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Hello

Please note that the score listed under Haydn, Joseph titled "Deutschlandlied" was adapted by Haydn as a hymn of praise to God. It was Otto von Bismarck who used the tune in the service of the interests of the fledgling German empire. Herr Haydn would certainly object to a hymn of praise to God being turned into a national patriotic song.

The lyrics should be attributed to whomever Bismarck employed, not to Haydn.

schubertsuncle wrote:[...] Herr Haydn would certainly object to a hymn of praise to God being turned into a national patriotic song. [...]

Really? Not with regard to Austria, it appears:

• "Haydn wished that Austria, too, could have a similar national anthem, wherein it could display a similar respect and love for its Sovereign. Also, such a song could be used in the fight then taking place with those forcing the Rhine; it could be used in a noble way to inflame the heart of the Austrians to new heights of devotion to the princes and fatherland, and to incite to combat, and to increase, the mob of volunteer soldiers who had been collected by a general proclamation." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gott_erhal ... den_Kaiser

Lyle Neff is correct. The supposition that Haydn adapted a preexisting hymn presented here (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/l/glorious.htm) is quite incorrect.

A far more trustworthy source (Haydn, Oxford Composer Companions. Edited by David Wyn Jones, OUP, 2002) states "it is the only national anthem written by a major composer." Commissioned by one Count Franz Josef von Saurau, it was officially approved by him on 28 Jan 1797. Haydn received a sum of money and a gold snuffbox decorated with a portrait of the Emperor. The work was immensely successful and by now is probably the most performed and heard, and is probably the most often recognized, piece that Haydn ever wrote, for better or worse. The melody was adopted as the German National Anthem only in 1922 during the Weimar Republic, between Bismarck's 2nd Reich and Hitler's 3rd.

--Sixtus