(Hymn of the nations), a cantata in a single movement, is one of only two secular choral works composed by Giuseppe Verdi. This Hymn incorporates "God Save the King", "La Marseillaise", and "Il Canto degli Italiani". It was the first collaboration between the composer and Arrigo Boito, who, much later, would revise the libretto of Simon Boccanegra and write the original libretti of Otello and Falstaff.
Although written for the 1862 International Exhibition in London, it premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre on 24 May 1862. It became the centerpiece of a 1944 propaganda film, Hymn of the Nations, where it was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini with the Westminster Choir and Jan Peerce as tenor soloist.
Background
In December 1858, the Society of Arts in London announced their intention to hold what was to be called the 1862 International Exhibition, seen as a successor to The Great Exhibition of 1851. Wanting to include musical performances (which were excluded from the 1851 exhibition), at the suggestion of the leading music critic Henry Chorley, they solicited new works from Daniel Auber (representing France), William Sterndale Bennett (England), Giacomo Meyerbeer (Germany) and Gioachino Rossini (Italy). Rossini declined the invitation.
Roberta Montemorra Marvin (who edited Inno delle nazioni for The Complete Works of Giuseppe Verdi series) considers that the committee did not initially ask Verdi to compose a piece because of Chorley's antipathy toward the composer's works. Nevertheless, after Rossini's refusal, in 1861 the committee invited Verdi, offering four suggestions as to form: anthem, chorale, triumphal march (for full orchestra), or march (for wind instruments). While honored by the request, Verdi tentatively declined, despite the intervention of fellow Italian and conductor Michael Costa, claiming his duties in preparing La forza del destino left no time available. He promised to consider the question in February 1862, once the preparation of the opera was out of the way.
Although Verdi detested writing occasional works, Marvin surmises that since Verdi was informed of the acceptance of the commission by Auber and Meyerbeer, personal pride and the chance at representing Italy at an international exhibition were the key reasons he took up the commission.
Composition history
When illness of the soprano forced a postponement of La forza del destino, Verdi departed St. Petersburg and arrived in Paris on 24 February 1862. Two encounters influenced his decision to commence work on a composition for the exhibition. The first was with the composer Daniel Auber who apparently conveyed to Verdi that he was composing a march for the occasion. In correspondence recalling this meeting, Verdi indicated that he was also composing a march. But in a subsequent letter to Costa he indicated he was writing an overture. Costa relayed this information to the commissioners who agreed with the form of composition.
Secondly, two up-and-coming Italian writers, Arrigo Boito and Franco Faccio, met with Verdi at the end of February 1862, bearing a letter of introduction from Countess Clara Maffei. Marvin suggests the purpose of the meeting might have been to indirectly prompt Verdi to work on the commission. As a result of this meeting, Boito was charged with writing the text of the proposed work.
On 19 March the commissioners received a letter from the composer "in which he expressed his wish to substitute for the overture a cantata with Italian words, the solo part of which would be executed by Signor Tamberlik." Though the commissioners rejected Verdi's proposal (believing the work would be too large for the exhibition space), Verdi refused their rejection and continued working on the cantata (he called the work Cantica), completing it towards the end of March.
He gave the completed manuscript to his wife Giuseppina, who traveled to London to deliver it in early April. Steadfast in their refusal to accept the work, they would not meet with Giuseppina and wrote to Verdi that they could not accept performance of the cantata, since the necessary preparations would be too large an undertaking. Verdi arrived in London on 20 April, expecting that his work would be performed. Through much wrangling the commissioners remained firm in their refusal, Costa declaring that because it was scored for voices, not just for orchestra, it was against the rules of the Commission, that it had not arrived in time, and that there would not be enough time to rehearse. Verdi wrote to the publisher Léon Escudier on 22 April telling him that his cantata would not be performed.