Argentine National Anthem Day: the history of our national song

The new version of the Argentine national anthem prepared by Vicente López, and set to music by the Spanish Blas Parera, had great popular acceptance, and was approved by the Year XIII Assembly on May 11

Little more than two years had passed since the then United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, today Argentina, emancipated themselves from Spain and created their own government (the First Junta), when on July 22, 1812 the First Triumvirate sent the Cabildo a note. In the text he asked him to manage the development of an imposing and majestic patriotic march or national song, to be sung at all public shows and which spectators should sing standing up, as a symbol of respect.

In compliance with this request, the Cabildo entrusted the task to one of its members, Manuel José García, who in turn entrusted the writing of the text to the priest, journalist and poet Cayetano Rodríguez, who was later a deputy in the National Congress who, Meeting in Tucumán, he declared independence on July 9, 1816.

The friar wrote the lyrics of the anthem and the Cabildo approved it immediately, ordering that steps be taken to set it to music, a task that was entrusted to the Spaniard Blas Parera Morat. Once the music was prepared, the Cabildo also approved it, and the national song was premiered on November 1, 1812, at the headquarters of the same Cabildo of Buenos Aires.

However, the work was not received in Buenos Aires society, which is why, the following year, the Year XIII Assembly decided to reformulate the national song, asking, on the one hand, Brother Cayetano Rodríguez himself to modify the original text, and on the other hand on the other hand, entrusting the same task to Vicente López y Planes, with the idea that both of them would prepare texts separately and then, through comparison, the best one would be chosen.

The lyrics of the Argentine National Anthem

Both presented their projects and finally the Assembly of the Year new anthem contained aggressive paragraphs regarding his native country.

At first Blas Parera refused to set the lyrics of the new anthem to music, which was considered an offense by the authorities, who apparently forced him to comply with what was then no longer a request, but an order. Faced with such a crossroads, the Spanish musician rushed to satisfy the request, and ended up quickly creating the new score.

Five years later, the author of the music of the National Anthem decided to return to Spain (soon after his wife Facunda del Rey and his little son followed him), and he died on January 7, 1840, at 63 years of age.

The new version of the Argentine national anthem prepared by Vicente López, and set to music by the Spanish Blas Parera, had great popular acceptance, and was approved by the Year XIII Assembly on May 11 of that same year. Almost a century later the lyrics were cut, eliminating aggressive verses such as “a lion is already surrendered to its soles”, “the pride of the vile invader”, “and with robust arms they tear the haughty Iberian lion” or “here is the fierce oppressor of the Homeland, its proud neck bowed.”

In fact, in July 1893, during the presidency of Luis Sáenz Peña, the Minister of the Interior Lucio Vicente López, grandson of the author of the anthem’s lyrics, proposed that only the last stanza of the hymn be sung. The proposal was not accepted until Julio Argentino Roca, during his second presidency, specifically in the year 1900, signed a decree ordering that, in official acts, only the first four verses, the last four and the chorus be sung. .

A very famous duo: López y Planes and the Catalan Blas Parera, the latter responsible for the music of the anthem (Illustration of Caras y Caretas magazine)

Since then, we Argentines have sung the shortened version of the anthem, compared to its original prepared by Vicente López y Planes.

Regarding the musical aspect, the history of our national song also had its twists and turns. It underwent adaptation arrangements for different musical instruments that ended up distancing it from the original score by its Spanish author.

The most relevant adaptation was made in 1860 by the pianist and composer Juan Pedro de Esnaola, commissioned by the Director of the Military Bands at that time, giving the original version by Blas Parera a more orchestral musical structure, which in turn time gave greater grandeur to our anthem.

However, despite the popularity of this version during the following 65 years, during the presidency of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear (1922-1928), a commission was created made up of the composers Floro Melitón Ugarte Rivero, Carlos López Buchardo and José André, to create a definitive musical version of the Argentine national anthem.

When carrying out the research task at the National Historical Museum, the commission found the original score by Blas Parera, which until then was considered lost. Based on it, he decided to make a new musical arrangement of our national song, which was performed on May 25, 1927 at a gala performance at the Teatro Colón.

However, although it looked more in line with the original score, there were violent reactions against this version, as some questioned and doubted the authenticity of the original score that had supposedly been located. The issue even acquired scandalous overtones, because during the parades of July 9, 1927, a crowd challenged the government, singing the anthem in front of the Casa Rosada with the musical version of Esnaola, provoking the consequent police repression. The commotion reached such a point that President Alvear put the new version of the anthem on hold and decided to return to the Esnaola version.

Finally, in 1944, the then military president who governed Argentina issued decree 10,302 through which it was decided to adopt, as the official lyrics of the Argentine Anthem, the text of the song composed by Vicente López, approved by the Assembly of the Year. XIII and with the adaptation of the text arranged in the year 1900. As for its melody, the aforementioned decree adopted the musicalization prepared by Blas Parera, with the subsequent adaptation by Juan P. Esnaola.

It was decided, then, that our national song “will, from now on, be the only musical version authorized to be performed at official events, public and private ceremonies, by military, police and municipal bands and in educational establishments in the country.”

It is worth noting that, since August 1, 2002, the year in which the National Congress passed Law 25,636, all national radio and television stations must begin their broadcasts with the transmission of the Argentine national anthem, which It constitutes, without a doubt, one of the symbols of our nationality.