DeroVolk's Blog

El Himno Nacional de Chile en otros idiomas... The national anthem of Chile suffered several changes during the XIX century which go from its lyrics to the melody used to sing the anthem. It is a symbol of union among Chileans and it is sung passionately on big occasions. Proof of that are the many videos that you can find on the internet, especially football related videos. This has attracted the attention of international media and articles have been written about it. Although the official version is in Spanish, there are certain versions of the lyrics in other languages. Let’s take a look at them! The current national anthem uses the lyrics written by Eusebio Lillo in 1847 (which also uses the chorus of a previous anthem created by Bernardo de Vera y Pintado in 1819) and the music of Ramón Carnicer i Battle, composed in 1828. The anthem has six stanzas, but only the V stanza and the chorus are sung. However, during the Military Dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the III...

An Anthem without lyrics... The Spanish "Royal March" (Marcha Real) was one of the most watched videos in the original channel of DeroVolk, and even today in the backup watch it has thousands of views. There was a certain month in which many versions of the anthem were uploaded to the channel, each one as the anthem of a Spanish colony (e.g.: Spanish Sahara, Spanish Guinea, etc.) and this was subject of many jokes due to the overload of Marcha Real versions that flooded the channel during those days. This was done in order to show the many varieties in terms of instrumental and vocal version that this anthem has. Today, the Marcha Real is the national anthem of Spain, and it is one of the oldest anthems of the world. Even though the official anthem does not have any lyrics, there have been many unofficial versions during all these years. Source: Pixabay The anthem was composed during the XVIII Century and it appears with the name "Marcha Granadera" (Grenadier'...

Brotherhood... In a recent post in this Blog, I wrote that the national anthems of Paraguay and Uruguay can be considered “brother anthems” due to the fact that the lyrics of both anthems were written by the same person: Francisco Acuña de Figueroa. After an investigation carried out in recent years by César Manuel Barrios (composer, pianist and orchestra conductor), a great discovery was made public. And today, the world can see it in detail! Francisco Acuña de Figueroa After researching through many sources and investigation works in South America and the United States, it was discovered that the lyrics of the national anthem of Uruguay were used with a melody created by Francesco Casale, and which is in fact the melody of the current national anthem of Paraguay (arranged by Remberto Giménez in 1933). According to the story, the President of Uruguay issued a decree on 1837 stating that the music created by Francesco Casale would be used with Figueroa’s lyrics until a new proposa...

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...

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 ...