the audience and some poor kid who really didn't know our anthem really butchered it.

It's really in your best interest to be able to play your own national anthem ... and play it with great confidence.

Just passin' this on.


__________________________________

Well, what is funny and worse is....

As kids at school, of course, we learned and sang all the time, O Canada, but at some point the government changed the words, I think for the benefit of French Canadians, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, since I don't go hockey games, I don't hear O Canada. I think most Canadians my age don't know the new words unless they go to professional hockey games.

And, no, as a beginner piano player, I haven't learned O Canada - yet.

Hi currawong,

Must just tell of having recorded the Andre Rieu Concert at Melbourne ... in which are played the Aussie National Anthem, Walzing Mathilda and
Tie Me Kangaroo Down amongst others .

The zest with which the huge audience join in the jovial singing makes us other colonials green with envy ... you lucky chappies.


The South African Anthem (which always brings a tear) is in fact a jumbled compromise of the Zulu, Afrikaans and English languages ... thank goodness the years have been kind in slowly gracing unity.

Wish I could play our Anthem ... but can't find the score.

Kind regards, btb

Yes, some of us chappies do "jovial" quite well ...

We sing

"Where's the jolly mamba you've got in your tucker bag?"

Do you remember that movie with Mel Gibson strung up by the baddies ... who depart the scene leaving a sack ... out of which crawls a rattler.

I can play the German, French and European anthem; so I can play "my" national anthem.

In the case of the European anthem (Beethoven's Ode to Joy): Only the simplified version. Not the variations.

I can also play a few other national anthems. And I don't know any national anthem I'd call ugly.

Oh say, can you?
C.

Francis Scott?

C minor.