Irrigation Hymn

Himno de Riego is the name given to the hymn that the column commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rafael del Riego sang during the pronouncement that bears his name, which began on January 1820 in Las Cabezas de San Juan. The lyrics are by Evaristo Fernández de San Miguel and the music is by an unknown author, although some version attributes authorship to José Melchor Gomis.

Similar to La Marseillaise, it was a chant de guerre to motivate the troops that would end up becoming an "exceptional acoustic symbol —a true place of democratic memory— that has endured over time" Antonio Alcalá Galiano testified to the continuous presence (and influence) of the Himno de Riego during the Liberal Triennium when he stated in his memoirs: «Remove from 1820 to 1823 the Himno de Riego, and contemporary events can hardly be understood."

The Courts of the Trienio of 1822 declared the Himno de Riego, without lyrics, a "national march of ordinance". Later it was used as the national anthem of Spain during the First Republic (1873- 1874) and during the Second Republic (1931-1939). The Second Spanish Republic in exile maintained its use until its dissolution.

Background: the patriotic song

It was the French Revolution that discovered the enormous political potential of singing done in unison as an effective collective expression: «its flexibility, simplicity of musical making and fluid exchange between oral and printed culture allowed this This type of songs played an extraordinary role in political mobilization, realizing the Rousseauian ideal of the "communion of souls, represented by the unison of voices"”. The most famous and influential patriotic song was the chant de guerre of the Army of the Rhine, which will be known as La Marseillaise. a song achieved not only fame, but influence in events; and that when sung it encouraged the warriors in the fight, or the seditious in their acts of violence, something that was hardly an example in modern times until the day of the French Revolution arrived. The exalted liberal editor Mariano de Cabrerizo in the prologue to his Collection of patriotic songs (1823) wrote the following:

Patriotic songs produce the double advantage of serving a time of effective incentive, and enjoyable deafness to good patriots. To their impulse they are denoted to combat; the fire of civics electrifies their hearts, forget the most expensive interests, and only see, hear and long for the health of the nation, and the extermination of the enemies of freedom.

In Spain the patriotic song appeared during the War of Independence. The first documented case was the order given in 1810 by the captain general of Valencia Luis Alejandro de Bassecourt that «the drummers teach their bands the patriotic songs that I have distributed with this order, so that the sing as the columns march to the attack, the chiefs and officers taking care that the troops repeat the chorus". >.

History

In the proclamation that Rafael del Riego made in said pronouncement, among other things he mainly vindicated the Constitution of 1812 (known as La Pepa) and a constitutional monarchy. Under these same premises, Lieutenant Colonel Evaristo San Miguel, Riego's friend and companion in the insurrection, wrote a poem in the form of a hymn inspired by previous texts from the War of Independence (then anthem was mainly understood as what was the text, given the circumstance that the same hymn could have different music, a fact that also occurred with this Himno de Riego). Evaristo San Miguel recounts that “the column continued its march calmly and slowly. The voices of "Long live the Constitution and Long live the Homeland!" resounded throughout it, as was customary, and the patriotic and war song that had been composed in Algeciras was sung" (the column had arrived to Algeciras at 7 pm on February 1 and left there on the 7th of the same month). A witness to the events, A. Grimaldi, wrote a letter many years later to the newspaper El Investigador, no. 12 of 1871, stating that the letter “was printed in San Fernando; and San Miguel carried it forming packages, tucked into the holsters, from where he took out copies to distribute them ».

If the text is clear that Evaristo San Miguel wrote it, the same is not true of the music we know today, since it is not known for sure who wrote it despite the numerous investigations carried out since the century XIX (mainly by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Felipe Pedrell) to the present day.

There were, during the Liberal Triennium, many Riego hymns, that is, works with the lyrics of Evaristo San Miguel and different music. As an example, on April 21, 1820, the Diario de Madrid announced at the Teatro del Príncipe «the end of the festival La Palabra Constitución, adorned with dances, patriotic songs, and the Hymn of the immortal D. Rafael del Riego, new music, composed by D. Esteban Moreno, master of this art in the aforementioned theater». Of all these hymns, two were especially significant, and the Diario de Madrid refers to them in different issues, starting with no. 119 of April 28, 1820, when, referring to the programming of the Teatro de la Cruz, points out "and two hymns, the first known by that of Riego, and the second with the original music that the troops of the aforementioned hero sang." Innkeeper Romanos and others say that the first is the one that remained as Hymn of Irrigation, while Alcalá Galiano, one of the civil protagonists of the pronouncement, maintains that it was the second. To this day, it has not yet been possible to clarify whether the music we know belongs to the first or second hymn.

The music that has come down to us as «Himno de Riego», as occurs with most of the hymns of the War of Independence, is based on the rhythm in 6/8 of the contradanza, being the antecedent The most important is the famous "Hymn of Victory" which, after the battle of Bailén, was written by Juan Bautista de Arriaza and put to music by Fernando Sor. In the case of the "Himno de Riego", it is most likely that the music was composed, shortly after the text, by the senior musician (what we today call band director) of the Asturias Regiment, the Riego regiment, or by some other nearby musician. Traditionally it has been said that it was composed by the Valencian musician José Melchor Gomis, since in 1822 several versions of the hymn were published under his signature in the book Collection of patriotic songs dedicated to the citizen Rafael del Riego and the brave men who have followed in his footsteps by the citizen Mariano del Cabrerizo; In addition, a manuscript of his (as of 2012 whereabouts unknown) of a version of the hymn for soloists, choir and orchestra would have been preserved until recently in the town of Onteniente; On the other hand, in 1830 Gomis composed the opera Le diable à Séville, which premiered in Paris in January 1831, whose main plot is precisely the insurrection of Riego against Fernando VII, although told in a way that it had no correlation with the original historical events (the title of The Devil in Seville refers to the password used by the Inquisition, in the invented plot of this opera, to warn its spies that Riego has arrived in Seville). However, despite these data, most musicologists today believe that Gomis did not compose this music, but only made different versions and arrangements of the hymn in his capacity as senior musician in the National Militia band, position which he held between 1822 and 1823.

A. Grimaldi, quoted above, also recounts in his letter from El Averiguador that «the music was composed in Morón by Professor Manuel Varo, senior musician in the cavalry brass band that led the column. Originally the music of said Hymn was a rigodón by maestro Varo, which he himself accommodated to the lyrics by adding the choir notes, which have different rhythms. I owe this news to the distinguished retired colonel D. Pedro de la Cruz Romero, second lieutenant at that time in that column, and to a disciple of Professor Varo, who heard her refer several times to his teacher ».

Other musicians who, according to different documents and testimonies, may have been authors of the music are: José María Reart y Copons, Fernando Miranda, José Baró y Saavedra, Francisco Sánchez, the French musician Bisop, Antonio Hech, the German Enrique Kietkmariket and the guitarist from Alicante Trinidad Huerta (although the latter is the most unlikely of all).

Other musicologists suggest that the music may be taken from the Dance de Guayente and the Ball de Benàs (also called the Dance of the Mayordomos) that is danced in the valley from Benasque (Huesca), since the music of the second part of the dance is exactly the same as that of the Himno de Riego, to which they add that Riego was able to meet her while he was imprisoned in Jaca during the War of Independence and later used as music for his "Hymn".^{[citation needed]} However, this same similarity of the music of the Hymn of Riego with second parts of popular dances we also find it in dances from other Spanish regions, such as a contradanza from the town of Arnedo (La Rioja) and an Agudillo from the province of Burgos. ^{[citation required]} Other links between the music of the «Hymn» and popular music, such as those that maintain that it comes from a song by the famous Llivre Vermell (Catalan book of the century XIV compilation of medieval music) or the Valencian variant of the popular Catalan song «El testament d'Amelia», do not have any musicological rigor or historical, nor do they exceed, due to lack of relationship in the musical parameters, a serious comparative analysis of both types of music.^{[citation required]}

During the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823) the «Himno de Riego» was named the official hymn of the Spanish constitutional monarchy according to a decree signed by Fernando VII on April 7, 1822 and read that same day in the session of the Cortes, a decree that was published in the Gaceta de Madrid the following Sunday, April 14 and that in its Art. the flying column of the army of S. Fernando commanded by this caudillo". Despite popular belief, it was never officially the anthem of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939); In 1931, shortly after its proclamation, a great controversy was organized about its validity as the National Anthem in which numerous politicians, intellectuals and musicians took part: among others, an article by Pío Baroja against it was famous, since he considered it too streetwise. and improper of the ideals of the new Republic. Previously, it had not been an official anthem of the First Republic either, a period in which several anthems coexisted, among them the Grenade March, the basis of the current Spanish National Anthem.

The Himno de Riego was banned during the Ominous Decade of Ferdinand VII and later reinstated during the reign of Isabel II. One of the most interesting versions of the Hymn was performed at this time, around 1835, by the musician Pedro Albéniz (Isabel II's piano teacher) for soloists, choir and piano with the title Brilliant Variations on the Hymn of Riego Op. 28, a work dedicated to the then president of the government Juan A. Mendizábal. During this reign it was sung by the liberal troops, especially during the First Carlist War, as a liberal constitutional symbol; it was later banned again for a brief period in the reign of Isabella II, despite the fact that she had sung and played it on the piano in her young years, and it was finally banned during the Franco period.

Riego was a symbol of liberals in Spain during the 19th century and early XX who rose up against the absolutism of Ferdinand VII in the town of Las Cabezas de San Juan, province of Seville (January 1, 1820) to establish a new constitutional monarchical regime that would have as its basic norm the pioneering Constitution of 1812, drawn up eight years before by the Cortes of Cádiz and popularly known as La Pepa. Therefore, and contrary to what is popularly believed, the "Himno de Riego", at least in its origin, is not a republican or anti-monarchical anthem, but rather the anthem of the Spanish liberals who demanded the constitutional monarchy and therefore, during its official validity, it was the anthem of the Spanish constitutional monarchy.

Letters

The original letter was written by Evaristo San Miguel in the early days of 1820 and published shortly after in the booklet cited in the bibliography. It is also the lyrics made official as the national anthem during the Liberal Triennium and that Azaña tried to restore in the Second Republic without success. In addition to the original letter of E. San Miguel, during the second republican period there were many popular letters or letrillas, more or less fortunate.

There was also an alternative republican hymn, which was an adaptation of the "Himno de Riego" sung in republican schools in Mexico, and several versions popularly used at the time of the Second Republic in a satirical way, reflecting anti-clerical sentiment and anti-monarchist of those who sang them.

Original lyrics by Evaristo San Miguel that are made up of 9 stanzas followed by the corresponding chorus.

Breasts, cheerful,
courageous and bold,
Let's sing, soldiers,
the hymn to the lid.
Of our accents
the orb is admired
and in us look
the children of the Cid

Soldiers the homeland,
Call the lid.
Let's swear to her,
defeat or die

We soften the iron
the shy slave
of the strong, of the bravo
the face does not dare to see;
their hosts like smoke
You will see dissipated,
and our swords
Runaways run.

Soldiers the homeland (etc.)

The world never saw
Most noble daring
He never saw a day.
greater in value,
than the one inflamed
We saw each other from the fire
that excites in Riego
of Homeland love

Soldiers the homeland [... ]

His voice was followed,
His voice was heard,
We had nothing.
soldiers, to die;
And we loved each other.
break the chain
that of full affront
the bravo living.

Soldiers the homeland (etc.)

Let's break it, folks,
that the vile carries it
Insane dares
your front show.
We are now free
in tornado men
We'll know, soldiers,
your audacity to humiliate.

Soldiers the homeland (etc.)

The gun's already played,
weapons alone
the crime, the dolo
They'll know how to beat down.
That they tremble, that they tremble,
to tie the evil
Seeing the soldier
The spear scuffs.

Soldiers the homeland (etc.)

The army
their echoes give the wind
horror to thirst,
already roars the canyon;
and Mars sañudo
audacity provokes,
and the genius invokes
of our nation.

Soldiers the homeland (etc.)

They show, we fly,
Let's fly, soldiers:
You see them terrified
your forehead down?
Let us fly, let the free
He's always known
of the sold servant
the audacity to humiliate.

Soldiers the homeland (etc.)

Satirical lyrics

The following alternate versions were extremely popular among Republicans, particularly in Catalonia, during the Civil War. The rudeness of the letters reflects the disgust that Republican Spain had for the Catholic Church and the monarchy. After the war, these lyrics continued to be sung by the detractors and enemies of the dictator Franco.

Lyrics in Spanish and Catalan

A man was taking a shit,
and I had no paper,
King Alfonso XIII passed by

And he wiped his ass with him!

If the Kings of Spain knew
how little they will last,
they would go out into the street shouting:

Freedom, freedom, freedom!

(verse in catalan)
The Queen vol crown?
Corona li donarem...
I came to Barcelona

I coll li carving!

(translation into Spanish)
Does the queen want the crown?
Crown we will give
come to Barcelona

And the neck will be cut!

If the priests and friars knew,
the hosts they are going to carry,
they would go up to the choir singing:

Freedom, freedom, freedom!

The king has no crown,
who has it made of paper,
than the one he had gold...

He took it from Berenguer!

If the priests and Franco knew,
the beating they are going to get,
they would go up to the choir singing:

Freedom, freedom, freedom!

Controversial interpretations in official acts

Germany, 1941

The Spanish Expeditionary Air Squadron, also called the Blue Squadron, was an Air Force unit that served in the ranks of the Luftwaffe, as part of the Blue Division during World War II. Commander Ángel Salas Larrazábal, García Morato's right-hand man, was the one appointed by the Air Ministry to command the 1st Blue Fighter Squadron, which left on July 25, 1941 by train for Germany, farewelled tremendously in Madrid with assistance of personalities and large public. In Germany, at the Berlin-Tempelhof airport, military honors were paid to them, but the German band played the bars of the Himno de Riego. For this mistake, the director of the music band was arrested.

Cuzco (Peru), 1951

Ernesto Guevara, before becoming the famous Che Guevara, collects in his Motorcycle Diaries, about the trip he made in his youth with Alberto Granado through Latin America, a curious anecdote about the Hymn of Irrigation occurred in Cuzco in 1951. The religious of the city decided that an orchestra would play the Spanish anthem to thank General Francisco Franco for the grant to rebuild the temple of Santo Domingo, damaged by a natural disaster. Due to a mistake they played Riego's hymn until they realized the mistake. This is how he collects it in his diaries:

The bell towers of the cathedral, shot down by the 1950 earthquake, had been rebuilt by the government of General Franco and in proof of gratitude the band was ordered to execute the Spanish anthem. The first chords sounded and the bishop’s red boner was seen incarnating even more as his arms moved like those of a puppet: “Stop, stop, there’s a mistake,” he said, as a gaita’s outraged voice was heard: “two years working, for this!” The band - I don't know whether or not intentionally - had begun the execution of the republican anthem.

European Soccer Cup, 1968

On October 1, 1967, in the preliminary round of the championship, Czechoslovakia and Spain met in Prague. This is how the correspondent posted by the newspaper ABC narrated the episode:

A military band was responsible for making those hymns sound, and the Spaniards were stunned when listening to the Irrigation hymn, anthem of the time of the Republic. When the music ended, we were able to hear from the speakers words in good Spanish of salutation to Spain, very pleasant, and a toast to peace among the peoples. The Czechoslovakia error is frankly inadmissible. Bands, whether official or not, must have in the archives and updated national hymns of all countries. And, if they don't, there are records, and if they don't exist either, the best thing is that the hymns are never interpreted. All before you make an official mistake. The Spanish Royal Federation of Football then presented a protest for the error that represents in the Czechs the lack of knowledge of the Spanish national anthem. It was the first time we didn't expect. With a Czechoslovakia goal, it had to be counted. At least playing in Prague!

The Franco dictatorship interpreted it as an aggression and demanded an apology. The Czechoslovak authorities apologized by means of a letter that the president of the Czechoslovak Football Federation sent to the president of the Spanish Federation: «The event was caused by the error and negligence of an administrative official of our Football Section, which, however, we regret. sincerely". Spain lost the match 1-0.

Davis Cup, 2003

On November 28, 2003, the "Himno de Riego" sounded by mistake as the official anthem of Spain during the opening of the Davis Cup Tennis final in Melbourne (Australia), before a match that was to play the Spanish and Australian teams. At the sound of the first bars, Juan Antonio Gómez-Angulo, the then Secretary of State for Sport, present in the stands, ordered the players to return to the locker room and raised a protest to the organization, referring to the fact as an "offense to the Spanish nation". The latter apologized, alleging that, apparently, it was due to an error in the compact disc supplied by the Australian Federation to trumpeter James Morrison, in charge of interpreting the national anthems. However, these apologies were not considered sufficient, so official explanations were sought from the Australian government.

Santiago, Chile, 2007

On November 8, 2007, the Riego anthem was played in Chile during an official visit by the then Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Canada, 2016

In Calgary, Ander Mirambell took the podium to collect the skeleton prize with Riego's anthem playing in the background.

Porec (Croatia), 2017

On April 13, 2017, during the inaugural act of the European twirling championship, Riego's republican anthem is played instead of Spain's official anthem.^{[citation required]}