The Star-Spangled Banner

On September 3, 1814, Key and John S. Skinner, an American prisoner-exchange agent, set sail from Baltimore aboard the sloop HMS Minden flying a flag of truce on a mission approved by U.S. President James Madison. Their objective 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 his home. Beanes was accused of aiding in the arrest of British soldiers. Key and Skinner boarded the British flagship, HMS Tonnant, on 7 September and spoke with Major General Robert Ross and Admiral Alexander Cochrane over dinner, while they discussed war plans. At first, 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 details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise, and later back on Minden. After the bombardment, certain 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 fire from 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 had stopped, he would not know how the battle had turned out until dawn. By then, the storm flag had been lowered, and the larger flag had been raised.

Key was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the large American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, came to be known as the Star Spangled Banner Flag and is today on display in the National Museum of American History, a treasure of the Smithsonian Institution. It was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program.

Aboard the ship the next day, Key wrote a poem on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket. At twilight on 16 September, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore. He finished the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel, where he was staying, and he entitled it "Defense of Fort McHenry."

Key gave the poem to his brother-in-law, Judge Joseph H. Nicholson. Nicholson saw that the words fit the popular melody "To Anacreon in Heaven", an old British drinking song from the mid-1760s, composed in London by John Stafford Smith. Nicholson took the poem to a printer in Baltimore, who anonymously printed broadside copies of it—the song’s first known printing—on 17 September; of these, two known copies survive.

On 20 September, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American printed the song, with the note "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven". The song quickly became popular, with seventeen 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", although it was originally called "Defense of Fort McHenry." The song’s popularity increased, and its first public performance took place in October, when Baltimore actor Ferdinand Durang sang it at Captain McCauley’s tavern.

The song gained popularity throughout the nineteenth century and bands played it during public events, such as July 4 celebrations. On 27 July 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, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. Although the playing of the song two years later during the seventh-inning stretch of the 1918 World Series is often noted as the first instance that the Anthem was played at a baseball game, evidence shows that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was performed as early as 1897 at Opening Day ceremonies in Philadelphia and then more regularly at the Polo Grounds in New York City beginning in 1898. Today, the anthem is performed before the first pitch at every game.

On 3 November 1929, Robert Ripley drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, Believe it or Not!, saying "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem."[3] 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 "soul-stirring" words. By a law signed on 3 March 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the United States.

The first modern non-traditional arrangement of the anthem heard by mainstream America was by Puerto Rican singer and guitarist Jose Feliciano. He stunned the crowd at Tiger Stadium in Detroit and the rest of America when he strummed a slow, bluesy rendition of the national anthem before Game 5 of the 1968 World Series between Detroit and St. Louis. This rendition started contemporary "Star-Spangled Banner" controversies. The response from many in Vietnam-era America was generally negative, given that 1968 was a tumultuous year for the United States. Despite the controversy, Feliciano's performance opened the door for the countless interpretations of the "Star-Spangled Banner" we hear today. [4]

Another famous instrumental interpretation is Jimi Hendrix’s guitar solo at the first Woodstock Festival. Incorporating sonic effects to emphasize the "rockets' red glare" and "bombs bursting in air", it became a late-1960s emblem.

Whitney Houston’s rendition at Super Bowl XXV with the Florida Orchestra is considered by some to be one of the best performances of the song. There were actually no live microphones; everyone was lip synching and finger synching^{[citation needed]}. Houston's vocal and the orchestra track had been separately prerecorded. Mariah Carey's rendition at Super Bowl XXXVI is another outstanding prerecorded performance featuring one of the highest notes sung using the Whistle register.

When sung in public (before major sporting events, for example), verses after the first are almost always omitted, and few Americans know their words, or even that they exist. Isaac Asimov’s short story No Refuge Could Save made light of this: a foreign spy was identified when it was found he knew every stanza, the joke being that no "real" American would know the whole text.

It is also sometimes said humorously that the last two words of the national anthem are "PLAY BALL!" since that phrase is shouted by baseball umpires after the anthem is played before games. On his album Wake Up America! Abbie Hoffman and several musicians perform a raucous version of the song, with Hoffman shouting "Play ball!" at the song's conclusion. American motor racing events also play the song before the start of the race, leading to the other supposed last words of the anthem: "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

In 1990, Roseanne Barr sang an altered version of the song before a baseball game in San Diego, adding her own brand of baseball humor at the end of the rendition by grabbing/scratching her crotch and spitting. She was booed off the field at the song's conclusion.

In March 2005, the government-sponsored The National Anthem Project was launched after a Harris Interactive poll showed many adults knew neither the lyrics nor the history of the anthem. ^[1] While some view this project (sponsored by the military and various corporations) as a form of wartime propaganda, some music teachers say it will offer benefits for music education by bringing new attention to their efforts.

When the song is performed in public, it is customary for American citizens to stand and face the American flag, if one is displayed, while placing their right hands over their hearts. If no flag is on display, it is customary to stand and face the source of the music. Men are also encouraged to remove their hats during the performance, sometimes holding the hat over the heart. Military personnel normally salute during the national anthem when outdoors and stand at attention when it is played indoors. When it is played by an orchestra in the United States, it is customary for the orchestra to stand while playing.

The anthem has also been translated into other languages. In 1861, it was translated into German. [5] It has been translated into Yiddish by Jewish immigrants [6], and into French by Acadians of Louisiana [7]. The third verse of the anthem has also been translated into Latin. [8] It has been translated into Samoan; here are the last four lines of the first verse:

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.^[2].

A Spanish-language recording of the "Star-Spangled Banner" called "Nuestro Himno" was released on 28 April 2006. This was a few days before nationwide demonstrations on 1 May regarding immigration-law reform. This recording was created as a show of support for all immigrants, the majority of whom are of Hispanic origin, in the United States in response to a proposed crackdown on illegal immigration.

"Nuestro Himno" used the text of the Spanish-language version translated by Francis Haffkine Snow of the "The Star-Spangled Banner" called "La Bandera de Estrellas." This version was published by the US Bureau of Education in 1919. This same translation is on the United States Department of State's website. A reproduction of the original sheet music is on the Library of Congress website.

Public reaction to "Nuestro Himno" was widely divided. It drew this response from President George W. Bush: "I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English." ^[3] President Bush's administration had Spanish versions of the Anthem posted online. ^[4]

The song is notoriously difficult for nonprofessionals to sing, because its range is wide: an octave and a half. Garrison Keillor has frequently campaigned for the performance of the anthem in the original key, G major—which can, in fact, be managed by most average singers without difficulty.^[5] (It is usually played in A-flat or B-flat.) Humorist Richard Armour referred to 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 Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner", and when, by the dawn's early light, the British heard it sung, they fled in terror!

Professional and amateur singers have been known to forget the words, which is one reason the song is so often prerecorded and lip-synched. This situation was lampooned in the comedy film The Naked Gun, as its star Leslie Nielsen, undercover as opera singer Enrico Palazzo at a baseball game, made mincemeat of the lyrics. The prerecording of the anthem has become standard practice at some ballparks (such as Boston's Fenway Park, according to the SABR publication The Fenway Project) [9].

The tune has been referenced in many other musical compositions.

• The city of Philadelphia commissioned Richard Wagner to write a piece in honor of the centenary of U.S. independence. His American Centennial March uses a recurring allusion to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in its main theme.
• The nineteenth-century American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk incorporated both "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Yankee Doodle" in his piano composition The Union.
• Giacomo Puccini controversially used the opening phrases of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as a theme for the character of Pinkerton in his opera Madama Butterfly.
• The last of Leopold Godowsky's set of thirty piano pieces titled Triakontameron is "Requiem (1914–1918): Epilogue", which concludes with a full-blown romantic arrangement of the anthem.
• The paraphrase of the first stanza is used in the score of American Panorama (1933) by Daniele Amfitheatrof.
• The title tune of the 1960s musical Hair contains the lines (sung to the usual tune) "O, say, can you see / my eyes? If you can / then my hair's too short!"
• In the musical 1776 the song "Cool, Cool Considerate Men" starts and ends with the beginning bars of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and begins with the lyrics "Oh say do you see what I see?"
• In the multi-media performance piece "Home of the Brave", by artist/musician Laurie Anderson.

Several films have their titles taken from the song lyrics. These include two films entitled Dawn's Early Light (2000 [10] and 2005 [11]), two Made-For-TV features entitled By Dawn's Early Light (1990 [12] and 2000 [13] ), two films entitled So Proudly We Hail (1943 [14] and 1990 [15] ) , and a feature (1977 [16]) and a short (2005 [17]) both entitled Twilight's Last Gleaming. One version each of By Dawn's Early Light and Twilight's Last Gleaming deal with nuclear warfare.

In the movie The Sum of All Fears, the last four lines of the last verse are sung at what is presumably the Super Bowl in Baltimore before a terrorist nuclear bomb destroys the city. Appropriately, the song was written while Baltimore was being attacked by the British.

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Star-Spangled Banner.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Star-Spangled Banner

• Library of Congress article
• National Museum of American History article
• Maryland Online Encyclopedia article
• British Attack on Ft. McHenry Launched from Bermuda
• 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"
• "Stars and Stripes Forever" City Pages, July 4, 2001
• "The Toughest 2 Minutes"

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