erinja:Almost every national anthem sounds old-fashioned. Almost every national anthem sounds like an old European hymn, even if the country is not European at all. I almost think that they purposely choose national anthems to be boring.

I redirect you all to this clip: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl6B7KntY6I

Adam Hill's redefinition of the Australian National Anthem.

And also don't be surprised to see my ranting in the comments

erinja:And the US national anthem is certainly unsingable..

You could try the Elvis song He's your uncle from the film Speedway instead. It's got the words Oh say, can you see, after all.

erinja:...
If we choose a more modern tune, no doubt it too will sound dated after a while. Might as well just live with what we have.

So, why todays Esperanto speakers need a hymn? I like singing esperanto karaokeo songs to have fun. For me every esperanto karaokeo song is a hymn by itselves. Generally I don't understand this historical hippie patriot hymn idea. I'm a happy member of a generation who never did encounter an horrible war scene. But it's just my personal opinion and I respect the historical reason for "La Espero". But I will never sing it.

Here's an extract from WJ Clark's International Language, about the First International Congress in 1905 that may help people understand the early enthusiasm:

"On Saturday evening, August 5, at eight o'clock, the Boulogne Theatre was packed with a cosmopolitan audience. The unique assembly was pervaded by an indefinable feeling of expectancy; as in the lull before the thunderstorm, there was the hush of excitement, the tense silence charged with the premonition of some vast force about to be let loose on the world. After a few preliminaries, there was a really dramatic moment when Dr. Zamenhof stood up for the first time to address his world-audience in the world-tongue. Would they understand him? Was their hope about to be justified? or was it all a chimera, "such stuff as dreams are made on"?

_Gesinjoroj_ (= Ladies and gentlemen)--the great audience craned forward like one man, straining eyes and ears towards the speaker,--_Kun granda plezuro mi akceptis la proponon..._ The crowd drank in the words with an almost pathetic agony of anxiety. Gradually, as the clear-cut sentences poured forth in a continuous stream of perfect lucidity, and the audience realized that they were all listening to and all understanding a really international speech in a really international tongue--a tongue which secured to them, as here in Boulogne so throughout the world, full comprehension and a sense of comradeship and fellow-citizenship on equal terms with all users of it--the anxiety gave way to a scene of wild enthusiasm. Men shook hands with perfect strangers, and all cheered and cheered again.

Zamenhof finished with a solemn declamation of one of his hymns..embodying the lofty ideal which has inspired him all through and sustained him through the many difficulties he has had to face. When he came to the end,..the whole concourse rose to their feet with prolonged cries of "Vivu Zamenhof!"

No doubt this enthusiasm may sound rather forced and unreal to those who have not attended a congress, and the cheers may ring hollow across intervening time and space. Neither would it be good for this or any movement to rely upon facile enthusiasm, as easily damped as aroused. There is something far more than this in the international language movement.

At the same time, it is impossible for any one who has not tried it to realize the thrill--not a weak, sentimental thrill, but a reasonable thrill, starting from objective fact and running down the marrow of things--given by the first real contact with an international language in an international setting. There really is a feeling as of a new power born into the world.."

To my ears it sounds like just about any other late nineteenth century march. No more or less dorky than any of them, and very common for the era. I don't hold it against them. Rock was still more than half a century away, and electronica nearly a century away.

The 1-2 rhythm of marches isn't something one hears nowadays very often, which probably is what is giving it its old-fashioned feel. Back then, though, Sousa was pretty generally popular, and "La Espero" therefore fits in with the times in which Esperanto originated. Nowadays we only hear marches during high school football games and military parades, but they used to be more widely played.

The hymn sounds alright to me, and I'm still in the teens. Some of the other Esperanto songs sound more "dorky" to me, but that's only because I'm not too into music in the first place. As said before, it fits in with the other anthems.