"God Bless America", America's Unofficial Anthem

With this 2010 stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors Kate Smith, the celebrated singer and entertainer whose signature song, “God Bless America” (composed by Irving Berlin), has been called America´s unofficial national anthem. The stamp art duplicates artwork created for the cover of a CD titled “Kate Smith: The Songbird of the South.” The artwork was based on a photograph of Smith taken in the 1960s.

Berlin originally wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside. The lyrics at that time included the line, "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America..." as well as "Stand beside her and guide her, to the right with the light from above."

Music critic Jody Rosen comments that a 1906 Jewish dialect novelty song, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band", contains a six-note fragment that is "instantly recognizable as the opening strains of "God Bless America"". He interprets this as an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers." Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes.

In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938 sung by Kate Smith, on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer."

More than just the dramatic words and melody, the arrangement for Kate Smith's performance was accompanied by full band, progressing into a grand march tempo, with trumpets triple reinforcing the harmonies between stanzas: the dramatic build-up ends on the final exposed high note, which Kate Smith sang in the solo as a sustained a cappella note, with the band then joining for the finale.

The song was a hit; there was even a movement to make "God Bless America" the national anthem of the United States. However, there was strong opposition by conservative southerners as well as conservatives who lived in rural areas where there were no Jews living in it, stating that because Irving Berlin was a foreigner and a Jew, that they would not accept their national anthem to be composed by a member of the minority class. Congress would have had to repeal the "Star Spangled Banner" in both houses of congress by two-thirds of the votes, which they lacked to this very day.

Jenneval- Belgian Anthem Lyricist

Louis Alexandre Dechet (Lyon, 20 January 1801 - Lier, 18 October 1830) was a French actor and is known as author of the text of the Brabançonne, the Belgian national anthem. His pseudonym was Jenneval, possibly named after the drama Jenneval, ou le Barnevelt français (1769) of Louis Sébastien Mercier.

Dechet worked in Ajaccio, Marseille and in 1826 at the Paris Odéon. Via Rijsel he finally came to Brussels, where he played at La Monnaie. In 1828 he returned to Paris in order to work at the Comédie Française, but returned to Brussels immediately after the July Revolution in 1830. He there served with the city guard which was responsible for maintaining law and order.

Dechet is said to have written the text of the Brabançonne during the first revolutionary gatherings at the café "L'Aigle d'Or" in the Brussels Greepstraat in August of 1830, shortly after the performance of the opera La Muette de Portici, which triggered the Belgian revolution.

During the Belgian Revolution Dechet became a volunteer in the revolutionary army and joined the corps of Frenchman Charles Niellon. He died during a combat against the Dutch near Lier. On the Martelarenplein in Brussels a column honouring Dechet is to be found, which was created by Alfred Crick and inaugurated in 1897.

The postal card above shows Louis Alexandre Dechet aka Jenneval, the Belgian anthem lyricist (French Version).

Hymn to Liberty- The Longest National Anthem in the World

The Hymn to Liberty (Ýmnos is tīn Eleftherian) is a poem written by Dionýsios Solomós in 1823 that consists of 158 stanzas and is the longest national anthem in the world, set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros. In 1865, the first two stanzas officially became the national anthem of Greece and later also that of the Republic of Cyprus. According to the Constitution of Cyprus, the Greek national anthem is used in the presence of the Greek Cypriot president (or other Greek Cypriot), and the Turkish national anthem is used in the presence of the Turkish Cypriot vice-president. Cyprus stopped using the Turkish national anthem, however, when Turkish Cypriots broke away from the Government in 1963. Hymn to Liberty was also the Greek Royal Anthem (since 1864).

The hymn was set to music in 1865 by the Corfiot operatic composer Nikolaos Mantzaros, who composed two choral versions, a long one for the whole poem and a short one for the first two stanzas; the latter is the one adopted as the National Anthem of Greece. This anthem has been performed at every closing ceremony of an Olympics, to pay tribute to Greece as the birthplace of the modern Games.

Above is a postal card of the Greek national anthem in French.

The National Anthem of Australia

A prolific composer, Scottish-born Peter Dodds McCormick was moved to compose a national anthem for Australia when, having attended a concert of the world's anthems, there was no anthem for Australia. His original lyrics heavily emphasized Australia's ties to Britain (as Australia was a British colony at the time). Upon Australia's inauguration as a separate Commonwealth on January 1, 1901, the song was performed, but the British "God Save the Queen" was still the official anthem of Australia. At this time, the third verse of McCormick's original work was changed.

While "Advance Australia Fair" remained popular with the people in the decades following, no official national anthem other than "God Save the Queen" was declared. In 1974 the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a national opinion poll of 60,000 and in 1977 a plebiscite for a national song was conducted. On each occasion, Advance Australia Fair was the preferred option (the other choices were the existing anthem "God Save the Queen" and the popular national songs "Song of Australia" and "Waltzing Mathilda"), and it was in consideration of such support that Advance Australia Fair was proclaimed as the national anthem by the Governor-General on 19 April 1984. From the original five-verse song, only the first and third verses are the official national anthem, with slight changes to make the song more gender-inclusive.

Peter Dodds McCormick (1834? – 30 October 1916), a Scottish-born schoolteacher, was the composer of the Australian national anthem Advance Australia Fair.

Born the son of a seaman at Port Glasgow, Scotland, he arrived in Sydney (at that time the principal city of the British colony of New South Wales) in 1855. Details of his earlier years, prior to his arrival in Australia, are shadowy. He spent most of his life employed by the NSW Education Department. In 1863 he was appointed teacher-in charge of at St Mary's National School and went on to teach at the Presbyterian denominational school in the Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo in 1867. He then moved to Dowling Plunkett Street Public School in 1878 where he remained until 1885.

McCormick was heavily involved in the Scottish Presbyterian Church and was active in a number of community and benevolent organisations. He began his involvement with Sydney's St Stephen's Church as a stonemason, working on the now demolished Phillip Street Church (where Martin Place now stands). The Rev Hugh Darling was so impressed with his singing on the job he asked him to join the choir. McCormick's musical ability led him to becoming the precentor of the Presbyterian Church of NSW, which gave him the opportunity to conduct very large massed choirs. He was also convenor of the Presbyterian Church Assembly's Committee on Psalmody. Also a talented composer, he published around 30 patriotic and Scottish songs, some of which became very popular. Included in his collected works was Advance Australia Fair, which was first performed in public by Andrew Fairfax at the St Andrew's Day concert of the Highland Society on 30 November 1878.

McCormick died in 1916 at his home in the Sydney suburb of Waverley and he was buried at Rookwood Cemetery. He had no children; he was survived by his second wife Emma. His obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald stated: "Mr. McCormick established a reputation with the patriotic song, Advance Australia Fair, which ... has come to be recognised as something in the nature of an Australian National Anthem".

The postal card above features the lyrics of the Australian anthem "Advance Australia Fair"

National Anthem of Manchukuo Empire

The Manchu State (Manchukuo, Manshūkoku) was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China. In 1931, the region was seized by Japan following the Mukden Incident and in 1932, a puppet government was created, with Puyi, the last Qing emperor, installed as the nominal regent and emperor.

In 1934, Manchukuo became an empire ("The Great Manchu Empire") and the new emporer, Henry Puyi (it was under his reign in China that the "Gong Jin'ou" anthem was written) comissioned a new anthem, "Mǎnzhōu dìguó guógē" (National Anthem of Manchukuo Empire) to be written by Zheng Xiao-xun, the same person who wrote the previous Manchurian anthem. The Japanese wished for the anthem to be translated into Japanese, so that both Chinese and Japanese could sing the anthem, but Zheng died in 1938. The new anthem was eventually adopted in 1942 and was in use until 1945. The composer of the anthem was Kosaku Yamada.

Kosaku Yamada (9 June 1886 - 29 December 1965) was a Japanese composer and conductor.

In many Western reference books his name is given as Kósçak Yamada. During his music study in the Imperial German capital of Berlin from 1910-13 he hated the moment when people laughed at him because his "normal" transliteration of his first name "Kosaku" sounded like the Italian "cosa" meaning "what" or "thing" + the German "Kuh" meaning "cow"; which resulted in his choosing a somewhat fanciful transliteration of Kósçak Yamada ever since. Yamada was born and died in Tokyo.

After studying at the Tokyo Music School, he left Japan for Germany where he enrolled in the Berlin Hochschule and learnt composition, before going to the USA for two years. Yamada left about 1600 pieces of music. Especially, songs (Lieder) amount to 700 pieces of music excluding songs for schools, municipalities and companies. They were performed and recorded by many singers which include Kathleen Battle, Ernst Haefliger and Yoshikazu Mera. His opera Kurofune (The Black Ships) is regarded as one of the famous Japanese operas.

As a conductor, Yamada made an effort to introduce many orchestral works to Japan. He was the first performer in Japan of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, Gershwin's An American in Paris, Mosolov's Iron Foundry, Sibelius' Finlandia, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, Johann Strauss II's An der schönen blauen Donau, and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.

The postal card above features a special postmark to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Manchukuo empire anthem composer Kosaku Yamada (1886-1986).

The National Anthem of the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia. The UAE consists of seven states, termed emirates, which are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The capital and second largest city of the United Arab Emirates is Abu Dhabi. It is also the country's center of political, industrial and cultural activities.

Before 1971, the UAE were known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a nineteenth-century truce between Britain and several Arab Sheikhs. The name Pirate Coast was also used in reference to the area's emirates in the 18th to early 20th century. The political system of the United Arab Emirates, based on the 1971 Constitution, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language.

The United Arab Emirates has the world's sixth largest oil reserves and possesses one of the most developed economies in the Middle East. It is currently the thirty-sixth largest economy by nominal GDP, and is one of the richest countries in the world by per capita gross domestic product, with a nominal per capita GDP of $54,607 as per the IMF. The country is fourteenth largest in purchasing power per capita and has a relatively high Human Development Index for the Asian continent, ranking 31st globally. The United Arab Emirates is classified as a high income developing economy by the IMF.

The United Arab Emirates is a founding member of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, and a member state of the Arab League. It is also a member of the United Nations, Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the OPEC, and the World Trade Organization.

The national anthem of the UAE, "Ishy Bilady" (Long Live My Nation) was without words (and a classic example of the style of anthem known as "Arab fanfare") until 1996, when words were written for it by Aref Al Sheikh Abdullah Al Hassan. The author of the music, Mohamad Abdel Wahab, also composed the music for the national anthem of Tunisia and the royal anthem of Libya (in use 1951-1969).

The souvenir sheet above featured the score of the national anthem issued in 1996 during the Silver Jubilee National Day of the UAE

"Hymne an Deutschland " (Hymn to Germany)

The first official anthem adopted by West Germany after founding in 1949 was the "Hymn an Deutschland" (Hymn to Germany). The "Lied der Deutschen" that was often used in Germany was avoided at this time due to the recent misuse of the anthem by the Nazi party (and the subsequent ban on the anthem by the Allied powers for the years following). The anthem proved to be unpopular with the people, however, possibly due to the similarity of a church hymn. The lyrics were written by Rudolf Alexander Schröder and the music composed by Hermann Reutter. The anthem was briefly in use from 1950 to 1952.

Hermann Reutter was born in Stuttgart on 17 June 1900. In 1920 he moved to Munich. After three years of singing lessons with Emma Rückbeil-Hiller (Stuttgart) and Karl Erler (München) he studied at the Munich Academy of Musical Arts composition with Walter Courvoisier and piano with Franz Dorfmüller, and organ with Ludwig Mayer.

Since 1923 he participated in the music festival of Donaueschingen and intensified his contact with the Donaueschingen circle, in particular with Paul Hindemith. Starting with 1926 he was a frequent composer in association with the annual music festival of the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein where many of his works were world premiered. He began intensive concert activities as pianist and accompanist in lieder in 1929, working together with major conductors and soloists of his period.

In 1932 he succeeded Ewald Straesser as principal teacher of composition at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. He was appointed director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt on the Main four years later. In 1945 was the end of this work. He returned to Stuttgart and resumed concert activities in 1950. Two years later he was appointed professor of composition and lied interpretation at the Stuttgart Hochschule fuer Musik. In 1955 he became full member of the Berlin Akademie der Kuenste and of the Bayerische Akademie der Schoenen Kuenste, Munich. Since 1956 he was juror, later chairman, of the jury in the category Singing at the ARD competition.

He succeeded Hermann Erpf as director of the Stuttgart Hochschule fuer Musik. Since 1960 he often stayed in the USA for interpretation courses at various universities. From 1966-1974 he led the master class of lied interpretation at the Munich Musikhochschule. In 1968 he founded the Hugo Wolf Society Stuttgart, being its president until his death.

For his achievement as a composer and a teacher he was awarded (among others) the Ludwig-Spohr-Award of the City of Brunswig (1953), the Grand Cross for Distinguished Service of the Federal Republic of Germany (1959 and with Star in 1975), a Honorary doctorate of the Music and Arts Institute San Francisco and the Hugo Wolf Medal of the International Hugo Wolf Society, Vienna (both in 1976).

Hermann Reutter died in Heidenheim on 1 January 1985.

West Germany Anthem (1953-1990), East Germany Anthem (1949-1990), National Anthem of Germany (1922, abolished 1945, restored 1990-up to present)

The postal card above shows the score and lyrics of Hymn to Germany

Union of Soviet Socialist Republic's "The Internationale"

When the Soviet Union was created in 1922 from a merger between Russia and other neighbouring soviet communist republics, the new national anthem that was in use was the "Internationale", a socialist anthem written in the late nineteenth century by two Frenchmen, Arkady Yakovlevich Kots (lyrics) and Pierre Degeyter (music) This song was already in use as Russia's de facto anthem due to it being the party song of the Bolsheviks who seized power in the 1917 October revolution and, with Russia being the leading republic in the union, it was their anthem that would be used. "The Internationale" was never formally adopted by the Soviet Union as a national anthem (though it was formally adopted as the party anthem of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), yet was used on a de facto basis.

"The Internationale" has since been used by a variety of communist, socialist, and other left-wing groups as their anthem, making it the unofficial anthem of socialism. (It was also used, ironically, by Chinese demonstrating against their Communist government during the protests of 1989, leading to it being banned within Communist China.) It is traditionally sung with the right hand raised in a clenched-fist salute. It was in use until 1944 when a new anthem, "Hymn of the Soviet Union" was adopted.

Hymn of Imperial Russia click here and click here (composer)

Patriotic Song of Russia click here

Hymn of the Russian Federation click here

Above is a postcard with a score of USSR's "Internationale".

A Missing Color Error in the Uruguay National Anthem Stamp

Stamps that have major, consistent, and unintentional deviation from the normal stamps are considered errors. Postage stamp errors are sometimes caused during stamp printing process. Error stamps do not show the intended appearance of the desired stamp design.

There are factors that cause postage stamp errors like wrong denominations, wrong or missing colors, misplaced or an inverted design element, missing parts of the stamp design, wrong stamp paper, wrong watermark, double impressions, and others.

Color error postal stamp occurs when stamp is printed with wrong color(s) or one or more color is missing. These color error postal stamps usually occur when one stage of a multi-run printing process is skipped. One example of this type of error is the stamp above featuring the national anthem of Uruguay. A gold color on the edge of the score of missing. Click this to compare with the error-free stamp. The error increased the value of the stamp 100x.

Czech Republic's Coat of Arms on Stamps with the National Anthem Score

The Coat of Arms of the Czech Republic displays the three historical regions which make up the nation.

The arms of Bohemia show a silver double-tailed lion on a red background. It is repeated in the lower-left-hand side of the coat of arms (from the perspective of the person holding the shield). The Moravian red-and-silver chequered eagle is shown on a blue background. The arms of Silesia are a black eagle with the so-called "clover stalk" in her breast on a golden background, although only a small south-eastern part of the historical region of Silesia now belongs to the Czech Republic.

The history of Czech coat of arms is dated to the 13th. century and this crest was a meed from the king of Holy Roman Empire to czech king Vladislav II. The shield is also used as the badge for the Czech national football team and Czech national ice hockey team.

The stamp above showing the coat of arms of Czech Republic with the score of the national anthem was issued on October 14, 2009.

Francisco da Silva- Brazilian Anthem Composer

Brazil's anthem was originally composed in 1822 (the year of independence) and first performed in 1831. During the imperial period (1822-1889) and for the first few years of the republican period thereafter, the anthem was performed without words. After becoming a republic in 1889, it was often suggested among the republican groups in the country that a new anthem should be adopted, as the current anthem was composed during the imperial era, yet the anthem that had been in use ws declared official on January 20, 1890.

The anthem was still without official words, and each state started adopting their own words to the anthem. In 1906, it was brought forward that lyrics for the anthem should be written, and in 1909 a poem by Joaquim Osório Duque Estrada was composed. However it wasn't until 1922, for the 100th anniversary of independence, that Osório Duque Estrada's poem was adopted, with several changes to the text. Brazil, like many other "federalist" nations, have regions that have their own anthem.

Francisco Manuel da Silva, the anthem composer was born on February 21, 1795. He was a songwriter and music professor. He was born and died in Rio de Janeiro and was prominent in the musical life of Rio De Janeiro in the period between the death of Priest Jose Mauricio and Carlos Gomes. He was a singer of Capela Real since 1809, and later a cello player. He was one of the founders of Imperial Academia de Música e Ópera Nacional (National Imperial Music and Opera Academy), of Sociedade Beneficência Musical e Conservatório Imperial de Música, which become Instituto Nacional de Música (Nacional Music Institute) and is called Escola de Música da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro University Music School).

He was taught by Priest José Maurício Nunes Garcia and, most probably, by Sigismund Neukomm. He was directly responsible for Capela Imperial's reinstatement, the later being turned to its old beauty. He left a handful of works, spread around Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Sao Paolo's archives, covering Gospel Music, Mohindas and Lundus.

He wrote Brazil National Anthem (Hino Nacional Brazileiro) first as a patriotic march, since Dom Pedro I resignation, later being officialized as anthem by Brazilian Republic Revolution (1889). He also composed one opera Prestigio da Lei. He died on December 18, 1865 in Rio de Janeiro.

Above is a stamp of Brazil anthem composer Francisco Manuel da Silva issued in 1945.

Alexei Lvov and The Hymn of Imperial Russia

Prince Alexei Fyodorovich Lvov (June 5, 1799 in Tallinn–December 28, 1870 in Romainiai (now Kaunas) was a Russian composer. He composed the Imperial Russian national anthem Bozhe, tsarya khrani (also known as God Save the Tsar). He wrote the opera Undine in 1846. He was entombed in the Pažaislis Monastery, Kaunas (Lithuania).

Lvov was born into a family which was keenly interested in music. He was the son of Feodor Petrovich Lvov, who was Maestro of the Imperial Chapel in St Petersburg from 1826 to 1836 (having succeeded Bortnianskij).

Alexei Fyodorovich began violin lessons at a very young age and performed regularly in concerts given at his home: for instance, at 9 he was the soloist in a performance of a violin concerto by Viotti. Although he had a number of teachers in his youth, from the age of 19 onwards he began to study independently, seeking to develop his own personal style through careful attention to the works of such celebrated violinists as Corelli, Tartini, Viotti, Kreutzer and Rode. He nevertheless continued to study composition formally under the supervision of I. G. Miller (who was also one of the teachers of Glinka).

Outside the world of music, his general education had a technical emphasis. In 1818 he completed his studies at the Institute of Communications, and embarked on a career as a civil engineer in the Imperial Army, eventually attaining the rank of general. In 1828 he was appointed Aide-de-camp to Tsar Nicholas I.

Lvov formed a string quartet in St Petersburg, and organised weekly concerts at his private residence, which were attended by members of high society. At these concerts it was quite usual for there to be guest performances by distinguished musicians who were visiting the Russian capital; among these were Liszt, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Berlioz. His quartet undertook a number of tours in Europe, where Lvov was able to perform to public audiences (in his home country he was able to play only to private audiences owing to his elevated social rank). He also counted Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer and Spontini amongst his personal friends.

In 1837 Lvov succeeded his father as Maestro of the Imperial Chapel, remaining in the position until 1861. In 1850 he founded the Russian Concert Society, which was among the pioneers of symphonic concerts in Russia. In 1867, with the onset of deafness, he was obliged to withdraw from musical activity.

As a composer, Lvov’s style was eclectic. He combined the traditions of Russian musical culture with strong Italian and (especially) German influences. Lvov was married, and had a son and two daughters.

Above is a postcard of the Hymn of Imperial Russia composed by Lvov.