United Kingdom
"God Save the Queen"

Words by: unknown
Music by: unknown
In use since: 1745

"God Save the Queen" (or "God Save the King", depending on the gender of the ruling monarch) was a patriotic song first publicly performed in London in 1745 after the king, George II defeated the Jacobite claimant to the throne, "Bonnie Prince Charlie. The song came to be referred to as the National Anthem from the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The words and tune are anonymous, and may date back to the seventeenth century. There are various claimants to authorship of both the words and tune, the words can be found as early as 1545, when the watchword at night was "God save the King", the reply was "Long to reign over us." The authorship of the melody has been claimed by many, including John Bull (the author of the earliest piece of music that resembles the work), Henry Carey, Henry Purcell, and Joseph Haydn (although he probably borrowed the tune upon hearing it in London.)

There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter of tradition; the anthem has also never been officially declared as the national anthem of the country, the royal anthem (as this technically is) is used as the national anthem as a matter of tradition. The words used are those sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate. On official (and most other) occassions, the first verse only is sung, on a small number of occassions, the third verse is heard as well; very rarely is the second verse heard due to its militaristic nature. There exist many other verses, some dating as far back as the first three verses, but the first three are what can best be represented as the "standard" British national anthem.

The British tune has since become one of the world's most recognizable anthems, and has has been used in other countries - as European visitors to Britain in the eighteenth century noticed the advantage of a country possessing such a recognised musical symbol - including Germany, Russia, Switzerland, the United States (where use of the tune continued after independence), and even today by Liechtenstein and as the royal anthem of Norway. (One might say that because of this fact, that the United Kingdom was the creator of the concept of a "national anthem".) Some 140 composers, including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms, have used the tune in their compositions.

"God Save the Queen" also serves as the royal anthem for most Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and Canada. (Governor-generals of Commonwealth countries usually have bits and pieces of the national anthem strung together played as their anthem.)

Special thanks to: Artakorn Jarusriwanna for providing me with the sheet music.

Also used in: Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands (U.K.).

See also: New Zealand, Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cornwall, England, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Monserrat, Pitcairn Island, St. Helena, Wales, Sealand.