Which country has had its national anthem the longest?

TabbyTom

The British “God Save The King/Queen” is generally regarded as the oldest national anthem. Its popularity as a patriotic song began at the time of the Jacobite rising of 1745, and it was referred to as “the national anthem” from the early nineteenth century. Its exact origins are obscure: there’s a possibility that it may have begun as a pro-Jacobite song in the days of the Old Pretender. Percy Scholes’ book “God Save The Queen” (Oxford University Press, 1954) will tell you more than you can possibly want to know about it. Oct 23 04, 2:45 AM

Arpeggionist

"God Save the King" was one of the first among many tunes that ushered in a new genre of "political music" as it's called. This genre includes any music composed for a political purpose, whether a national anthem or a hymn of praise to the state or state leader ("Rule Britania" is a good example, Handel's "Zadok the Priest" is another). [Oct 26 04 4:17 AM] Arpeggionist writes: When chosing a national anthem for Israel, there was a large portion of the population (especially in religious circles) which wanted to set the words of Psalm 126 ("When the Lord returned the people to Zion...") to the same tune known today. Even today in synagogues on the Israeli Independence Day, it is not the words of the anthem that are sung, but the psalm. The Psalm was written some 2,500 years ago (many would say even longer), thus making it the anthem with the oldest words. Officially, though, the 126th Psalm was not set as Israel's anthem. David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister, thought it would show a clear religious bias and instead found a text that would be acceptable to everyone, which was written in the 1870s. Personally, I would have preferred singing the anthem to the words of an Israeli (by that I mean the Psalm, or at least another less depressing text). Oct 24 04, 3:09 AM

MrsAce

Oldest National Anthems: JAPAN - oldest words - dating from the 9th Century NETHERLANDS - oldest music - melody known before 1572 http://www.national-anthems.org/facts.htm Oct 25 04, 6:32 PM