National scores, or when music connects with the territory

After redefining the notion of a national anthem, the process of attachment uniting this object to a territory and its people will be analyzed as part of a broader reflection by several geographers that aims to explore the convergences between music and geography. After a brief overview, a draft cartography of national anthems will show that their distribution in space seems to be organized around aesthetic specificities working toward the construction of an identity. Then, a brief analysis of the symbolism, the musical materiality, and the institutional relations of the object will underline the complex relations that link a national anthem to a people through a form of médiance. Finally, several examples chosen from different regions of the world will show that this process of attachment via a musical symbol varies in time and space, according to both the context and the specific characteristics of each cultural area, leading to a more or less strong correspondence between a territory and its anthem.