DeroVolk's Blog

Sounds of the World... In a previous post we spoke about national anthems and football, and now it is time to talk about anthems in video games. The video game industry is huge and the amount of games available is tremendous. Although these two things are totally different, there are cases of anthems being sung during cutscenes or OST in some video games. In this post I will mention some of these cases that I personally remember and have played. Source: Pixabay It is interesting and it is always nice to hear familiar notes while playing a game and say “Wait a minute! I know this…”. So, let’s begin: PES & FIFA: These two are the most played football games in every platform. When you play with a national team, short versions of national anthems are played in the background before the start of the match. These versions are not always good and sometimes you can barely hear anything because the sound is too low in comparison to the sound of the crowd in the background. Call of Duty Wo...

My Karelian-Finnish Land... If we speak about the different anthems that were composed in the Soviet Union, we usually remember the Soviet National Anthem, the Ukrainian SSR Anthem, the Byelorussian SSR Anthem, or even the Moldovan SSR Anthem (due to its popularity in recent times). Many recordings of those State Anthems have been posted in YouTube, and we have a full collection of versions from the State Anthems of the Soviet Republics all the way from the Baltic States to Central Asia. However, one mysterious composition remains as unknown territory for people of the “Anthem Community”. The State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic has been forgotten in time, and this is its history. The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Republic was founded in 1940 and it was located in the north-western part of the Soviet Union. The foundation of this Union Republic is the result of many years of conflicts, influences, and geopolitical strategies from the Soviet Government due to the key p...

Countries with the same anthem? The variety of anthems is really unique. Each country has a song that tries to represent its national identity in one song. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, national anthems vary greatly in musical merit, and the verse or text, like the music, has not in every case been written by a national of the country concerned. Also, there are some cases in which specific anthems have certain things in common. In this post we will take a look at various examples of national anthems which share many characteristics. Source: Pixabay The Same Anthem Greece and Cyprus : Both countries use exactly the same national anthem, Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν. The music was composed by Nikolaos Mantzaros and the lyrics written by Dionysios Solomos. It was adopted by Greece in 1865, and 1966 by Cyprus.     Turkey and Northern Cyprus : Although the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is only recognised by Turkey, both countries share the same national anthe...

Ștefan Neaga and the Moldovan SSR Anthem The National Anthem of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic is one of the most recurrent topics in the videos of the anthem community members in YouTube. The story that surrounds the anthem composed in 1945 has captivated the minds of people around the world and it revealed, perhaps, one of the biggest mysteries about national anthems in recent history. It all started when members of the “Ștefan Neaga Commission” uploaded a video focusing in the difference between the known vocal and instrumental versions of the Moldovan SSR State Anthem. And you know the rest… Flag of the Moldovan SSR (Shutterstock) The music for the anthem was composed in 1945 by Moldovan composer Ştefan Neaga (1900-1951) and the lyrics were written by Emilian Bucov and Ion Bădărău (who used the pseudonym “Bogdan Istru”). World War II had just ended, and many initiatives were taken by the central committee of the CPSU to celebrate the great victory of the Soviet Union in ...