Spain: Lyrics for Anthem Pulled

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

World Briefing | Europe

Spain: Lyrics for Anthem Pulled

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 18, 2008

A set of lyrics proposed only last week for Spain’s wordless national anthem have been withdrawn amid criticism that they harked back to the country’s right-wing past. Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, which in June organized a contest seeking proposals for lyrics and got 7,000 entries, said four stanzas announced last Friday as the official candidate were being shelved because of a “lack of consensus.” The proposed lyrics started off with “Viva España!” — the rallying cry of Franco’s dictatorship.

[source]

Madrid Journal

Many Voices Chime In on Spain’s Anthem Lyrics



Paulino Cubero, who wrote lyrics for the Spanish national anthem, in Madrid on Friday.

By VICTORIA BURNETT

Published: January 15, 2008

MADRID — After decades of humming along to the national anthem or bellowing “ta ta ta” from soccer stands, Spaniards finally have the missing ingredient: words.

The proposed new lyrics were written by an unemployed 52-year-old man and were chosen from more than 7,000 entries in a contest announced last June by the Spanish Olympic Committee. The group announced the winner and released the lyrics on Friday, and said it intended to gather the necessary 500 signatures of support and submit the lyrics to Parliament for approval.

However, judging by the lukewarm reaction to the new lines, a combination of patriotic appeals and vague tributes to the Spanish landscape, Parliament’s endorsement is by no means assured.
“Long live Spain!” the four-verse anthem begins. “Let us all sing together with different voices and a single heart! Long live Spain! From the green valleys to the vast sea.”

“It’s absolute drivel,” said Josep Ramoneda, director of the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona. “It could be about any country: Belarus, Lithuania, Spain.”

“It would make a good theme tune for the Eurovision Song Contest,” he added, referring to Europe’s annual pop music gala.

José Antonio Alonso, the defense minister, told reporters over the weekend that the anthem “was a matter of national prestige” and should have some literary merit — implying that the current candidate was lacking in that area.

Others were enthusiastic, though. “When you sing it, you feel special,” Paquillo Fernández, a national speed-walking champion, told the newspaper ABC.

In the 18th century, King Carlos III selected a tune known as “The Royal March,” by an unknown composer, to become the national anthem. The tune has since been given at least two sets of lyrics; the more recent, under the dictatorship of Franco, were dropped after his death in 1975.

While having new lyrics might resolve the question of what fans and athletes do when the song is played at matches, it is unlikely to galvanize a country that often seems to be in the clutches of an identity crisis. On the contrary, the issue is likely to rekindle a delicate debate about nationhood, some critics said.

“At a moment when there is no consensus about anything in this country, why did they have to rush into this?” Hermann Tertsch, a political columnist, said in a telephone interview.

The decades that Spaniards spent under the yoke of Franco have left many of them ambivalent about symbols of patriotism. Nationalist Catalans and Basques, who fiercely promote their language, culture and political autonomy, bridle at the mere suggestion that they belong to Spain. Conservatives who want the county ruled firmly from Madrid talk in apocalyptic terms of its imminent disintegration.

“It’s no coincidence that the Spanish national anthem doesn’t have any words,” said Mr. Ramoneda, of the culture center. “Nationalism in Spain is tainted by Franco’s legacy, and you can’t wash that away overnight.”

Spain’s national anthems have ruffled feathers in the past. Juan Antonio Gómez-Angulo, sports minister under the conservative government of José María Aznar, flew off the handle in 2003 when the Australian organizers of the Davis Cup accidentally played an anthem used by the leftist Republican government that held power before the country’s civil war, from 1936 to 1939. The episode caused a diplomatic spat, with Mr. Gómez-Angulo demanding an official apology.

Critics said any attempt to devise modern lyrics for a national anthem, let alone for a country whose feelings about nationhood were as conflicted as Spain’s, would be doomed to banality.

The jury for the just-completed contest — consisting of a musicologist, a historian, a sailing champion, a lawyer, a composer and a literary expert — confessed to selecting the winning entry on the strength of its political neutrality.

The winning lyrics, by Paulino Cubero, can be read in Spanish and heard sung on the Web site of the Spanish newspaper ABC. They are, translated by The New York Times:

Long live Spain!

Let us all sing together

With different voices

And a single heart.

Long live Spain!

From the green valleys

To the vast sea,

A hymn of brotherhood.

Love the Fatherland

As it knows how to embrace,

Beneath its blue sky

Peoples in freedom.

Glory to the children

Who give to history

Justice and greatness,

Democracy and peace.

Perhaps aware that the proposed anthem may face resistance, the Spanish Olympic Committee is pushing to establish it among sport fans. Placido Domingo, the Spanish tenor, will sing it at an inauguration ceremony in Madrid on Monday, and lyric sheets will be distributed at a soccer match between Spain and France in February.

But Mr. Ramoneda was hearing none of it. “The words to all national anthems are a bit ridiculous, really,” he said. “But they have a historical logic, which this one doesn’t.”

[source]

[Galaico]

The proposed lyrics started off with “Viva España!” — the rallying cry of Franco’s dictatorship.

The rallying cry of Franco's dictatorship was "¡Arriba España!".

The proposed anthem of that man is just a reconverted version of the anthem proposed by the poet José María Pemán, but taking away all the patriotic references to make it acceptable to the Peripherical separatisms.

Just compare:

¡Viva España!
Cantemos todos juntos
con distinta voz
y un solo corazón


¡Viva España!
desde los verdes valles
al inmenso mar,
un himno de hermandad


Ama a la Patria
pues sabe abrazar,
bajo su cielo azul,
pueblos en libertad


Gloria a los hijos
que a la Historia dan
justicia y grandeza
democracia y paz


Pemán's anthem:

Viva España,
alzad los brazos, hijos
del pueblo español,
que vuelve a resurgir.
(bis)

Gloria a la Patria que supo seguir,
sobre el azul del mar el caminar del sol.
(bis)

¡Triunfa España! Los yunques y las ruedas
cantan al compás
del himno de la fe.
(bis)

Juntos con ellos cantemos de pie
la vida nueva y fuerte del trabajo y paz.
(bis)

Viva España, alzad los brazos, hijos
del pueblo español,
que vuelve a resurgir.
(bis)

Gloria a la Patria que supo seguir,
sobre el azul del mar el caminar del sol.
(bis)

Although the ones trying to make the lyrics are the Olympic Comitee, it looks like the Socialist Government could be behind them. They have approved a lot of laws in these last four years that could be considered anti-Patriotic, and... surprise! we have elections in two months, so it would make them look quite Patriotic if they suddenly approved some lyrics for the Spanish anthem.

However those lyrics must not offend their separatist partners, so how can they look Patriotic without offending those who support the Government and don't feel Spanish? Answer: Crappy anthem with no Patriotic references and full of stupid clichés, "the blue sky" "the huge sea" "the green valleys".

In first place, the Spanish anthem, is "La Marcha Real" or "Marcha Granadera". It is a march, and as far as I know the marchs don't have lyrics. So if they want an anthem with lyrics they should change the whole anthem, not inventing some lyrics for some music that can't have any lyrics.

In second place, the purpose of the anthem should not be not to offend those who don't feel themselves as Spaniards, it should move, thrill and honour those who DO feel Spanish.

[Menydh]

Who cares? Why should it even have lyrics? Galaico is right that it is a march and that it is not supposed to have lyrics. Further, no lyrics is better than some predictably affected lyrics.

Valencian anthem

Per a ofrenar noves glòries a Espanya,

tots a una veu, germans vingau.

Ja en el taller i en el camp remoregen,

càntics d´amor, himnes de pau!.

Pas a la Regió

que avança en marcha triumfal!

Per a tu la vega envía

la riquesa que atresora, i es la veu de l'aigua càntic d'alegria

acordat al ritme de guitarra mora...

Paladins de l'art t´ofrenen

ses victòries gegantines,

i als teus peus, Sultana tons jardins estenen

un tapís de murta i de roses fines.

Brinden fruites daurades

els paradisos de les riberes,

pengen les arracades

baix les arcades de les palmeres.

Sona la veu amada

i en potentíssim , vibrant ressó,

notes de nostra albada

canten les glories de la Regió.

Valencians en peu alcem-se.

Que nostra veu

la llum salude

d'un sol novell

Per a ofrenar noves glòries a Espanya,

tots a una veu, germans vingau.

Ja en el taller i en el camp remoregen,

càntics d´amor himnes de pau!

Flamege en l'aire

nostra Senyera!

Glòria a la Patria!

Vixca València!

Vixca! Vixca!! Vixca!!!
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVqBpWFOYrc[/MEDIA]

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Galaico

Pemán's anthem:

Viva España,
alzad los brazos, hijos
del pueblo español,
que vuelve a resurgir.

Actually, it is a common mistake to believe that the original lyrics written by Pemán read "raise your arms". That bit was added later, during Franco's regime.

[Christabel]

En realidad la letra es para las olimpiadas y que la selección española tenga algo que cantar...
Hasta hace poco Inglaterra no tenía himno, y esto de los himnos es una cosa nueva... estoy de acuerdo con que es una marcha y no necesita himno. En el caso de que se lo pongan, por favor, que al menos represente españa, porque ese himno elegido es tan insulso y general que podría ser el himno de Singapur por ejemplo... quiero decir que sólo cámbiale el nombre y ahí lo tienes, el himno de cualquier país del mundo. No nos representa para nada. El anterior estaba bien, ya que no era oficial... que lo hagan ahora, al menos habla de España, guste o no.