Patriotic Music
• Patriot: “one who loves his country and
zealously guards its welfare.” Funk &
Wagnalls Standard Dictionary
• Patriot: “a person who loves his country and
defends and promotes its interests.”
Webster’s Dictionary
• Patriot: “a soldier who fights for love of
country” Webster’s Dictionary
• Patriot: “an enthusiast for a cause other than
national” Webster’s Dictionary
• Patriot: “one who advocates or promotes the
independence of his native soil or people
from the country or union of countries of
which it is a part (as a colony)” Webster’s
Dictionary
• Patriot: one who remains loyal to his
country when it is occupied by an enemy”
Webster’s Dictionary
• Patrioteer: “one who makes an ostentatious
show of patriotism from venal or degraded
motives: an insincere, misguided, or
spurious patriot: flag-waver” Webster’s
Third New International Dictionary
• Just as patriotism can have many meanings,
patriotic music can have many purposes.
• Musicians who perform patriotic music can
have many motives.
• All patriots are not the same, and all
patriotic music is not the same.
• Some patriotic music points to sublime
philosophical ideals.
• Other patriotic music is more mundane.
• Some patriotic music is “worse.”
Sublime Patriotism
• Some patriotic music seeks to promote
ideas that are important to national identity.
• Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture was written in
1880 to celebrate Napoleon's defeat when
French forces invaded Russia.
• Such music reverberates with national
sentiment without pandering to subnational
interests.
Mundane Patriotic Music
• Some patriotic music is composed and used for
ceremonial purposes. National anthems are
typical of this form.
• Some national anthems have powerful historical
connections, such as well French rebel troops sang
the La Marseillaise on the way to attack (and kill)
the Swiss guards surrounding the Tuileries Palace
of King Louis XVI in 1792.
• This was a major event in the French Revolution.
• The French Revolution extended from 1789
to 1799, and involved highly complex
interactions between various secular and
religious elites as well as peasants and the
bourgeoisie.
• But the drive of the revolution was to
restrict the power of the King and to
enhance the concept of a republican form of
government.
• This resulted in the establishment of the
First Republic of France.
• La Marseillaise was written by a lowerranking French officer and (only) moderate
republican, Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
• He never wrote any else that was
significant.
• It was popular among members of army
units from Marseille, all of which were
volunteers.
• It had highly revolutionary lyrics, and it was
used to huge motivational effect during the
Revolution.
• Due to its revolutionary potential, it was
banned by Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and also
Napoleon III.
• The first and sixth verses are normally sung
in public.
• The lyrics are:
La Marseillaise
Let us go, children of the fatherland,
Our day of glory has arrived.
Against us the bloody flag of tyranny
is raised; the bloody
flag is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The roar of those savage soldiers?
They come right into our arms
To cut the throats of our sons, our comrades.
To arms, citizens!
(continued…)
Form your battalions,
Let us march, let us march!
That their impure blood
Should water our fields.
Sacred love of the fatherland,
Guide and support our vengeful arms,
Liberty, beloved liberty,
Fight with your defenders; fight
with your defenders.
Under our flags, so that victory
Will rush to your manly strains;
That your dying enemies
Should see your triumph and glory!
To arms, citizens!
(Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
• Great Britain has the oldest national
anthem, “God Save the Queen.”
• Most national anthems are not very good
musically. But some are noteworthy.
• Joseph Hayden wrote the Austrian national
anthem, “God Save Emperor Francis,”
which was later changed to “Be Blessed
Forever.”
• The same melody was used for Germany’s
national anthem.
• The Soviet Union used the communist
hymn, “Internationale,” as its anthem until
it was changed in 1944 to the “Hymn of the
Soviet Union.”
• Internationale was written by two French
workers in the 1800s.
• The “Hymn of the Soviet Union” is now the
anthem for Russia.
• Perhaps the greatest writer of American
patriotic music is John Philip Sousa.
• Sousa composed many marching tunes,
some of which are used by the U.S. armed
forces.
• This type of music is not of the “sublime”
type, but it does serve a useful purpose in
ceremonial occasions.
• Patriotic music can also have a regional or
subnational orientation.
• “The American Trilogy,” performed by
Elvis Presley is an good example of this
type of patriotic music.
• Some patriotic music can have an extra
connotation, like regional or theological.
• For example, the Southern (pro-Dixie)
components of “The American Trilogy”
could be seen as offensive to some people.
• Many nations have music that is considered
patriotic because the lyrics defend or
promote a particular national hero.
• There were many songs written about
Nelson Mandela of South Africa.
• Some of these songs have a pan-Africa
orientation, as if to include the entire
continent within the context of a single
concept of patriotism.