Uruguayan national anthem

The National Anthem of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay is one of the national symbols, along with the coat of arms, the flag and the national flags. Its lyrics were declared a hymn by decree on July 8, 1833 and were modified to their final form at the request of its author.

History

Letter

Uruguay was born to an independent life in 1828, when the Preliminary Peace Convention was signed between Argentina and Brazil with the economically interested mediation of the United Kingdom. The new country had no national symbols: no flag, no coat of arms, no anthem. The Provisional Governor, José Rondeau, then received the offer of Francisco Acuña de Figueroa to collaborate in the writing of a hymn and, for the Oath of the Constitution on July 18, 1830, he presented a project for the National Anthem. This was accepted, but he had to wait three years to become the officer.

Monument to the National Anthem in Paysandú.

The hymn was presented again by Francisco Acuña de Figueroa to the government of the first president, Fructuoso Rivera, who approved it on July 8, 1833. Although there was a consensus almost from the beginning that the poetic work would have that character, some they called it into question because of the violent diatribes against Spain, Portugal and Brazil that it contained. In the gala act at the San Felipe Theater on May 25, 1833, its verses were sung with music by Antonio Sáenz, but when it was performed for the first time as an official anthem, on July 18 of the same year, the music was by Barros..

On July 12, 1845, a reform was approved in the stanzas, made by the author himself, which would finally be the definitive version. Francisco Acuña de Figueroa removed the harshest references to Spain, Portugal and Brazil and added to the first stanza the phrase "Tyrants, tremble!", which would later become famous. The song's lyrics contain 11 stanzas of 8 decasyllable verses each, to which is added the 4-verse chorus. Currently, only the first verse is sung and the chorus is repeated twice.

Francisco Acuña de Figueroa is also the author of the lyrics of the National Anthem of Paraguay.

National Anthem of Uruguay

choir:

Orientales, the Homeland or the Tomb!

Freedom or glory to die!

It is the vow that the soul pronounces,

And how heroic we will know how to fulfill!

Freedom, freedom, east!

This cry to the Homeland saved

May his bravos in fierce battles

Of sublime enthusiasm he inflamed.

The glory of this gift

We deserved toss, dread!

Freedom in the lid we cry,

And dying, also freedom!

Choir-Orientales,etc.

Dominated the Iberia two worlds

He was holding his power,

And his captive plants were lying

The East without name or being;

But suddenly his irons stumbled

Before the dogma May inspired,

Between free, despotas fieros,

A bridgeless abyss was seen.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

Your arms chain,

By shield his chest in the lid,

From his proud bow they trembled

The feudal champions of the Cid:

In the valleys, mountains and jungles

They eat with muda altivez,

Floating with fiery stampido

The caves and the sky at once.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

The noise that resonates

From Atahualpa the grave opened,

And whipping the palms

His skeleton, revenge!

Patriots the great echo

They are electrified in martial fire,

And in his most vivid teaching

Of the Incas the immortal God.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

Long time, with varying fortune,

They fought free, and sir,

Disputing the Bloody Land

Palm to palm with blind furor.

Justice, finally, overcomes

Dominating the wrath of a King;

And before the world the indomitable homeland

He inaugurates his teaching, and his king.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

Orientals, look at the flag,

Of heroism fulgent crucible;

Our spears defend their shine,

No one insults the image of the sun!

Of the civil servants the enjoyment

Let us hold; and the faithful code

We will come immune and glorious

Like the sacred ark Israel.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

For your glory was higher,

And your price and power shone,

Three diadems, oh, Homeland, they saw

Your domain enjoy, and lose.

Freedom, freedom of worship,

A lot of slopes, unparalleled treasure!

But your divine enjoyments are worth.

That blood that waters your altar.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

If a barbarian shakes people,

Removing his extinct furor,

Fratricida discordia evitemos,

Ten thousand graves remember their horror!

Tempest Heaven fulminates,

curses descend upon him,

And the free love triumphant

the rich jewellery.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

From the golden brown shining

The superb Amazon of the Sud,

In their bronze shield they reflect

Fortress, justice and virtue.

Neither enemies humiliate his forehead,

Neither oppressors impose his foot:

That in distress he sealed his constancy

And in blood baptism his faith.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

Celebrating glory, and the day

From the new Republic the Sun,

With purple and gold glimpses,

It's a beautiful landlord.

From the Olympus the august vault

Respect, and a divine being

With stars he writes in heaven,

Sweet Homeland, your immortal name.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

From the Laws the Numen

Equality, patriotism and union,

Moving in his divine aras

Hundreds, and black ambition.

And they'll find the ones who'll be insulting

The Greatness of the Eastern People,

If enemies, Mars' spear

If we pull, Bruto's the knife.

Choir-Orientales,etc.

Music

For many years there was controversy about the authorship of the music for the anthem. The decree that approved the music, dated July 26, 1848, officially attributed it to Fernando José Quijano (1805-1871), a soldier, actor and amateur musician. According to some contemporaries, Quijano played the music of the hymn at his house at 244 Washington Street between Pérez Castellanos and Maciel streets before a group of friends, including Francisco Acuña de Figueroa himself, the Argentine poet José Mármol, Juan Manuel de la Saw and others.

However, the hymn's music is harmonically complex, with reminiscences of Gaetano Donizetti and Gioacchino Rossini, elements that make it almost unlikely that an amateur musician was its author. There is no doubt that in the score there was a decisive intervention by Francisco José Debali (Ferenc József Debály) (1793-1859), a musician born in Hungary and educated in Italy, with a solid formation, who arrived in Montevideo in 1838 with the title of Piedmont military bandmaster.

There is currently a certain consensus that Quijano would have outlined the melody and that Debali would have orchestrated it and given it the symphonic, clearly Rossinian and operatic character that characterizes it. However, according to some authors, the melody of the stanzas is very similar to the concertante of the Prologue of the opera Lucrezia Borgia by Gaetano Donizetti. This had premiered in December 1833 at the La Scala theater in Milan, when Debali was still living in Italy. It is argued that it is almost impossible for Quijano to have known the work and, therefore, he would not have been the one to sketch the melody.^{[citation needed]} Other versions state that Quijano helped Debali to interpret the text and understand the spirit of the letter, for lacking a full command of Spanish. In a letter published in the press in 1855, Debali stated that Quijano "...actually had some part in the composition of the music, because he was the one who made me penetrate the spirit of the Hymn, and in a certain way the tone that it should assume”.

The hymn with the current music was performed for the first time on July 18, 1845, at the Casa de Comedias in Montevideo, during the Great War. Ninety years later, on May 20, 1938, a new decree it incorporated arrangements by Gerardo Grasso and Benone Calcavecchia.

The music of the Paraguayan anthem is also attributed to Debali, although officially, the authorship of the reconstruction corresponds to Remberto Giménez. In 1934, the result of the survey carried out by the Paraguayan Institute (Athenaeum Paraguayan), which sought to determine the author of the music, was published. The government, after the opinion of the commission specially integrated for this purpose, declared the reconstructed version presented by Remberto Giménez authentic.

Transcendence

Despite having been created in times of civil war and by figures all linked to the Defense government, the national anthem penetrated deeply into the spirit of Uruguayans and has been the object of true worship. It is played on national anniversaries and in some local and national shows and children are taught that they must sing and listen to it with maximum unction. The anthem has also been used as a combat song in times of eclipse of freedoms. That happened during all the dictatorships that the country has suffered, and even in times of authoritarian governments.

Execution

	Uruguayan National Anthem Complete (Vocal)
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The execution of the national anthem is regulated, together with the use of other national symbols, by a decree of February 18, 1952. By article 21 of said decree, in the amending wording given by decree 273 of February 26 In July 1995, it was established that the national anthem must be performed at all important official ceremonies and in all radio broadcasts that take place on holidays. Literal B) of article 28 of the same decree prescribes that the anthem may not be performed, when it does not include the entire composition, except in cases where the Executive Branch, for well-founded reasons, agrees to general or special authorizations in this regard.

By a decree of April 30, 2002, it was established that the national anthem must be performed in its entirety on national dates celebrated on April 19, May 18, June 19, July 18 and August 25 and at any other opportunity so provided by the Executive Branch.