Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan

The piece was composed by Nakpil upon request of Andres Bonifacio to celebrate the founding of the Katipunan. It first played in the vicinity of Balara in November 1896. The hymn was originally intended for the Katipunan, which was dissolved on March 22, 1897.[1] However, it later became the anthem for the Tagalog Republic under Andrés Bonifacio. In 1903, Nakpil reworked his “Marangal na Dalit” as tribute to Jose Rizal under the title “Salve, Patria,” but the only surviving copies of the original score were destroyed in 1945, during the Battle of Manila (1945). The current version was reconstructed by Nakpil from memory when he was in his eighties.[2]

The anthem was not adopted by the first official Philippine Republic, thus it only remained as the anthem of the Katipunan. Instead, when President Aguinaldo was in Hong Kong, an anthem was composed to be the official anthem of the First Philippine Republic. However, Aguinaldo was not satisfied, thus, he requested Julián Felipe to compose an anthem for the Philippine Republic. On June 11, 1898, a day before the Proclamation of Independence, the Marcha Nacional Filipina was adopted as the official Philippine national anthem. It is still the music of the official national anthem of the Philippines, the lyrics being the Tagalog translation of José Palma's Spanish poem "Filipinas" (1899), with the current lyrics (titled Lupang Hinirang, written in 1956), were legally defined as such in 1998.[4]

• Lupang Hinirang
• Dalit (poem)
• Julio Nakpil
• Julián Felipe
• Philippines

• Lyrics at Lyrics Translate