Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Abu Dhabi.

See United Arab Emirates.

National anthems

Afghanistan

Music by Ustad Salim Sarmad (b 1928). Words by Suleiman Laeq (b 1930). Adopted in 1978.

This replaced an anthem beginning ‘So che do mezaka asmen wee’ (‘As long as there is earth and heaven’) with music by Abdul Ghafoor Bereshna (1907–74) and Abdul Jalil Zaland (b 1931) and words by Abdul Rauf Benawa (b 1913), which in turn replaced one composed by Mohammed Farukh and in use since 1943.

National anthems

Albania

Music by Ciprian Porumbescu (1853–83). Words by A.S. Drenova (1872–1947). Music composed in 1880, adopted in 1912.

National anthems

Algeria

Music by Muhammad Fawzi (1918–66). Words by Mufdī Zakariyyā (1930–78). Adopted in 1963.

National anthems

Andorra

Music by Enric Marfany Bons (1871–1942). Words by Joan Benlloch i Vivó (1864–1926). Adopted in 1914.

National anthems

Angola

Music by Rui Alberto Vieira Dias Mingas (b 1939). Words by Manuel Rui Alves Monteiro (b 1941). Adopted in 1975.

National anthems

Antigua and Barbuda

Music by Novelle Hamilton Richards (1917–86). Words by Walter Picart Chambers (b 1908). Adopted in 1967.

National anthems

Argentina

Music by Blas Parera (1765–1817), arranged in 1860 by Juan Pedro Esnaola (1808–78). Words by Vicente López y Planes (1784–1856). Adopted in 1813.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

L. Cànepa: Historia del himno nacional argentino (Buenos Aires, 1944)

L. Cànepa: Historia de los símbolos nacionales argentinos (Buenos Aires, 1953)

G. Galiardo: Juan Pedro Esnaola y el himno nacional (Buenos Aires, 1962)

C. Vega: El himno nacional argentino (Buenos Aires, 1962)

National anthems

Armenia

Music by Barsegh Kanachyan (1885–1967). Words by Miqayél Ghazari Nalbandyan (1829–66). Adopted in 1991.

National anthems

Australia

Music and words by Peter Dodds McCormick (1834–1916). Adopted in 1974.

A competition was organized in 1973 to choose an Australian anthem, but none of the entries, which numbered over 1200, was considered suitable. Advance Australia Fair was chosen from three well-known national songs after a poll conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The words were not regarded as part of the official anthem until changes were made to them in 1984.

Until April 1974 the official anthem was God Save the King/Queen (see British Isles), and this is still used on occasions when the British monarch is present, or when it is important to acknowledge him/her as King/Queen of Australia and head of the Commonwealth.

National anthems

Austria

Composer unknown. Words by Paula Preradović (1887–1951). Adopted in 1947.

The usual attribution of the music to Mozart is questionable. The melody was first published after Mozart’s death as an addition to the little masonic cantata, Laut verkünde unsre Freude (k623), but has no connection with that work. Johann Holzer and Joseph Baurnjöpel, both members of Mozart’s masonic lodge, must also be considered as possible authors. The words originally associated with the melody began ‘Lasst uns mit verschlungnen Händen’; those of Paula Preradović were selected from a number of texts submitted by Austrian poets in 1946.

The first Austrian national anthem was Haydn’s Kaiserhymne (‘Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser’), composed in 1797 to a text by Lorenz Leopold Haschka (1749–1827). The melody is used today for the German anthem. Haschka’s text was altered a number of times until 1848, when Franz Joseph became emperor and new verses were called for. The winner of the competition organized to select them was Johann Gabriel Seidl, whose text was sung to Haydn’s melody until 1917. With the establishment of the Austrian Republic at the end of World War I a new national anthem was chosen with music by Wilhelm Kienzl (1857–1941) and words by Karl Renner, Deutsch-Österreich, du herrliches Land. This was never popular, however, and in 1929 Haydn’s Kaiserhymne was reinstated with a text by Ottokar Kernstock, ‘Sei gesegnet ohne Ende’. Meanwhile Germany had also adopted Haydn’s melody to other words, and this led to Austria’s selection of the present anthem in 1947.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Heuss: ‘Haydns Kaiserhymne’, ZMw, i (1918–19), 5–26

F. Grasberger: Die Hymnen Österreichs (Tutzing, 1968)

F. Grasberger: ‘Zur österreichischen Bundeshymne’, ÖMz, xxiii (1968), 529–38

A. Weinmann: ‘Ein Streit mit untauglichen Mitteln: zur Frage der Autorschaft der österreichischen Bundeshymne’, Musik und Verlag: Karl Vötterle zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. R. Baum and W. Rehm (Kassel, 1968), 581–95

M. Getzner: ‘Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Vorarlberger Landeshymne’, Vorarlberger Oberland: Kulturinformationen der Rheticus-Gesellschaft (1981), no.4, pp.137–40

National anthems