Edwird
Posts: 3558
Joined: 5/2/2016 Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: blnymph no, emigration then - up to the early 1900s Germany had a considerable percentage of emigration (resulting in net loss of population) to both Americas as well as within Europe and a few to the German colonies (with re-migration of descendants until present). The poet you forgot was Hoffmann von Fallersleben, the music was stolen from Austria - but only after 1919. The anthem before was "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" with music stolen from the UK (God save ...). And many german states had their own anthem (Bavaria still has - the very last relic of Bavarian independence). "Deutschland, Deutschland ..." was not imperialistic then when von Fallersleben wrote it (in exile on British Heligoland) because it did not exist for quite a while (and was banned during monarchy). Thanks for correcting me on emigration, I skipped ahead on what era you were talking about. So now what you say makes sense. In any case, Haydn 'stole' "God Save The Queen" -stylistically-, after visiting England and hearing it in person, and was forthright about his inspiration thereby. But his was the better piece of music, no question (well, to my musical sense, anyway). It must be said, though, that the British national anthem is a better way to go about it, because it's decent music, but more important that it was written so that almost all could actually sing it. It was taken from music of a church hymn (hymns were written so that most people could sing it), with new words to praise whatever king or queen, a big middle finger to the pope, at the time. God Save The Queen spans only a minor seventh. Das Lied Der Deutschen (Deutschland, Deutschland über alles) comprises an octave and a fourth (these are all musical intervals) and no, it was not at all imperialistic, if anything anti-imperialist, which is why my German teacher was such a dullwit (only for that class, thank goodness I had much better teachers for the other Deutschsprache classes). The American national anthem spans an octave and a fifth, which is idiotic because that eliminates at least half the population from ever being able to sing it.
< Message edited by Edwird -- 6/5/2016 12:07:02 PM >
|