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120 The National Music of America.
" Yankee Doodle" as any of the before-cited tunes are to "God Save the King," yet nobody has yet accused the great symphonist of stealing the American melody. It is finical folly to dwell upon such resemblances as having any historical importance.
The singable character of the English national anthem was at once proved by two events. Firstly, the whole nation began singing it and paid to the anthem a respect equal to that accorded to the English flag. Haydn, during his two visits to London (1791 and 1794-95), was so impressed by this fact that he determined to write an anthem for his own country on his return to Austria, and, in January, 1797, together with the poet Hauschka, he produced " Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser," a weaker dynastic ode, but also only a version of England's national anthem strained through a German mind. It may be added, however, that this is the only example |
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