The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics were written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland by British ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. It became well known as a patriotic song to the tune of a popular English song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." It was recognized for official use by the United States Navy (1889) and by the White House (1916), and was made the national anthem by a Congressional resolution on March 3, 1931. Although the song has four verses, only the first is commonly sung today.
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History
Early history
On September 3, 1814, Key and John S. Skinner of Baltimore, Maryland, an American prisoner exchange agent, set sail from Baltimore aboard the sloop HMS Minden flying a flag of truce approved by James Madison. Their goal was to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, the elderly and popular town physician of Upper Marlboro, a friend of Key's who had been captured in Washington, DC and had been accused of harboring British deserters. Key and Skinner boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant on September 7 and spoke with General Robert Ross and Admiral Alexander Cochrane over dinner, while they also discussed war plans. In the beginning, Ross and Cochrane refused to release Beanes, but relented after Key and Skinner showed them letters written by wounded British prisoners praising Beanes and other Americans for their kind treatment.
Because Key and Skinner had heard much of the preparations for the Baltimore attack, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise, and later back onto the Minden sloop, waiting behind the British fleet. On September 13, at 7 a.m., the British fleet attacked the fort and the Battle of Baltimore was under way. Bombardment of the fort continued until 1 a.m. on September 14, after which some British gunboats attempted to slip past the fort and effect a landing in a cove to the west of it, but they were turned away by gunners at nearby Fort Covington, the city's last line of defense. During the rainy night, Key had witnessed the bombardment and observed that the fort's smaller "storm flag" continued to fly, but once the shelling stopped and it grew dark, he would not know how the battle turned out until dawn. By then, the storm flag had been lowered and the larger main flag had been raised.
Key was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the enormous American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, is today on display in the National Museum of American History, a part of the Smithsonian Institution. This flag was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program.
The next day, Key wrote a poem aboard the ship on the back of a letter he had in his pocket, continuing to write during the sail. After being released with Skinner in Baltimore at twilight on September 16, Key finished the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel where he was staying, entitling it "Defence of Fort McHenry".
Key gave his poem to his brother-in-law, Judge Joseph H. Nicholson, who recognized that the poem fit the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven", a popular melody dating from the mid-1760s, written in London by John Stafford Smith. Nicholson took the poem to a printer. These broadside copies, the song's first known printing, were printed anonymously in Baltimore on September 17 — of these, two known copies still exist.
On September 20, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American printed the song, with the note "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven." The song quickly became popular, with 17 newspapers from Georgia to New Hampshire printing it. Soon after, Thomas Carr of the Carr Music Store in Baltimore published the words and music together under the title "The Star-Spangled Banner." The song quickly became popular, and the first public performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" took place in October, when Baltimore actor Ferdinand Durang sang the song at Captain McCauley's tavern.
Percy Moran drew Francis Scott Key reaching out towards the flag in 1913. The song gained popularity throughout the19th century. On July 27, 1889, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy signed General Order #374, making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag.
In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. Two years later, in 1918, the song was first played at a baseball game; in the World Series, the band started an impromptu performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the seventh-inning stretch. The players and spectators stood at attention, took off their hats, and sang, giving rise to a tradition that is repeated at almost every professional baseball game in United States today, though it is now performed prior to the first pitch.
On November 3, 1929, Robert Ripley drew a cartoon in his Believe it or Not!, saying, "Believe it or Not, America has no national anthem."[citation needed] In 1931, John Philip Sousa published his opinion in favor, stating that "it is the spirit of the music that inspires" as much as it is Key's "soulstirring" words. By Congressional resolution signed by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the United States on March 3rd, 1931.
Modern history
One famous instrumental interpretation is Jimi Hendrix's guitar solo at the first Woodstock Festival. Although it was condemned by some conservatives as a desecration of the song (Roseanne's performance being far in the future), it has since become an emblematic signature of the ideals of the late 1960s.
When sung in public (before major sporting events, for example), for reasons of brevity, verses after the first are almost always omitted and relatively few Americans know the words beyond the first verse. Isaac Asimov's short story No Refuge Could Save made light of this when a foreign spy was identified when it was found he knew every stanza, the joke being that no "real" Americans would know it. It is also sometimes said humorously that the last two words of the national anthem are "PLAY BALL!" In March 2005 a government sponsored program was started in the USA to help the population learn the lyrics of the national anthem. This program, which was titled The National Anthem Project, was created in response to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive that showed many adults did not know the lyrics nor the history of the Star-Spangled Banner, despite learning them in school. <ref>Harris Interactive poll on The Star-Spangled Banner [1]</ref>
Performances and adaptations
- Main article: Performances and adaptations of The Star-Spangled Banner
The song is notoriously difficult for non-professionals to sing, due to its octave-and-a-half range. Garrison Keillor has frequently campaigned for the performance of the anthem in the original key, G major, which can, in fact, be sung by most average singers without difficulty. Humorist Richard Armour referenced the song's difficulty in his book It All Started With Columbus:
- "In an attempt to take Baltimore, the British attacked Fort McHenry, which protected the harbor. Bombs were soon bursting in air, rockets were glaring, and all in all it was a moment of great historical interest. During the bombardment, a young lawyer named Francis "Off" Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, and when, by the dawn's early light, the British heard it sung, they fled in terror!"
Notable
Professional singers have been known to forget the words, which is one reason why the song is so often pre-recorded and lip-synched. This situation was lampooned in the comedy film, The Naked Gun, as its star Leslie Nielsen, undercover as an opera singer at a ball game, made mincemeat of the lyrics. The pre-recording of the anthem has become standard practice at some ballparks (such as Boston's Fenway Park, according to the SABR publication, The Fenway Project) [2] in order to prevent a "Roseanne incident"; actress Roseanne Barr performed the song in San Diego on July 25, 1990, and her screechy rendition (complete with spitting and crotch-grabbing in an imitation of a baseball player) raised a few eyebrows and triggered changes in the way the song is presented.
Baseball
Chicago Cubs
Wayne Messmer, the Chicago Cubs public address announcer, occasionally presents his stirring rendition at Wrigley Field, wherein he ends on two rising notes, rather than dropping down the scale as the song is normally done. Many of the artists who sing the anthem infuse it with their own style, with pauses at their own discretion which make it difficult for the audience to sing along. Messmer does it "straight".
Baltimore Orioles
Several other adaptations of the anthem include changing some of the lyrics or to emphasize a word or phrase; mostly in order to show support for a sports team. Examples include the fans of the Baltimore, Maryland, Major League Baseball team have adapted the song to show support for the local team the Baltimore Orioles. Fans sing the song with a fortissimo emphasis upon the "Oh" in the stanza "Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave," which is a reference to the Orioles' nickname "the O's."
College
Cal
Students at the University of California, Berkeley modified the phrases "Oh, say can you see" to become "Oh, say can U! C!" (as in University of California), "And the rockets red glare" becomes "And the rockets BLUE! glare" (Cal's colors are blue and gold while red is associated with rival Stanford), and "And the home of the brave" becomes "And the home of the BEARS!" (Cal's mascot is the Golden Bear). Students at Cornell University yell "RED!" and raise their right hands during the stanza "And the rockets red glare".
Other
The tune has been used in a number of classical compositions. The city of Philadelphia commissioned Richard Wagner to write a piece in honour of the centenary of U.S. independence. The American Centennial March that he wrote uses a recurring allusion to the Star-Spangled Banner in its main theme. The last of Leopold Godowsky's set of 30 piano pieces titled "Triakontameron" is Requiem (1914-1918): Epilogue, which concludes with a full-blown romantic arrangement of the anthem. The opening strains of the anthem appear prominently in first portion of Edwin E. Bagley's National Emblem March. The title tune of the 1960s musical Hair famously contains the line, O, say, can you see my eyes? If you can, then my hair's too short!
Lyrics
- I.
- Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
- What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
- Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
- O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
- And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
- Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
- Chorus
- Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
- O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
- II.
- On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
- Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
- What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
- As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
- Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
- In full glory reflected now shines in the stream
- Chorus
- 'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
- O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- III.
- And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
- That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
- A home and a country should leave us no more!
- Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
- No refuge could save the hireling and slave
- From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave
- Chorus
- And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
- O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- IV.
- Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
- Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
- Bles't with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
- Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
- Then conquer we must, when1 our cause it is just,
- And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
- Chorus
- And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
- O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Note that under most circumstances only the first stanza is played but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's recording includes verses I and IV.
1 A very common mistake is to substitute for instead of when.
Proposed Samoan version
In January 2006 it was reported that a Samoan-language version of the first verse of the anthem had been translated by Pouesi Pouesi, Jr. of American Samoa Community College. A bill was subsequently introduced in the Senate of American Samoa to officially adopt the Samoan version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to complement the local anthem "Amerika Samoa". The proposed lyrics are as follows:
- I.
- Aue! se'i e vaai, le malama o ataata mai
- Na sisi a'e ma le mimita, i le sesega mai o le vaveao
- O ai e ona tosi ma fetu, o alu a'e i taimi vevesi tu
- I luga o 'Olo mata'utia, ma loto toa tausa'afia
- O Roketi mumu fa'aafi, o pomu ma fana ma aloi afi
- E fa'amaonia i le po atoa, le fu'a o lo'o tu maninoa
- Aue! ia tumau le fe'ilafi mai, ma agiagia pea
- I eleele o Sa'olotoga, ma Nofoaga o le au totoa <ref>The Samoa News reporting of an Samoan version [3]</ref>
Media
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External links
- Star Spangled Banner Lyrics, history, sheet music, photos and wav files.
- Isaac Asimov on the four stanzas of the anthem
- Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on "The Star-Spangled Banner"
- "Star-Mangled Banner: A look at some controversial, and botched, renditions of our national anthem"
- "The Star-Spangled Banner" by John A. Carpenter
- Easybyte - free easy piano arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner / Anacreon in Heaven
- Various recordings of the Star Spangled Banner
| Patriotic music of the United States | 
|
|---|---|
| "America the Beautiful" | "Ballad of the Green Berets" | "Battle Cry of Freedom" | "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" | "For The Dear Old Flag, I Die" | "God Bless America" | "God Bless the USA" | "Hail Columbia" "Hail to the Chief" | "The Liberty Bell" | "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" | "Over There" | "The Stars and Stripes Forever" | "The Star-Spangled Banner" "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" | "This is My Country" | "This Land is Your Land" | "Yankee Doodle" "The Yankee Doodle Boy" | "You're a Grand Old Flag" | "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" | |
