United Anthems, by Maxime Goulet, OCM and Boris Brott
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United Anthems is a collage (or mosaic) of very short musical excerpts from the national anthems of 35 nations across the globe. The piece celebrates diversity and world peace. An original idea from its composer Maxime Goulet.
Commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the McGill Chamber Orchestra (now known as the Orchestre classique de Montrรฉal), to highlight the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, the piece begins, of course, with Canadaโs national anthem. Next, we hear the anthems of France and the United Kingdom (the two โfounding nationsโ), then that of the United States (the closest neighbor). The piece goes on to pay homage to many nations that contributed to the founding of Canada, particularly Scotland* and Ireland. The vision broadens to include nations from every continent, sometimes even uniting populations that would not otherwise be joined (for example, North and South Korea or Israel and Palestine).
During the performance of the piece, images of each nationโs flag can be projected on a screen above the orchestra. The lowest staff of the score indicates precisely at what moment in the piece each flag should be shown to match the corresponding national anthem excerpt. All the image files of these flags are included as a PowerPoint file with the material of the piece.
Here is the list of the 35 anthems quoted in the piece: Canada, France, United Kingdom, United States, Ukraine, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Germany, Cuba, Japan, Switzerland, Greece, South, Africa, Egypt, Peru, Haiti, Argentina, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Denmark, South Korea, North Korea, Russia, Belgium, Colombia, Australia, Philippines, India, Poland, Nigeria, Mexico, China, and Spain.
United Anthems was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Classique de Montrรฉal, as one in a series of fanfares, in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, with financial assistance from the Government of Canada.
*Scotland doesn't have an official national anthem at the moment. However, a number of songs are used as Scottish anthems (in sporting events or others), most notably "Flower of Scotland" and "Scotland the Brave". Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_anthem_of_Scotland
I went with Scotland the Brave, simply because it worked better musically within this mashup.