Berisha’s diversion with hymn
12/10/2012 00:00
Linda Rama: Between Family, Work and Albania’s Future 18/08 14:30
The Albanian Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, asked for the return of the
Albanian hymn to its full form. The hymn is a poem written by the
Albanian Renaissance poet, Alexander Stavri Drenova, known in the
literary world as Asdreni. The last verse of the poem was removed by the
atheist communist government because it made a reference to God. But
there is a law passed in 2002, law no. 9826, which has made what Berisha
is asking today with the approval of the Academy of Science.
Prof. Shaban Sinani says that this variant of 2002 already has the missing verse, and officially there is nothing wrong.
“After the Constitution of 1998 passed, it provided the creation of a special law for the national symbols, the flag, the hymn and the state emblem of Albania. The State Academy and the General Directory of Archives have worked for two years on this. The text of the Albanian hymn is “Oath over the flag”, written by Asdreni. The law states that this is an integral part of the hymn and there is nothing more to add to it”, Sinani declared.
Was there any official decision for removing this verse from the National Hymn during the communist era?
“There is no official act that the hymn has only the first verse and the refrain, but the totalitarian atheist government did not use more than two verses. But they never did this with an official document”, Sinani declared.
The Prime Minister asked to discuss it with the composers, which in this case is unnecessary, since it is about the same text, and not the creation of a new song.
“Once it was decided that this would be a national hymn and was to be sang with the entire text. The law has not cut the text, but the lack of singing it fully”, experts say.
In a full study of the hymn, Valbona Karakaci writes that the efforts to change the hymn date since 1922, when the Council of Ministers opened a competition for the official national hymn. The texts of Ernest Koliqi and Kristo Floqi were chosen as best. Asdreni was also part of this competition.
In 1937, another competition was organized for the hymn. The winner was the hymn of Beqir Cela, but there was no other official decision. In 1945-1946 was organized the first state competition for the national hymn. The winner was the “New Albania” hymn, written by Skender Luarasi and music by Kristo Kono. Another competition was held in the early 70s, and two variants were chosen, one created by Cesk Zadeja and Nikolla Zoraqi, written by Fatos Arapi, and another song by Pjeter Gaci.
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