Pity you don't often find Canadians lurking this side of the Ecuator. We only seem to get people from Europe as tourists, for some reason... ;)
My dad beats me, though: he knows how to play docens of national anthems on the clarinet. He was on the army band during the last Fifa World Cup that was hosted in Argentina (1978), and they had to play the national anthems of the visiting countries before each match. Yes, back then there was a band playing the national anthems live, instead of using a recording. According to my dad, the Brazilian national anthem was the most fun to play.
Your national anthem is beautiful, even the full version, with all three stanzas... ours is pretty violent, even in its short, two-stanza official version (the original nine stanzas were practically dripping blood and were, unsurprisingly, used to promote our rugby team during the last rugby tournament). Most people never have the chance to tell, because it's so long (in its short version it's about six minutes long) that they never play it fully at international competitions. What they end up playing is the introduction only, and it ends just before we'd start singing. In the last World Cup, the Argentinean crowd ended up singing the instrumental part. It sounded pretty funny if you knew that part wasn't supposed to be sung. XD
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My dad beats me, though: he knows how to play docens of national anthems on the clarinet. He was on the army band during the last Fifa World Cup that was hosted in Argentina (1978), and they had to play the national anthems of the visiting countries before each match. Yes, back then there was a band playing the national anthems live, instead of using a recording. According to my dad, the Brazilian national anthem was the most fun to play.
Your national anthem is beautiful, even the full version, with all three stanzas... ours is pretty violent, even in its short, two-stanza official version (the original nine stanzas were practically dripping blood and were, unsurprisingly, used to promote our rugby team during the last rugby tournament). Most people never have the chance to tell, because it's so long (in its short version it's about six minutes long) that they never play it fully at international competitions. What they end up playing is the introduction only, and it ends just before we'd start singing. In the last World Cup, the Argentinean crowd ended up singing the instrumental part. It sounded pretty funny if you knew that part wasn't supposed to be sung. XD