Nobody talks about anthems, which is a shame as I find them bizarrely
fascinating:)

The following is a brilliant site - one of the best music-related Web
sites I've ever come across:

<http://www.vad1.com/anthems/>

Highlights include Paul Robeson singing the 1943 anthem in English (with
the accompanying orchestra and chorus so recessed they could almost be
in the Soviet Union) and the Khatchaturian state anthem for Armenia,
which sounds genuinely Armenian and not something written in ten minutes
with the odd "ethnic" effect tacked on.

(And yet another country added to the list of those who use[d] the melody
of God Save the Queen - Russia did so before 1833!)

Alastair