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| Canadian National Anthem |
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Canadian National Anthem
"O Canada" is the national anthem of Canada. The music was composed by Calixa Lavallée, who may have been inspired by the similar "March of the Priests" from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. The original French lyrics were written by Sir Adolphe Basile Routhier, and the official English version by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908. History The original French lyrics were written by Sir Adolphe Basile Routhier, as a French-Canadian patriotic song for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society. The French "Ô Canada" was first performed on June 24, 1880 at a Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day banquet in Quebec City, but did not become Canada's official national anthem until July 1, 1980. When it was made the official anthem, most English Canadians were surprised to learn that it did not already have such status. Since 1867, "God Save the King" and "The Maple Leaf Forever" had been competing as unofficial national anthems in English Canada. "O Canada" joined that fray when school children sang it for the 1901 tour of Canada by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V and Queen Mary). Five years later Whaley and Royce in Toronto published the music with the French text and a first translation into English by Dr. Thomas Bedford Richardson. Then, in 1908, Collier's Weekly magazine held a competition to write English lyrics for "O Canada" and all kinds of versions were submitted. The competition was won by Mercy E. Powell McCulloch, but her version did not take. The English version that gained the widest currency was written in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir, a lawyer and at the time Recorder of the City of Montréal. A slightly modified version of his poem was published in an official form for the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927, and gradually became the most generally accepted anthem in English-speaking Canada, winning out over the alternatives by the 1960s. "God Save the Queen" is now Canada's royal anthem, while "The Maple Leaf Forever" is virtually forgotten. The line "The True North strong and free" is based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's description of Canada as "That True North whereof we lately heard".[1] In the context of Tennyson's poem, true means loyal or faithful. Official changes to the English version were recommended in 1968 by a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons. The National Anthem Act of 1980 added a religious reference to the English lyrics and the phrase "From far and wide, O Canada" to replace one of the somewhat tedious repetitions of the phrase "We stand on guard". This change was controversial with traditionalists, and for several years afterwards it was not uncommon to hear people still singing the old lyrics at public events. By contrast, the French version never wavered from its original. Two provinces have adopted Latin translations of phrases from the English lyrics as their mottos: Manitoba —Gloriosus et liber (glorious and free)— and Alberta —Fortis et liber (strong and free). Similarly, the motto of Canadian Forces Land Force Command is Vigilamus pro te (we stand on guard for thee). The original song has several additional verses, but these are rarely sung. Often, singers at public events mix the English and French lyrics in order to represent Canada's linguistic duality. The most common patterns are to sing the first two lines in English, the next four lines in French and the remainder in English, or to sing the first six lines in French and the remainder in English. Official O Canada version:
O Canada! Our home and native land! |
