Background In 1819, the
contradanzas "" and "" were performed to celebrate the triumph of the patriots in the
Battle of Boyacá. After the
independence of Colombia in 1810 and the dissolution of
Gran Colombia in 1831, numerous songs were written in honour of the liberator
Simón Bolívar. One of the first antecedents of the national anthem was presented on 20 July 1836, when the Spanish Francisco Villalba, who had arrived in Colombia with a theatre company, composed a patriotic song for the
Republic of New Granada. The song became very popular and was considered the first patriotic anthem in the country. The verses of the chorus were as follows: In 1847, English composer and painter
Henry Price, founder of the Philharmonic Society of Bogotá, put music to some verses written by
Santiago Pérez in an anthem called "" ("National Song"), which was not widely accepted, due to its simplicity. Henry Price was the father of Jorge Wilson Price, who, after living in
New York City, returned to
Bogotá in 1855 to dedicate himself to translating compositions and founding the National Academy of Music of Colombia in 1882, inviting the young Italian composer
Oreste Síndici as an adviser and professor of the academy. In 1910, the National Academy of Music would become the National Conservatory of Colombia. In 1849, José Caicedo Rojas wrote a poem, and José Joaquín Guarín composed the melody of an anthem called "" ("Ode to 20 July"), which was set to music in the key of
E flat for four voices and orchestra. Its premiere was held at the , but due to its complexity, it did not convince the public either. Decree 256 of 12 April 1881 called for a competition to select the national anthem. The jurors for this contest were politician
José María Quijano, poet
Rafael Pombo and musician Carlos Schloss. In the reviews published in different newspapers, it was stated that none of the anthems performed aroused enthusiasm in the spirit of the jury and that for this reason the competition was declared void. On 1 July 1883, the government of the
Sovereign State of Cundinamarca organised a competition to select the anthem on the occasion of the centennial of the birth of the Liberator (Bolívar), on 24 July. The first prize was obtained by Daniel Figueroa, who composed an anthem with lyrics from various poems that premiered at the
Plaza de Bolívar with a choir of 2,000 children. The second prize was obtained by Cayetano Fajardo. For its part, the jury noted that none of the awarded anthems were classified as national anthems but rather patriotic songs.
Composition , In 1887, theatre director José Domingo Torres, who was used to enlivening the national holidays, sought out Síndici to ask him to write a song on the occasion of the celebration of the
independence of Cartagena, which was the first Colombian city to declare independence from the
Spanish, on 11 November 1811. For the song, Domingo Torres asked him to score a poem called ("Patriotic Hymn"), written by
President of the Republic
Rafael Núñez, in honour of Cartagena, which was composed to be declared publicly during the celebration of 11 November 1850 and published in the newspaper
La Democracia, when Núñez was still secretary of government of the
Province of Cartagena. After this first publication, the poem was adapted, improved and published by Núñez himself in the magazine
Hebdomadaria number 3 and 4, July 1883. A previous musicalisation of the same poem by Núñez, performed by maestros Delgado and Fortich, at the request of José Domingo Torres himself, which was performed at the Plaza de Bolívar on 20 July 1880, failed to gain acceptance among the audience present. Prior to that, Síndici had demanded that José Domingo Torres look for the author of the poem so that he would adjust the verses according to the necessary arrangement for a melody and give them a national connotation. For the composition of the anthem, Síndici retired to his
Hacienda "" ("The Meadow") in
Nilo, Cundinamarca, carrying a Dolt Graziano Tubi
harmonium. The original score in the key of E-flat major and four-beat measure (
tempo di marcia) is currently kept in the
National Museum of Colombia. The pre-premiere of the melody took place under a
tamarind tree in the main park of the Cundinamarca municipality on 24 July 1887, after Sunday mass. The national anthem was premiered on 11 November 1887 during the celebration of the independence of Cartagena with a choir of children from three primary schools, students of Síndici. This first interpretation of the anthem was performed at the (Theatre of Varieties) of the public school of Santa Clara, which was located in the current (Eighth Avenue), on the site of the , adjacent to the Convent and to the , in the jurisdiction of the
Bogotá Cathedral neighbourhood. Included within the programme of celebrations of that date was the laying of the first stone of the Municipal Theatre of Bogotá in this same place; the theatre was inaugurated in 1890 and operated there until its demolition and transfer to the
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Theater in 1952. President Núñez learnt of the impact of the melody and invited Oreste Síndici to present it officially. To that end, Minister of Government Felipe Fermín Paul was commissioned to organise a presentation of the anthem on 6 December of the same year at 9 p.m. in the grade room of the
Palacio de San Carlos, currently located in the
Museum of Colonial Art. The anthem was sung by a choir of 25 voices in the presence of the main civil, ecclesiastical and military authorities of the country. In the invitation to the event, the song was already announced as the "National Anthem".
Distribution The song quickly became well known, and several editions were published throughout the country in the following years. In 1890, the anthem was performed in
Rome,
Mexico,
Lima,
Caracas and
Curaçao. The first phonographic recording was made at the
Columbia Phonograph Company studios in New York City in July 1910, performed by the musical group (The
Antioquian Lyre) to celebrate the first centenary of the independence of Colombia. The national anthem appears referenced as such in various publications of the time, prior to its official adoption. Thus, an essay by Manuel María Fajardo from 1908, the patriotic
primer by Camilo Villegas y González from 1910, a text of selected poems by Lisímaco Palau from 1912 and a hymn book by Ernesto Murillo from 1917 already cite the song composed by Oreste Síndici as the national anthem of Colombia. The lyrics and sheet music of the anthem were also included in the centennial urn that was closed on 31 October 1911 and that was opened during the celebration of the , on 20 July 2010. For the adoption of the national anthem, the representative to the
Chamber for the department of
Nariño, Sergio Burbano, presented the bill on 9 August 1920. The plan was approved in the debate of the public instruction commission and later by the plenary session of the
Congress of the Republic, making it official by Law 33 of 18 October 1920, which was sanctioned by President
Marco Fidel Suárez. In this law, an expert opinion was also requested to recognise the artistic property rights of the heirs of Oreste Síndici. During the
border conflict with Peru (1932–1934), the soldiers who defended national sovereignty sang a refrain in the trumpet introduction when entering the battle front, in accordance with the warlike moment that the nation was experiencing. This transitory stanza stood as the following: This introduction was taught to students in primary schools in the 1930s, according to historian José Antonio Amaya, and it was still being taught in the 1960s. The final line is very similar to a line in the
national anthem of Cuba that goes, "¡Que morir por la patria es vivir!" As time went by, different versions of the anthem appeared. In 1946, the
Ministry of National Education, with the aim of unifying the criteria, appointed a commission made up of experts. As a result of this investigation, the government issued executive decree number 1963 of 4 July 1946, stating that the official scores and the transcriptions for symphony orchestra of the anthem made by
Norte de Santander musician in 1933 are the most faithful to the originals written by Oreste Síndici. Since then, this version has been officially adopted. Decree 3558 of 9 November 1949, which approves the "Garrison Service Regulations", is the first protocol norm that establishes the occasions on which the anthem must be sung. Law 12 of 29 February 1984 ratified in its article 4 the validity of the national anthem of Colombia. Law 198 of 17 July 1995, which legislates national symbols, made it mandatory to broadcast them on all radio and
television stations in the country at both 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (with the latter medium, on a varied schedule for those deprived of clear signal and not applicable to national cable TV channels), as well as during public addresses by the President of the Republic and other official events. ==Lyrics==