Belonging to a possible future: a new ‘national’ anthem for Mars inspires us to dream and strive in 2020
One of the most powerful symbols of belonging is a national anthem. But here’s a twist: write the anthem to inspire the possibility of belonging to an imagined future, and spur the current generation to make it so.
An Indian former software analyst, Oscar Castellino, who’s now a rising star in the opera world, has written a new "national" anthem for Mars.
BBC News reports Oscar Castellino "was commissioned to give the Red Planet its own anthem by the Mars Society UK - to promote the idea that if humans ever live there then they will need their own musical identity."
“I want them to dream about this future we have. Of our children and their children, living across the solar system, and the great step that our generation can take and we have an opportunity to do.”
says Mr Castellino, who remembers looking at stars and far planets in the clear skies where he grew up in Northern India, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
A national anthem - with the twin power of words and music, even more than stamps, currency and flags - captures the emotive force of belonging, the principles and attitude of a nation.
We love that this one carries the emotion to make a new belonging, to Mars, possible.
It’s a stirring anthem, calling men and women to “Rise to Mars… Dare to dream! Dare to strive!”
Mumbai-born opera singer Oscar Castellino, composed the music and wrote the words in collaboration with Mars Society President and founder Dr. Robert Zubrin.
"It's truly a ‘Marseillaise’ for Mars! I would not at all be surprised if it someday became the national anthem of a Free Martian Republic. It is certainly going to be a favorite among all those pushing for a human future in space now and for years to come,” said Dr. Zubrin, in a release on the Mars Society website.
It was launched on YouTube summer 2017, picked up today by BBC News - appropriately inspirational for the start of the new decade.
You can hear it here and judge for yourself. We look forward to hearing more from Oscar Castellino's fine baritone.
Mr Castellino has already mastered musical and tech expression across diverse cultures as a citizen of the earth and now inspires us to improve culture beyond.