By: Katia Camejo
Havana, Cuba. - Our National Anthem, patriotic and warlike, so attached to the formation of Cuban nationality as the flag of the lone star, was sung in the redeeming battlefield on foot or on horseback. It inspired mambises in the heat of each battle and then spurred the revolutionaries who pursued the path of full-fledged independence.
But it was not always how we know it today. It had a significant modification when composer Antonio Rodriguez-Ferrer added the overture that nowadays identifies it. It was played for the first time on December 20, 1898 in the Havana village of Guanabacoa, to welcome General Rafael de Cardenas and the Liberation Army forces under his command.
When the author of that instrumental referred to his work, he assured that the first fragment was totally his, but the rest belonged to cavalry reveilles of armies from all nations, and he gave the example of the reveilles of the Spanish, Prussian and Piedmonts’ cavalries.
Antonio Rodriguez-Ferrer was born in Havana in 1864 and stood out since a very early age because of his compositions for bands and orchestras. He had an innovative way of mixing the traditional with the new trends in his creations, while he served as bandleader and teacher of different music schools of the late XIX and early XX centuries.
Despite the elegance that the introduction brings to our National Anthem, some experts of those days did not agree, arguing that this type of musical composition did not require it. Nevertheless, nothing prevented Rodriguez-Ferrer’s contribution from becoming part of the legendary Perucho Figueredo’s piece, so that all Cubans could proudly sing: To die for the country is to live!
Translated by Pedro A. Fanego.
