The Army Band’s library contains over 60,000 pieces of music, including national anthems, patriotic tunes, college fight songs and personal favorites of local dignitaries.
It has become standard practice for visiting dignitaries to be serenaded with their country’s national anthem during a diplomatic trip.
While it would seem to be a simple matter to look up a national anthem, often it is not. That’s where the U.S. Army Band Library comes into play.
The library contains national anthems for most of the planet’s 201 sovereign states. It serves as a database for use by all of the military bands, as well as other organizations that might need a national anthem.
‘‘Sometimes a high school will have a foreign exchange student, and they will want to play their anthem at graduation,” said Staff Sgt. James Kazik, assistant anthems noncomissioned officer and staff arranger for Pershing’s Own. ‘‘When the Olympics came to Salt Lake City in 2002, we had to verify all of the anthems.”
The database usually contains a PDF version of the sheet music and an audio recording. Along with the anthem itself, there are notes about the last time the anthem was verified, as well as any pertinent information about the country in question.
‘‘Countries can get new anthems. The NATO countries rarely change.” said Kazik. ‘‘Russia changed theirs in 1991 and then changed back in 2000. Iraq is another country that has changed recently.”
Some countries, such as Thailand and Denmark, have a national and royal anthem. There is a different song played when royalty visits as opposed to a diplomat.
The United Nations does not have an official anthem, but there is a hymn, written by Pablo Casals and poet W.H. Auden.
Verification can come from the country’s embassy or the State Department. The database records the person who confirmed the accuracy of the tune and date the anthem was verified. Anthems must be confirmed every time they are performed.
‘‘Because we have all of this music electronically filed, we are able to send these anthems all over the world if necessary,” said Master Sgt. Laura Lineberger. ‘‘If there is a field group on tour in Afghanistan that needs to play for a visiting dignitary, we can help them out.”
The library began in the mid 1950s, when Pershing’s Own began collecting anthems. The Navy Band contributed many pieces of music they had stored.
Library staff members become quickly familiar with the variations in national anthems across the world.
‘‘I’ve noticed that the South American national anthems tend to be longer,” Kazik said.
In addition to national anthems, the band library contains approximately 60,000 pieces of music. These can range from patriotic songs to the personal favorites of local VIPs, including the fight songs of their alma maters.
Staff arrangers play a large part in adapting the library’s music for the situation it will be used in.
‘‘We do a large part of publishing here in house,” said Lineberger. ‘‘If our band is supposed to play on a 16 by 16 [foot] stage, we can’t bring our full orchestra. Our arrangers will scale it down if necessary to fit with a certain stage setup.”
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