I AM enjoying the debate about our national anthem. As far as I am concerned Scots Wha Hae is it, and over all the years I used to enjoy the end of SNP conferences as we stood and held hands as it was played and sung by the full hall that had waited for it.

Why it was dropped I have no idea but perhaps there is an element in the SNP who don’t understand that in the final analysis it will be emotion that carries us over the line. The idea that it is not appropriate because it is “warlike” is of course absurd. A notion entertained that a country taking up arms to defend its liberty is anything other than entirely normal and praiseworthy is weird indeed.

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To hear it at its best, Google “March des soldats de Robert Bruce” by Le Garde republicaine and have a hankie ready as the pipes come in halfway through. It is a reminder that the troops who marched to free Joan of Arc played this song, cementing the Auld Alliance as all the centuries afterwards France was Scotland’s friend. It is played as a march by military bands all across Europe.

My second choice would be Freedom Come A’ Ye , words by Hamish Henderson to a pipe tune, The Bloody Fields of Flanders, composed by Pipe Major Jock McLellan DCM of Dunoon. Dick Gaughan and Five Hand Reel do a great version of it and it includes an apology to the world for the part Scotland played in the bloody British Empire. I have no idea why some people seem to have an aversion to Flower of Scotland, however. They have obviously never stood in a packed Hampden Park as the crowd roars Scotland on to its strains.

In the final analysis I’d take any one of them. When we gain our independence.

David McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll

FACEBOOK has supplied a wide variety of orchestral and military band versions of the March of the Soldiers of Robert Bruce from France and Germany. It is clearly well-known on the Continent.

The contrastingly clear lack of availability of such versions in Scotland and the UK suggest that the tune is “not wanted” by the British. A band was once arrested by the “authorities” for playing it at a Chartist rally in Neilston.

These grand orchestral/military versions clearly show the tune to Bruce’s Address to his Army at Bannockburn to be a highly dignified and very stirring national anthem. Robert Burns had the radicals of the French Revolution in mind when he wrote it.

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Bannockburn was the single event which permanently secured a nation. It led to the Pope permitting future Scots monarchs to be anointed with oil at their coronations – the sign of fixed, internationally recognised, undisputed kingship. This permanently ended the English claim to Scotland. It promoted the Scottish Church from being a mere “special daughter” of Rome to its first national hierarchy, ending permanently the claims of York to run the Scottish church. It created a Scottish national aristocracy, basically ending feudal loyalties to two crowns and a “feudal Britain”.

When we become a serious independent state and public awareness of our culture is normal, Bruce’s Address by Burns will undoubtedly be the natural anthem for all formal occasions of state.

Councillor Tom Johnston
Cumbernauld

I HAVE noted a few letters regarding a possible national anthem for our country. I have over the years noted more than a few honest suggestions promoting different songs considered by the writers as appropriate. The suggestions clearly reflect the taste of the writer. However the emotions behind the suggestions do require quiet reflection concerning various aspects of the proposed tune, including the technicality along with past and future culture, ambition and the excitement of freedom in being our own decision-makers.

May I first look at the technical aspects. Scotland has a wide variety of musical genres. Any tune must be able to be played on a solo instrument, played by an orchestra, played by a pipe band, played by a fiddle orchestra. Perhaps even more important it must be easy to sing. I remember once reading that the best singing tunes tend to be slow in rhythm. Think about Amazing Grace or Auld Lang Syne, both slow and easy to vocalise.

When it comes to wording, the anthem should reflect and encompass the past, the present and more importantly the future. How do we achieve these aims? Firstly the tune. At a different time I suggested the air Flower o’ the Quern by James Scott Skinner, which is a beautiful slow piece of music easily playable by all the afore mentioned instruments and would never be difficult to sing. What about the words to accompany this proposed anthem?

The future of this country must be for future generations. May I suggest a competition be undertaken involving all under, say, 30 years and this should be judged by a respected panel of those capable of making a patriotic and considered verdict. The value of such an exercise is that it would make the young person aware of what really belongs to them. The anthem will be for generations still to experience the joy and the pride of being a Scot.

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