Any Decent National Anthems?

[znmeb <znmeb...>]

[ Article crossposted from rec.music.classical,rec.music.folk ]
[ Author was Charles Ehrlich ]
[ Posted on Thu, 1 Jun 95 00:41:15 BST ]

In article <3qfr6a$e8g (at) linda(dot)teleport(dot)com>,  <znmeb (at) 
teleport(dot)com> wrote:

>Israel was founded in 1948.  "The Moldau" was written much earlier.

This is a non sequitur.  Ha Tikva didn't just materialize in 1948, nor did
the Moldau in whatever year Smetena wrote it.  We are dealing with an old
folk song - the exact origin of which we may never know.  It seems to crop
up in several cultures.  It seems likely, as someone has already posted, that
Smetena borrowed the theme from some Czech folk melody (and then rearranged
it a bit).  Ha Tikva was a traditional Jewish song.  Whether the melody was 
originally Czech or Jewish or whatever is the question of this thread.  When 
Smetena wrote the Moldau is partly irrelevent (since the theme is not 
originally his - although he has changed it a bit); when Israel was founded
is entirely irrelevent (the thread is about Ha Tikva, not Israel - who cares
when Israel was founded?).

Charles Ehrlich
Wolfson College (Oxford)


-- 
znmeb (at) teleport(dot)COM (M. Edward Borasky)
How to Stop A Folksinger Cold # 2
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