Links
This page mostly features the work of other hard-working anthem enthusiasts like myself, hardly any of the anthems offered here are unique to this page. As such, I feel that these other hard-working individuals should have their sites credited here. While dozens of sites were culled through extensive internet searches to find some of the best, these are the ones that were used the most often to make this list, and are my favourite anthems page. Please give them a visit as well:
MY PICK: NationalAnthems.us culls together in one place information on hundreds of anthems (many more than mine), put together by contributors (including myself) in a message forum-type setup. The people contributing are very knowledgable, and a lot of different anthems are discussed. (Also, if I believe an anthem wouldn't be of broad interest to the visitors of my site, I may contribute the information from my site to this page, instead of removing it all together.) Along with my page, this site is a must-visit for anyone wanting to learn more about anthems.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia anyone can edit. Amazingly the information there is quite good, and almost always fair and balanced. (This was the kind of site I was looking for when I was first creating this page, but Wikipedia was not in existence then.) Since anyone can edit it, I usually try to weed out inaccuracies about national anthem data on my visits to the site. (Sadly, I don't have time to expand on information already in there, but that's what my site is for!) (The link provided is a direct link to the national anthems page at Wikipedia). Another notable site is World Statesmen, which offers a wealth of national data, primarily of past and present world leaders, but also of national history, national flags past and present, constitutions, and brief info on national anthems, including links to other anthem pages (including this one). An extremely comprehensive selection of territories! (The maintainer is also a regular contributor to this site).
MY PICK: National-Anthems.net not only is the provider of webspace for this site (which I am extremely grateful to fellow anthematologist, Slawek, for), but his site is the best site for anthems in MP3 format. Some very rare anthems are in this online collection in MP3 format, and some MP3 anthems that are sung.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Mentioned above, NationalAnthems.us provides links to several hundred national anthems in MP3 and other "true to life" formats (that is, no MIDIs), several give you more than one arrangement. If you prefer MIDIs, Cyberflag offers MIDI versions of anthems, but these are the best quality MIDIs out there! (Many of the MIDIs from my site come from here). Also on this site are excellently rendered versions of the national flag (as per its name). The site is also entirely in French, but a rudimentary knowledge of the language (as well as knowing the French names of each nation) will get you through.
MY PICK: NationalAnthems.us offers plenty of sheet music to view, as well as links to other pages to find sheet music on, all for free! For sheet music that is more suited to orchestras with multi-instrument parts, Colin Kirkpatrick's site has several full scores available for free download.
HONOURABLE MENTION: National-anthems.org offers all the sheet music of current national anthems, as well as those of former anthems, some regions, subdivisions, etc. There is a cost associated to download the sheet music, but it is small and well worth it!
MY PICK: Without a doubt, the best CD set on national anthems has been put out by Naxos Classical entitled "National Anthems of the World". Performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), and conducted by Peter Breiner, the orchestra really makes a difference on the anthems, and I encourage you to go out and buy the set. In fact, this set of anthems was so highly thought of, the Athens Olympic Organizing comittee used these anthems at the 2004 Olympics! (Some had to be re-recorded to fit the 80-second maximum length mandated by Olympic protocol.)
MY PICK: National
Anthems of the World, 11th edition by Michael J. Bristow, is an
indispensible reference guide to the anthems of the world. Only here will
you find the scores of all the national anthems of the world, culled from
official government data, as well as information on the authors and even
national dates for suggestion of when to play the anthem! (I have this in
my own library, and I find myself using it a lot.)
HONOURABLE MENTION: Encyclopedia of National Anthems by Xing Hang. A very comprehensive book with lyrics in both Latin script and native script (where appropriate), like on this website. Also gives a brief background history on each anthem.