ROMANIA : Romania National Anthem
Romanian National Anthem
National Anthem of Romania
Desteaptate, romane

• Author: Andrei Muresianu (1816-1863)
• Composer: Anton Pann (1796-1854)
• Adopted: 1990
• National Day: December 01 (1918) - Unification Day (of Romania and Transylvania)
• Buy:

• Further details: The patriotic song of the 1848 Revolution 'Desteapta-te române!' ('Wake Up Romanians!') was adopted as Romania's National Anthem in April 1990. The lyrics belong to poet ANDREI MURESANU (1816-1863) and the music to folklorist ANTON PANN (1796-1854). It is an interesting fact that the two creators had written the poem and music independently, that for almost ten years when the poem and the melody were brought together they circulated separately, under different titles before the outbreak of the 1848 Revolution, that the song preceded the lyrics, and that the melody and the poem were brought together by psalm singer Gheorghe Ucenescu (1830-1896).
  
  In 1850, Anton Pann published his song in the collection 'Spitalul amorului' ('Love's Hospital') in spite of the fact that the 1848 Revolution made of it a patriotic song. The lyrics had been written in 1842, the eleven stanzas being published for the first time in the June 25 1848 issue of the magazine 'Foaie pentru Minte, Inima si Literatura' of Brasov. Being excessively long only the first stanzas of 'Desteapta-te române!' used to be sung (even the present National Anthem retains only four of Andrei Muresanu's stanzas). The new 'Romanian Marsellaise' (as the 1848 revolutionaries called it) circulated throughout the territories inhabited by Romanians. Although forbidden for several decades after the Second World War, the song has been subsequently reintegrated in the Romanian patriotic repertoire.
  
  Full of historical significance for the Romanian people, 'Desteapta-te române!' has imposed itself as the centuries-old anthem of a nation longing for freedom and social justice.