*clears throat* From memory, in honour of the day...

[camwyn]

o Canada
Our home and native land
True patriot love
In all thy sons command!
With beating hearts we see thee rise
The True North strong and free
From far and wide, o Canada,
We stand on guard for thee!

God keep our land
Glorious and free
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!


... shoot, it was 'glowing', not 'beating'... oh well. Happy Canada Day, y'all.


(ETA: For those of you who were thinking of getting sniffy because I'm an American and I memorized the English words to the Canadian national anthem, I can sing all three verses of ours that are still in common use- and I just listed off all fifty U. S. states, from memory, in less than three minutes. Deal.)

Comments

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

I'm American and I memorized the Canadian national anthem. It's better than ours, and it gives me something to sing at hockey games.

[camwyn]

Ours is very nice in its own way, but honestly- the tune was a drinking song to start off with, which makes it kind of hard for sober people to manage without straining something. I can live with it, mind you, I'm just sayin'.

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

If it's that hard to sing sober, I cannot imagine how hard it must be to sing drunk.

[camwyn]

Oh, it gets worse. The original tune was entitled 'To Anacreon in Heaven'. How the smeg did the drunks ever get the word 'Anacreon' out in any kind of comprehensible fashion?

[mephron]

One expects that was the POINT - to separate the lightweights from the True Drinkers.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was an actual drinking song. It was the theme song of a drinking club, so one expects that they at least attempted it from time to time while drunk, but it was certainly written while sober, and probably intended to be sung while sober.

[camwyn]

Aaah, hah, okay, makes more sense that way then.

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

An octave and a half. If I remember my reading, the average person can just manage this if it's pitched perfectly for them—but get bunches of people together, each singing the song pitched perfectly for him/herself, and you get a cacophonous mess.

[zed42.livejournal.com]

that's what we get for putting civil war poetry to marching music... most countries' anthems sound prettier than ours... except the german one. nothing sounds pretty in german. it's simply impossible :)

[silly-dan.livejournal.com]

Oh, your anthem is pretty, just nigh-unsingable. (Though if you ever want to change to "America the Beautiful", it might improve matters.)

[camwyn]

The topic gets raised every so often. Never seems to happen, alas. I should note that when I become Emperor I'm going to go with a wordless anthem and have it written by the team of Hans Zimmer and James Horner. My primary criterion for choosing a national anthem is 'it should sound very impressive and appropriate when played as our athletes receive medals at the Olympics'.

[zed42.livejournal.com]

oohh.... i like horner's work... especially the music he did for /krull/

[zed42.livejournal.com]

it's plenty singable... you just need someone to squeeze your nuts at the appropriate moment...

and "america the beautiful" probably would make a better anthem...

[camwyn]

Alto female here, honey. No squeezing in the world's gonna do the trick.

[zed42.livejournal.com]

you can't win 'em all...

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Hmm, the revolution could fairly be described as a civil war, but by 1812 I don't think anyone thought of USAns and Canadians as the same people. It was definitely a war between two distinct nations.

[zed42.livejournal.com]

i thought the rocket's red glare dealt with a specific civil war battle on the coast over a fort...

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Again, only if you count the War of 1812 as a civil war...

[zed42.livejournal.com]

i studied american history for 180 days, 15 years ago.... and slept through most of it... remembering that the start spangled banner was a poem about a battle in the first place is a major accomplishment for me... :)

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

Greece's anthem is bloody boring and repetitive and is sung to a rhythm eerily similar to that of The Star-Spangled Banner (though it only requires about half or two-thirds the range). Also, it's got over 150 verses—I don't remember the exact number, though only two are actually sung. (Legend has it that no one has ever memorized the whole thing, but I figure that on the off chance this is true, it's only because no one gives enough of a rat's ass to bother.)

[zed42.livejournal.com]

yeah, but the only time non-greeks ever got to hear it was when that guy won the gold in tae kwon do at the olympics last year... :)

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

This is probably true. :)