Product Description
An arrangement of the Swiss National Anthem for Brass Quintet.
In the summer of 1841, Alberik Zwyssig received a piece of mail from Leonhard Widmer, a music publisher, journalist and lyricist from Zurich. The mail contained a patriotic poem that Widmer had written and wanted set to music. Zwyssig chose to use a hymn that he had composed to the psalm "Diligam te Domine" (I will love Thee, O Lord) for an ordination service in 1835 when he was music director at the monastery in Wettingen. On November 22, 1841, Zwyssig rehearsed his "Schweizerpsalm" for the first time with four residents of Zug. The song turned out to be very popular in several Swiss cantons, and numerous attempts were made between 1894 and 1953 to have it declared the Swiss national anthem, but they were consistently turned down by the Swiss government for the reason that a national anthem should not be selected by government decree but by popular opinion.
It was due to the fact that the anthem in use at the time had the same melody as the British anthem, that the Swiss government declared the "Swiss Psalm", a fully and unmistakably Swiss creation, the provisional Swiss national anthem in 1961, the provisional clause was abandoned in 1975, but without official ratification as the national anthem. A number of other suggestions for a national anthem were made in the years that followed, none of which, however, earned nearly as many votes as the "Swiss Psalm". Finally, on April 1, 1981, the "Swiss Psalm" was officially declared the Swiss national anthem, "a purely Swiss song, dignified and ceremonial, the kind of national anthem that the majority of our citizens would like to have."
Switzerland has four official languages, the French, Italian and Romansch versions are official translations of Widmers original German lyrics. Some of Switzerlands cantons (especially those with a recent history of independence outside of Switzerland) have their own anthems, Neuchatels cantonal anthem, for example, uses the same melody as the former Swiss anthem, that is "God save the King (Queen)".
For more of my original music, great arrangements and all the national anthems of the world, check out my on-line stores:
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/keith_terret
http://musicforalloccasions.org.uk
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?Ntt=keith+terrett
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All my anthem arrangements are also available for Orchestra, Recorders, Saxophones, Wind, Brass and Flexible band. If you need an anthem urgently for an instrumentation not in my store, let me know via e-mail, and I will arrange it for you FOC if possible! keithterrett@gmail.com
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