Selwyn Walford Young (February 25, 1899 – 1977), usually known as ''Walford Young'', was a Belizean musician and composer. Among his most famous compositions is the music to Belize's

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

, " Land of the Free".

Life and Career

He was born into a musical family. He graduated from St. John's College, then moved to Chicago where he studied at

Chicago Musical College Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. History Founding Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...

and earned his music PhD from

DePaul University DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...

. He studied briefly at the Victoria College of Music in London. After teaching in Chicago for twenty years, he returned to Belize. There he became concertmaster and eventually conductor of the British Honduras Concert Symphony Orchestra. In 1963, he set to music the 1925 poem "Land of the Gods" written by his friend Samuel Alfred Haynes. In 1981 this song was adopted as Belize's national anthem, with the minor alteration of changing the words "Land of the Gods" to "Land of the Free". This was done without consulting Young or Haynes, and without regard to international copyright status of the song. In 1993 he was one of the four eminent Belizeans honored on Belizean stamps designed by Laszlo Vasarhelyi. His image appeared on Belize's 60-cent stamp, along with the opening of the refrain of Land of the Free.

Selected Compositions

* Land of the Free (1963), adopted as Belize's national anthem in 1981. * an arrangement of G. W. Bates' ''Shake That Thing'' (1925)

References

1899 births 1977 deaths Belizean musicians Belizean composers Male composers National anthem writers 20th-century male musicians {{NorthAm-composer-stub