One of my favorite websites for years has been this site with national anthems of nearly every country in the world. Visitors to the site can listen to instrumental, and sometimes vocal, anthems in either Real Audio or Windows Media, and can also download MP3 files of instrumental national anthems. The flag for each nation is shown, along with a defining logo, and information on population and total area are included. The website has separate information on the passports of nearly every nation and another with immigration and travel forums, including a live chat.
I love listening to national anthems from other countries and find them all stirring in different ways. Just thinking about small school children learning their country's national anthem, or a town festival beginning with a pause to listen to a simple community band play theirs, or the funeral of a soldier or leader made more solemn by the strains of the anthem of the country they served, or young Olympians standing on podiums with eyes, ears, and hearts wide open to the experience of having their national anthems played in their honor, fills me with emotion that isn't restricted to, or reserved for, the national anthem of the United States.
To celebrate this one world full of diversity and song, below you will find links to the national anthems of people who have visited my blog! (There is one exception, and that is Swaziland. I haven't had any visitors from there but the anthem is so lovely I wanted it here in my list.)
I've listed my visitors' national anthems in no particular order and with a heart full of love.
Note after initial posting: One comment has already come in saying that the Philippine anthem link below didn't work. Perhaps since I downloaded them for a particular player some or all of the links will not open for you. In that case, clicking on the link to the direct website above will take you to the spot where you can play any of these anthems...and many more! I apologize for this inconvenience :(
National Anthem of the Philippines
National Anthem of Austria
National Anthem of France
National Anthem of Turkey
National Anthem of Croatia
National Anthem of Spain
National Anthem of Finland
National Anthem of New Zealand
National Anthem of Canada
National Anthem of Netherlands
National Anthem of Singapore
National Anthem of Chile
National Anthem of United Kingdom
National Anthem of Russia
National Anthem of Iraq
National Anthem of The United States of America
National Anthem of Scotland
National Anthem of Germany
National Anthem of Israel
National Anthem of South Korea
National Anthem of Costa Rica
National Anthem of Switzerland
National Anthem of United Arab Emirates
National Anthem of Swaziland
13 comments:
Awe shucks, the Philippine one didn't work.....now, I wanna hear it! haha
Wayfaring Wanderer,
THANK YOU for alerting me! I worried about this happening and right after I published the post I signed off, then returned to my blog in visitor status --- and I was still able to open the links. So I thought I was in the clear.
Please note that I added a caveat at the end of my text in the post suggesting that if you go directly to the website link you'll be able to hear that quite fine Philippine national anthem!
I must say I kinda like Nat. anthems myself, often so bold and all the things one can imagine of places far-away whilst listening :)
Wow, what a nice idea! Is the link to the Austrian anthem there because of me? :-)Great site!
I have a friend who sings in a choir. One of their projects some years ago was about anthems. They presented about 50 national anthems with comments in-between. And she had to memorize a lot of texts in a lot of unknown languages.I enjoyed that evening very much.
lydia...this is a stunning post!
Wonderful, I can't wait to start listening! What a great post.
JT,
It was great hearing from you! I kept checking for new posts on your blog and supposed that you'd stopped blogging. I visited your blog today and thought your new post was marvelous.
Francessa,
Yup, that one's for you! Wow, your friend's choir program sounds so wonderful. Very impressive, and no wonder you enjoyed the evening. :)
Mibsy,
O, thank you for such a nice compliment!
SharryB,
Enjoy the site! And thank you. :)
The UK has the most boring anthem in the world...except that we don't because there's another country (I forget which) that has the same tune. A british tenor had the honour of singing their version - but he accidentally mis-pronounced one word and called them all something nasty...
Even worse it was one of those football competitions where they expected everyone to sing the second verse of the anthem...embarrassingly for national pride we only know our first verse, so sang it twice.
Just as well no one made it to the fourth verse - which i think is about "all rebellious scots to crush". We tend not to mention that one...
What a great post idea, especially for the olympics. I haven't had a chance to listen to all of the anthems yet, but when I find more time I will.
P.S.
I like the photo.
This makes me want to drink a Coke!! :>)
and, "I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company..."
Sorry:>) Couldn't resist. My punishment for being a smart-aleck is the song is now running around in my head.
DFTP,
You sent me straight to Google. I had to read the verse about the Scots! Now you have me really curious about the mistake the tenor made.... ;)
Arnold,
Thanks much. O, and the photo comes from www.tinypix.com
I really like some of their stuff.
DBSO,
THAT's the song that I thought of in reference to all these anthems, and I used the ending of that one line with it in mind! Now we need to change channels :)
what a lovely idea, lydia. there are such different "attitudes" towards anthems as well. When I was in the Philippines for six months, I used to do some of my work out of a school / university. One day, while running late, the morning bell sounded, and the anthem started to play on the speakers. I kept running, then slowly realized everyone else had stopped. Little children, even, stopped in their steps and put their left hand over their heart. the anthem was playing! How could I have missed it! I felt a little foolish -- us Canadians have such a good country, and we don't even show such honor to our country that way.
Honour,
I could just see the scene from your description (only I visualized it occurring in the quad at the University of Nevada in Reno!) You amaze me more and more, all the places you've visited and lived. It's wonderful.
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