Anthems

..
follower I’ve also had to endure on occasions
Listening to a raft of national anthems in a row, like at the Olympic Games
for instance, is not that different to being an unwilling spectator at the Eurovision
Song Contest. It’s not just Australia that needs to review its choice
of song as a national anthem.
There was a moment some years back when John Williamson (whose version of
I’ll Be Gone is included on the I’ll Be Gonz collection)
gamely attempted to generate a popular movement to replace Advance Australia
Fair with Waltzing Matilda at international rugby matches, but I’ve got
a feeling he was finally banned by the authorities and the moment was lost,
although I’m not convinced it didn’t peter out due to embarrassment
as much as anything else – embarrassment ultimately that anybody could
get that worked up about a song.
Personally I think Waltzing Matilda is a far better choice for an Australian
anthem than Advance Australia Fair, even if it’s only on the
grounds that it’s a maverick choice for an anthem. Mind you, Waltzing
Matilda possibly gives away far too much about the national character and
our murky history, not to mention celebrating a class-driven suicide, culturally
incorrect in this day and age in Australia although far more acceptable in places
like Japan whose tourists incidentally adore the song.
But, let’s take a closer look at Advance Australia Fair, a sentiment
that for a start I would wager has never been expressed outside of this song.
The original opening line, ‘Australia’s sons let us rejoice’, has
been modified to the more inclusive ‘Australians all let us rejoice’
but melodically-speaking is still a difficult opening line to sing and far more
suited to a brass band.
The second ‘For we are young and free’ line has a certain schoolyard
charm, but the claim that we are ‘young’ takes us back to the Terra
Nullius days where the longest continuous occupation of a country by a people
was totally ignored and discounted by a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys. And free?
Give me a break. Australians would have to be the most regulated bunch on the
planet. I’m not sure what the ratio is currently but we must be getting
close to the ultimate objective of more than one bureaucrat for every citizen.
The ‘girt by sea’ line has been examined and lampooned endlessly
and it’s odd that while other lyrics have been modified this one remains
intact. The implication is that, unlike the citizens of some backward land-bound
countries we Aussies can pop down to the seaside any old time and have a dip.
Tell them that in Alice Springs.
I’m carping now I know, so I’ll go to the line which comes (twice)
at the very climax of the song, the title line, the motif, the Advance Australia
Fair line. The sentiment is arcane enough, but then you add the inevitable disparity
in pronunciation provoked by singing ‘advance’ and any attempt by
the crowd to sound unified degenerates into a shambles – not exactly what you’re
looking for in an anthem.
The problem is this: most Australians in their everyday speech pronounce ‘advance’
with a short ‘a’ in ‘the second syllable, (as in ‘ad-vants’)
but for some reason singing teachers continue to insist it should be pronounced
‘advahnce’ after the English model. The result is that the singer,
or a recording of the singer (the most-often used recorded version features
Julie Anthony, an Australian version of the over-elocuting Julie Andrews), is
on his or her own enthusiastically singing Advahnce Australia Fair against the
crowd droning ‘advants orstrylia fair’.
For exactly the same reason as we’re not going to get a republic or a
new flag anytime soon, a replacement for Advance Australia Fair as
the national anthem is not about to be contemplated anytime soon.
It reminds me of an evening choir rehearsal at the Christchurch Cathedral when
I was singing a solo piece and quite unintentionally sang the words ‘Virgin
Mary’ with an American accent. There was a gasp from the choir, some guffaws
from the baritones and titters from the probationers. The organ ground to a
halt. Choirmaster and organist Charles Foster Browne’s apoplectic features
peered down from the organ loft. He made some caustic reference to American
popular music and I was made to repeat the piece, this time without the American
accent. I guess it just goes to show that you can’t mess with the classics.

John Williamson sings
Waltzing
Matilda at the rugby