The first National Anthem dates back to 1819, when the Government decreed, on July 19th of that year, that music and lyrics be created for said purpose.
The famous composer Manuel Robles and the poet Bernardo de Vera y Pintado took up this task. Their creation premiered on August 20th, 1820 in Domingo Arteaga's theater, but some historians maintain that the song had already been played in September of the previous year to celebrate the National Holidays.
The anthem was soon sung at all performances in Arteaga's theater. At first, everyone stood up every time it was played. O'Higgins and Freire were always moved by it, and listened to it with great respect: they had marched to victory with that song playing in the background more than once.
However, the custom of playing the song every night at the theater gradually began to die out, and in the end it was only played on Independence Day.
The second Chilean National Anthem was composed by the Spaniard Ramón Carnicer, when he was exiled in England due to his liberal ideas. With the criticism that the first national anthem had been receiving at the time fresh in his mind, the Chilean Minister in London, Mariano Egaña, asked Carnicer to compose a new tune to accompany Bernardo de Vera's original text.
The Spanish musician thus composed a new song in 1827, and it premiered in Santiago on December 23rd, 1828 in a concert of the Philharmonic Society in Arteaga's theater.
Years later, around 1847, the Chilean Government put the poet Eusebio Lillo in charge of writing a new text to replace the inflammatory, anti-Spanish lyrics that Vera y Pintado had written. After consulting Andrés Bello, the government did stipulate that one phrase from the chorus of the original song be maintained in the new one: "Dulce patria, recibe los votos." ("Sweet homeland, receive these vows.").
Carnicer's music, as well as Lillo's lyrics, both faced widespread popular resistance before finally being accepted to replace the original music and words.
