![]() ![]() (Find more historical Times shade-throwing here. A 1927 New York Times editorial, "Wanted, A National Anthem," voiced the common concerns. But many were not happy with merely codifying what had become complacency. Like so many famous songs of yore, 'The Star-Spangled Banner' started as a poem, called The Defence of Fort McHenry. The song had been the de facto anthem since President Wilson ordered it played at military events. ![]() Listen here (audio, and inspiration for this post, via the National Museum of American History). It's based off an 18th-century British pub song called "To Anacreon in Heaven." That's right: a song to be sung whilst drunk. The composition, argued the Music Supervisors National Conference in 1930 (now the National Association for Music Education), "was too difficult a musical composition to be rendered properly by schoolchildren, informal gatherings and public meetings where the singing of the national anthem appropriate," according to a 1930 New York Times article.Īlthough Francis Scott Key penned the words in 1814 during the War of 1812, the melody is actually much older. Even before Congress declared "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official anthem of the United States in 1931, its complicated melody and soaring pitches were controversial. ![]()
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