Kde domov můj


"Kde domov můj", translated into English as "Where My Home Is", is the national anthem of the Czech Republic, composed by František Škroup and written by Josef Kajetán Tyl.legally regulated as an anthem, most recently in §7 of the Czech laws 3/1993 und 154/1998: and on, official collection of laws, website of the Czech government It was also the first, Czech part, of the national anthem of the former Czechoslovakia.

The song

Austria-Hungary

The piece was one of twenty-one written for the comedy Fidlovačka aneb Žádný hněv a žádná rvačka . It was first performed by Karel Strakatý at the Estates Theatre in Prague on 21 December 1834.
The original song consists of two stanzas. Even if J. K. Tyl is said to have considered leaving the song out of the play, hesitating about its quality, it soon became the most popular of the songs from the Fiddlers' Feast which gained popularity among Czechs, seeking to revive their identity within the Habsburg monarchy, and became quickly their unofficial patriotic anthem.
Johann Strauss the Younger included the motif of Kde domov můj into his Slaven-Potpourri of melodies of folk songs and dances.
In 1882, Antonín Dvořák used Kde domov můj in his symphonic poem, overture to František Ferdinand Šamberk's play Josef Kajetán Tyl, which is often performed separately as Domov můj, a concert work of some ten minutes.
Rainer Maria Rilke paid tribute to Kde domov můj, in Czech, in two poems, in German, published in Larenopfer :

ČSSR

In 1988, on December 10, Human Rights Day, Marta Kubišová performed the anthem Kde domov můj as a protest song, singing after years publicly for the first time and closing a public rally of independent movements on Škroupovo náměstí in Prague Žižkov, permitted by the communist authorities thanks to a visit by French President François Mitterrand. Independent movements were allowed to hold a public rally for the first time since the onset of "normalization", marking the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The official paper of the ruling communist party, Rudé právo, commented: "the speakers demagogically claimed that citizens did not trust the state and demanded the release of alleged political prisoners". The authorities did not allow any similar event after that.
A year later, on November 21, 1989, on the outbreak of the Velvet Revolution, she sang her song Modlitba pro Martu , which became an unofficial anthem of resistance and hope, along with the Czechoslovak anthem from the balcony of the Melantrich building on the Prague Wenceslas Square, where Alexander Dubček and Václav Havel spoke to the people, with some more selected by Havel ausgewählten weiteren, like Věra Čáslavská. Dubček, Havel and Kubišová, together and with others, also performed at further demonstrations there and on the Letná Plain in the following days.

The anthem

When Czecho-Slovakia, ČSR was founded in 1918, the first stanza of the song became the Czech part of the national anthem, followed by the first stanza of the Slovak song Nad Tatrou sa blýska with official translations into German and Hungarian.
Both songs reflected the mood of the smaller nations' concerns raising in the 19th century, here those of the Czechs and Slovaks, confronted with the national-ethnic activism of the, here, Germans and the Hungarians, the large, predominant ethnic groups of those in power in Austria-Hungary.
After the Munich Dictate of 1938, Czechoslovakia lost German, Silesian and Hungarian territories to Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary, the anthem remained for the "Second Republic".
During the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Czech national anthem continued to be played, but only together with the German Deutschland über alles or the Nazi Horst Wessel Song, without any official act being issued or required.
Similarly in the 1950s' ČSR, ČSSR from the 1960s on, when the Czechoslovak anthem was followed by the Soviet one, or the Song of Labour or The Internationale.
With the split of Czechoslovakia, CSFR, into two countries in 1993, the Czech Republic kept Kde domov můj and Slovakia kept Nad Tatrou sa blýska as their anthems. While the Czech Republic's national anthem was adopted unextended, in its single-stanza version, Slovakia revived its anthem by adding a second stanza.

Lyrics

National anthem of ČR (since 1990, 1993)

The lyrics of the Czech stanza stayed on as Czech Republic's national anthem, according to Appendix 6 of Czech Act No. 3/1993 Coll., as adapted by Act No. 154/1998 Coll.

The instrumentation

The orchestration of the hymn by Otakar Jeremiáš, in three versions – for large orchestra, for small orchestra, and in the so-called pastoral/Christmas version for organ and orchestra – is still performed today.
The current, and since 2008 newly official, recording of the Czech national anthem, released 2008 by the Czech government, orchestrated by Otakar Jeremiáš and Jaroslav Krček, was performed by the National Theatre Opera Chorus and Orchestra under the direction of Jiří Bělohlávek in four interpretations:
The celebratory performance of the new recordings took place on the Czech Statehood Day, Sunday, 28 September 2008, in the Pantheon of the Prague National Museum.