'Hey Slovaks, Where Is My Home?' Slovak Lyrics for Non-Slovak National Songs

Abstract

Songs are cultural artifacts which may be 'national' in two distinct ways: they may (1) have been written by a member of the nation in the national language, and as products of a distinct culture thus be ascribed to that culture, or (2) they may have lyrics which consciously glorify a national culture, its myths or its symbols. One would expect songs from the second category to belong to the first as well, but this need not be the case. 'The Star Spangled Banner', for example, has the melody of a British drinking song. Another melody has national lyrics in three different countries. Britain has 'God Save the Queen', the United States has 'My Country 'tis of Thee', Germany has 'Heil dir im Siegeskranz' ('Hail to you in Laurels of Victory'); but all these songs share the same melody. This paper discusses patriotic songs that borrowed not only a melody from outside the national culture, but also lyrics. During the nineteenth-century, Slovak patriots rewrote at least two Czech patriotic songs, and in both cases, the lyrics remained recognizably similar to the Czech originals. Furthermore, these new versions were generally reprinted without accompanying music: readers were assumed to be familiar with the Czech melody. This paper analyzes the texts of these songs as a case study in the role of national songs in nation building, and as a window into the development of Slovak national culture.