Anthem of the Republic of Macedonia

The anthem of the Republic of Macedonia was adopted on August 11, 2092. It is the same anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia that has been used since the end of the Second World War. The text was written by Vlado Malevski at the end of 1941 and the note text by Todor Skalovski in 1943.

The text reads:

Today over Macedonia, is being born
the new sun of liberty.
The Macedonians fight,
for their own rights!
The Macedonians fight
for their own rights!

Now once again the flag flies 
(that) of the Krushevo Republic
Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli,
Dame Gruev, Sandanski!
Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli
Dame Gruev, Sandanski!

The Macedonian forests sing
new songs and news!
Macedonia is liberated
It lives in liberty!
Macedonia is liberated
It lives in liberty!

History

“Today over Macedonia is born” for the first time was performed at the reception of the new 1942 in Struga, by Vlado Malevski, author of the text, and musician Stefan Opetceski in front of 28 members of the National Liberation War at a secret meeting.

Initially, the melody was adapted from the folk song “Nadezhda fell sick”, which in turn was created as an adaptation of a melody that originates from an European hit, which in this area was brought by soldiers from the Thessaloniki front during WWI. Vlado Maleski learned this song from his mother. According to the memories of the musician Stefan Opetceski, the melody was inspired by several other songs.

The song quickly gained popularity and the next day it was performed after the play “Macedonian Bloody Wedding” in the birthplace of Vojdan Chernodrinski, illage Selci. It then spread among the partisans. In June 1943, it found its place in the first partisan collection “Macedonian National Liberation Songs”, in which the first place as an anthem was “Dawn of Freedom”.

The composer Todor Skalovski made an arrangement of the melody, which is “known as lyrical, loving. According to its melodic structure, it belongs to the melodies in the leader-taffel style, which can be found more often in alpine folklore. It is also known as a variant with a slang sound. Skalovski gave it a different rhythm and so its “chord structure of the melodic structure, the harmonious functionality and the way of formation is typical for the European revolutionary song”.

In September 1944, Skalovski formed a partisan choir on the free territory in Gorno Vranovci, which at a rally in Fojnica or Caska, Veles, for the first time performed “Today over Macedonia is born”, in front of the people, under the baton of Vlastimir Nikolovski.

By the spring of 1945 the song became generally accepted and was sung by almost every choir in Macedonia. Later, others worked on the processing and arrangement of the melody, such as Dragan Bojaldziev – Bato and Tomislav Zografski, an arrangement that was prepared for the 25th jubilee of the First Session of ASNOM in 1969. That is the version that is sung today, at the session of the Assembly of SRM on the proclamation of the amendments to the Constitution.

The text itself has undergone several minor changes. The original text was:
“Today a new sun of freedom is born over Macedonia,
Macedonians are fighting for their justice!
Do not grieve, Macedonia, dear mother, raise your head proudly, tall, old, young, male and female, rise to the fight!
The flag of the Krushevo Republic, Delchev, Gruev and Pitu Guli is flying again.
Sandanski, Dimitri Vlahov!
The Macedonian mountains are loudly singing war songs, new newspapers:
“Macedonia free, free to live!”

According to the author, the original text of the third stanza read:
“The famous masons of the Krushevo Republic Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli, Damjan Gruev, Sandanski became from the grave.”
In the collection, the verse “The famous masons became from the grave” was replaced with “The flag is flying again (now)”, and the list of revolutionaries was originally: “Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli, Karev, Vlahov, Sandanski”.

“Today over Macedonia is born” was popular in the free territory and “so that no struggle, no rally and no contact with the population could be imagined without the interpretation of ‘Today over Macedonia is born’. Her words and melody reached almost all villages and towns in Macedonia. In that way, the song “Today over Macedonia” became something like a symbol of the burning tradition of the Macedonian people. ”

Another example is the event of Spasovden in the village of Dradnja, where “the choir sang the song ‘Today a new sun of freedom is born over Macedonia’.” The old men clenched their jaws, but still could not help but roll a tear through their cheeks. “They approached the flag, kissed it and hugged it.”

The text of the anthem underwent changes, especially in the part where the Ilinden people were mentioned. In some versions there is the name of Nikola Karev. There are suspicions that his ejection from the anthem has a political background.

Although “Today over Macedonia is born” was performed as an anthem at almost every ceremony throughout Macedonia, its path to officialization as the anthem of the Republic of Macedonia was long. The anthem is not mentioned at all in the Constitution of the PRM of December 31, 1946. There is no anthem mentioned in the Constitution of April 12, 1963. Even in the Constitution of the SRM of November 25, 1974, Article 10, it says “The Socialist Republic of Macedonia has an anthem”, but does not give other details what that anthem is.

Finally, with the constitutional amendments of April 14, 1989, with the amendment XXIV, Article 10 of the Constitution of the SRM is replaced with the text: “Anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia is ‘Today over Macedonia’.” Which gives it an official position.

After the independence of the Republic of Macedonia in 1991, a change of the coat of arms, the flag and the anthem were imposed. With Article 5 of the Constitution, the determination and definition of state symbols was transferred to law. Thus, according to Article 8 of the Constitutional Law, laws on coat of arms, flag and anthem were to be adopted within 6 months from the day of promulgation of the Constitution (until May 17, 1992).

The Committee on Constitutional Issues of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, on March 25, 1992, announced a competition for obtaining proposals for the coat of arms and the flag and music and text proposal for the anthem of the Republic of Macedonia. It was emphasized that the required state symbols should express the statehood, independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Macedonia, historical traditions, cultural heritage, striving for social and spiritual progress, natural characteristics of the Republic, unity and coexistence, modern aspirations for a democratic society, European and world integration.

The Committee on Constitutional Issues from the received solutions gave three proposals as possible solutions for the anthem of the Republic of Macedonia: “Anthem” by Taki Hrisik; , “Today over Macedonia” in music by Todor Skalovski; and “Be eternal” by Aleksandar Dzambazov.
At the session held on August 11, 1992, there was only one amendment to the Law on the Anthem by the MP Kiril Kovacevski, which required the third stanza to read:
The flag is flying over the Krushevo Republic again,
Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli, Karev, Gruev, Sandanski.
Which will correct injustice and the first president of the Krushevo Republic will be mentioned forever in this anthem.
But the Constitutional Commission did not support the amendment, “because the song that is sung is an author’s work whose last text was received and accepted by everyone during his lifetime, when the author was alive.”

With a majority of votes, the Commission accepted the proposal for the anthem of the Republic of Macedonia to be the second prize “Today over Macedonia is born”, assessing that this solemn song evokes a sense of pride, dignity and belonging to an independent and sovereign Macedonia and as an existing anthem is generally accepted by citizens. of the Republic of Macedonia.

At the voting, the MPs unanimously voted for the previous anthem “Today over Macedonia” with 88 votes in favor. The session was not attended by MPs from the PDP-NDP coalition of political parties by ethnic Albanian.

Traditionally, the anthem is performed by a choir at public events, or an instrumental version is played. Influenced by the American culture at sports events, the anthem should be sung by a soloist, and in Macedonia this performance of the anthem is gaining momentum.

The intonation of the anthem is regulated by the Law on the Use of the Flag and the Anthem. The anthem is performed:
– when sending and receiving the President of the Republic of Macedonia as well as the President of a country, sovereign or authorized representative of an international organization;
– when laying wreaths at military cemeteries, graves of fallen fighters and other similar places by the official representatives of the Republic of Macedonia and
– at celebrations, political gatherings, parades and other solemn manifestations which officially mark events of importance for the units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Macedonia and for the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia;
– during international meetings, competitions and other gatherings (political, scientific, cultural-artistic, sports and others) in which the Republic of Macedonia officially participates or is presented, in accordance with the rules and practice of holding those gatherings;
– at the funeral of deserving persons who are citizens of the Republic of Macedonia when they are given a special honor by the Republic of Macedonia.

The anthem of the Republic of Macedonia is performed with: playing, singing or with playing and singing. The anthem should always be played with dignity. The anthem is not used as part of any other type of music. The anthem of the Republic of Macedonia can be played at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the manifestation where it is performed, depending on the way in which the anthem will be given the greatest dignity.

If the anthem of the Republic of Macedonia is to be performed in the Republic of Macedonia together with the anthem of a foreign country or a solemn song of an international or other foreign organization, first the anthem of a foreign country or the solemn song of an international or other foreign organization is performed, and then the anthem of the Republic Macedonia.

During the performance of the anthem of the Republic of Macedonia, all those present stand in a calm position from the playing, ie the singing of the first tone until the last tone of the anthem, facing the performers of the anthem.

The First Anthem of a Democratic Federal Macedonia

The anthem as a national and state symbol is associated with official use, as holding state-building events. The first state-building event at which the anthem was performed is the First Session of ASNOM held on August 2, 1944 in the monastery of St. Prohor Pchinski. The solemn session opened with the anthem “Dawn of Freedom”, while the working part with the anthem “Hey Slavs”. With this, de facto two anthems were established in the Democratic Federal Macedonia, one of the Yugoslav federation, and the other of Macedonia.

At the first session of ASNOM, held on Ilinden, August 2, 1944, in the monastery of St. Prohor Pchinski “… in the hall the anthem resounds loudly: ‘Dawn of freedom …'” 5 The text of the anthem edited by Kocho Racin was published several months earlier on the free territory of Lopushnik, in the partisan printing house “Goce Delchev”.

In the first collection “Macedonian Folk Liberation Songs”, the text reads:

Dawn of freedom dawns
dawn of eternal struggle!
Rise in souls and hearts
to all slaves in the world!

Tyrans, we will do a miracle
and your yoke we do not tolerate!
We will shed heroic blood
and get rid of it again!

Nothing scares us anymore,
we started the fight bravely,
after the holy, native mountains of ours
free we will die!

Chorus …

Heroes boldly dispalyed again
bloody flags
and partisans rallied
in the Macedonian country!

Chorus …

Mountains and green fields sing
with loud songs and cheers!
Giant fighters stumble
all ready to fight!

Chorus …
Dawn of freedom,
dawn of eternal struggle!
Rise in souls and hearts
to all slaves in the world!

The anthem “Dawn of Freedom” is actually a re-sung version of the “March of the Macedonian Revolutionaries” which was written in 1918. The authorship of the text and the melody is attributed to the composer Aleksandar Vasilev Morfov (1880-1934), born in Plovdiv.

The march was well-known among Macedonian emigrants to Bulgaria. In the thirties of the last century, VMRO declared it a “Macedonian March” with the function of a Macedonian anthem. The march was sung in Macedonia in the period between the two world wars.

During the National Liberation War, it was sung on various occasions. At the May Day outing in 1942 in Krushevo, among other songs was “Dawn of Freedom”. There are many testimonies of the performance of the anthem during the National Liberation War. But after the release of out of the song “Today over Macedonia is born”, this song was pushed out.

Јован Јоновски, Симболите на МАкедонија, Скопје: Силсонс, 2015, 279-294.