1/11/2013

I didn’t know it, maybe others didn”t either.


 I think, many people recognize the German national anthem. Usually I like to  listen to the symphonies and oratories of Haydn. I know that he had a  Hungarian connection.  He lived in Eisenstadt several decades. (at that time it was also Hungary)  He was a conductor at  Prince Esterhazy court. I was in his  birthplace in Rohrau 


and I saw his grave in Eisenstadt. (His funeral and the stolen skull,  are another story).


Haydn was an authentic Austrian composer. I was listening to a concert
on DVD recently. I overheard a melody and I thought that I already know it. I read the brochure on the  DVD  about what  it. Is it  was Haydn C dur (Kaiser)  quartet.


 In 1797,when he returned from  the second  concert of London  - because the British national anthem (God Save Our Gracious King) was  very  popular there – Haydn composed music, an  anthem for the emperor, it's  called : Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser, ( a congratulation for  emperor Ferenc I. )  based on a Croatian folksong. 


The poem was by  Leopold Haschka. The next emperor was Ferdinand, so he needed to rewrite  a poem with the new first name. Then came Ferenc  József  and once more a new first name was needed. There are several kinds of texts, but  the people of Vienna didn’t like them. Then there was a competition for a new text. The condition was: it was forbidden to write a first name in the text. The final text of the anthem was written by Seidl. Finally, it was the text of the anthem  until 1918.  (One interesting thing: The emperor anthem was played on the funeral of Otto von Habsburg in Vienna in 2011.) This melody is the
national anthem of Germany  to this date. The text was added to by
Hoffmann von Fallersleben  in 1922. 



The anthem consists of three stanzas. The first one – was also sung during the Nazi era  – in European countries it caused revulsion.  Women’s organisations protested against the second stanza in  Europe. Therefore  only the third stanza is sung as a national anthem in German practically since 1991.




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