Curaçaoan National Anthem for String Orchestra

The lyrics were first written by a friar of Dutch origin, Friar Radulphus, in celebration of the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina in 1898. The song was known as "Den Tur Nashon Nos Patria Ta Poko Konosí" ("In Every Nation Our Fatherland Is Little Known"). During the celebrations, the pupils of a local elementary school, the St. Jozefschool, sang this to the melody of the Tyrolean hymn "Andreas-Hofer-lied".^[1]: 18

It wasn't until the 1930s when Friar Candidus Nouwens composed the melody to which the anthem is sung today. For many years since, the song was sung on the Dutch national holiday Koninginnedag (or Queen's Day), and on other official occasions. In 1978, the government commissioned a group to rewrite the lyrics before it would be adopted as the official anthem of Curaçao on 26 July.^[1]: 18 The assumed belittlement of the Island by the title and the first phrase was one of the motives for the adaptation ordered by the insular government. The website of the insular government of Curaçao cites Guillermo Rosario, Mae Henriquez, Enrique Muller and Betty Doran as the writers of the anthem's lyrics.