Anthem

In this sense, its use began c. 1550 in English-speaking churches; it uses English language words, in contrast to the originally Roman Catholic 'motet' which sets a Latin text.

[2] The words are selected from Holy Scripture or in some cases from the Liturgy and the music is generally more elaborate and varied than that of psalm or hymn tunes.

[2] Being written for a trained choir rather than the congregation, the Anglican anthem is analogous to the motet of the Catholic and Lutheran Churches but represents an essentially English musical form.

An example of an anthem with multiple meter shifts, fuguing, and repeated sections is "Claremont",[4] or "Vital Spark of Heav'nly Flame".

[2] The anthem developed as a replacement for the Catholic "votive antiphon" commonly sung as an appendix to the main office to the Blessed Virgin Mary or other saints.

[2] In the 19th century, Samuel Sebastian Wesley wrote anthems influenced by contemporary oratorio which stretch to several movements and last twenty minutes or longer.

Later in the century, Charles Villiers Stanford used symphonic techniques to produce a more concise and unified structure.

Major composers have usually written anthems in response to commissions and for special occasions: for instance Edward Elgar's 1912 "Great is the Lord" and 1914 "Give unto the Lord" (both with orchestral accompaniment); Benjamin Britten's 1943 "Rejoice in the Lamb" (a modern example of a multi-movement anthem, today heard mainly as a concert piece); and, on a much smaller scale, Ralph Vaughan Williams's 1952 "O Taste and See" written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The countries of Latin America, Central Asia, and Europe tend towards more ornate and operatic pieces, while those in the Middle East, Oceania, Africa, and the Caribbean use a simpler fanfare.

"Forged from the Love of Liberty" was composed as the national anthem for the short-lived West Indies Federation (1958–1962) and was adopted by Trinidad and Tobago when it became independent in 1962.

"Oben am jungen Rhein", the national anthem of Liechtenstein, is set to the tune of "God Save the King/Queen".

Other anthems that have used the same melody include "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" (Germany), "Kongesangen" (Norway), "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (United States), "Rufst du, mein Vaterland" (Switzerland), "E Ola Ke Alii Ke Akua" (Hawaiʻi), and "The Prayer of Russians".

Its melody is based on Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, which has also been the anthem of Poland since 1926, but the Yugoslav variation is much slower and more accentuated.

Between 1975 and 1977, the national anthem of Romania "E scris pe tricolor Unire" shared the same melody as the national anthem of Albania "Himni i Flamurit", which is the melody of a Romanian patriotic song "Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire".

[b] The "Hymn of the Soviet Union",[c] was used until its dissolution in 1991, and was given new words and adopted by the Russian Federation in 2000 to replace an instrumental national anthem that had been introduced in 1990.

Minas Gerais uses an adapted version of the traditional Italian song "Vieni sul mar" as its unofficial anthem.

During the Vargas Era (1937–1945) all regional symbols including anthems were banned, but they were legalized again by the Eurico Gaspar Dutra government.

After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic adopted its own regional anthem as its national one, whereas Slovakia did so with slightly changed lyrics and an additional stanza.

After the Soviet Union disbanded in the early 1990s, some of its former constituent states, now sovereign nations in their own right, retained the melodies of their old Soviet-era regional anthems until replacing them or, in some cases, still use them today.

The lyrics present great similarities, all having mentions to Vladimir Lenin (and most, in their initial versions, to Joseph Stalin, the Armenian and Uzbek anthems being exceptions), to the guiding role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and to the brotherhood of the Soviet peoples, including a specific reference to the friendship of the Russian people (the Estonian, Georgian and Karelo-Finnish anthems were apparently an exception to this last rule).

Most of these regional anthems were replaced with new national ones during or after the dissolution of the Soviet Union; Belarus, Kazakhstan (until 2006), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan (until 1997), and Uzbekistan kept the melodies, but with different lyrics.

Accordingly, Latvia,[17] Lithuania,[18] Hungary,[19] and Ukraine[20][21][22] have banned those anthems amongst other things deemed to be symbols of fascism, socialism, communism, and the Soviet Union and its republics.

Those laws do not apply to the anthems of Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan which used the melody with different lyrics.

Three prominent examples are "Els Segadors" of Catalonia, "Eusko Abendaren Ereserkia" of the Basque Country, and "Os Pinos" of Galicia, all written and sung in the local languages.

The United Kingdom's national anthem is "God Save the King" but its constituent countries and Crown Dependencies also have their own equivalent songs which have varying degrees of official recognition.

England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each have anthems which are played at occasions such as sports matches and official events.

Other well-known state songs include "Yankee Doodle", "You Are My Sunshine", "Rocky Top", and "Home on the Range"; a number of others are popular standards, including "Oklahoma" (from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical), Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind", "Tennessee Waltz", "Missouri Waltz", and "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away".

Various artists have created "Earth anthems" for the entire planet, typically extolling the ideas of planetary consciousness.

Though UNESCO have praised the idea of a global anthem,[37] the United Nations has never adopted an official song.