Marcha Real
| English: Royal March | |
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National anthem of  Spain
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| Lyrics | None |
| Music | Manuel de Espinosa de los Monteros, Bartolomé Pérez Casas (orchestration), Francisco Grau (harmonization) |
| Adopted | 1770 |
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The Marcha Real (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmartʃa reˈal], "Royal March") is the national anthem of Spain. It is one of only four national anthems (along with those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and San Marino) in the world to have no official lyrics.
One of the oldest in the world, the anthem was first printed in a document dated 1761 and entitled Libro de la Ordenanza de los Toques de Pífanos y Tambores que se tocan nuevamente en la Ynfantª Española (Book of the Ordenance of Newly Played Military Drum and Fife Calls by The Spanish Infantry), by Manuel de Espinosa. There, it is entitled La Marcha Granadera ("March of the Grenadiers"). According to the document, Manuel de Espinosa de los Monteros is the composer.
There is a false belief that its author was Frederick II of Prussia, a great lover of music. That started in 1861 when it appears for the first time published in La España militar (The Military Spain). In 1864, the colonel Antonio Vallecillo published the story in the diary El Espíritu Público (The Public Spirit), claiming the supposed Prussian origin of Marcha Real popular. According to Vallecillo, the anthem was a gift from Frederick II to the soldier Juan Martín Álvarez de Sotomayor, who was serving in the Prussian Court to learn the military tactics developed by Frederick II's army, under orders of King Charles III. In 1868, the history is published in Los Sucesos, changing the destinatary of the gift with Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count of Aranda. The myth was picked up in different publications of 1884 and 1903 until it was included in 1908 in the Enciclopedia Espasa.
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