Harun Fazul and The Star-Spangled Banner: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Defence of Fort M'Henry broadside.GIF|200px|thumb|right|Nicholson took the copy Key gave him to a printer, where it was published as a [[broadside (music)|broadside]] on [[September 17]] under the title "The Defence of Fort McHenry," with an explanatory note explaining the circumstances of its writing. Of the five copies made, two are known to still exist.]]

#REDIRECT [[Fazul Abdullah Mohammed]]

"'''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|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 drinking 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 [[Congress of the United States|Congressional]] resolution on [[March 3]], [[1931]]. Although the song has four verses, only the first is commonly sung today.

==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|HMS ''Minden'']] flying a [[White flag|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 [[Greater Upper Marlboro, Maryland|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.

[[Image:Bombardment2.jpg|251px|thumb|left|An artist's rendering of the battle at [[Fort McHenry]].]]

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 [[Flag of the United States|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".

[[Image:KeysSSB.jpg|right|thumb|[[Francis Scott Key]]'s original manuscript copy of his Star-Spangled Banner poem. It is now on display at the Maryland Historical Society.]]

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 (music)|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 [[Province of Georgia|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]].

===Gaining popularity and official status===

The song gained popularity throughout the [[19th century]]. On July 26, 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.

Eventually, a concerted public relations effort was made to make the song the country's national anthem (there had until that time been no official anthem). 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 Congressional resolution signed by President [[Herbert Hoover]], "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the United States on [[March 3]], [[1931]].

===Modern history===

[[Image:Jimih.jpg|150px|thumb|left|[[Jimi Hendrix]] performed an alternative version of the anthem]]

One of the most famous instrumental interpretations 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 Barr|Roseanne's]] performance being far in the future), it has since become a celebrated 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 [[baseball|BALL]]!"

A New York based band, [[Seeking Homer]], released a version of the Star Spangled Banner on their second CD, A Good Hard Smack, in [[1998]]. This rendition starts out with traditional harmonizing vocals and an acoustic guitar and ends with a more modern flare of electric guitars and chanting (e.g. "To the fathers who fought our wars/Kept the enemies off these shores" and "From [[San Francisco Bay]] to the coast of [[Portland, Maine]]/To the fisherman in [[Alaska]] to the farmers up in [[Nebraska]]/ [[USA]]!.) This version was used by the [[PGA]] golf tournament with a montage of clips from the weekend. After the terrorist attacks on NYC on [[September 11, 2001]], the band re-recorded and released an extended version of the track and gave all proceeds to the [[American Red Cross]] fund.

[[Image:StarSpangledBanner2.JPG|200px|thumb|right|Percy Moran drew Francis Scott Key reaching out towards the flag in [[1913]].]]

==Trivia==

* The lyrics can be sung to the tune of the [[National Anthem of the Soviet Union]] or the [[National Anthem of Russia]] (same tune, different Russian lyrics) with no modification, since all of them are in [[Alexandrine]] [[poetic meter|meter]]. There is a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to this tune by [[Iron Curtain (band)|Iron Curtain]].

* The tune "[[To Anacreon in Heaven]]" was at one time the national anthem of [[Luxembourg]].

* Because it is the most explicitly anti-British verse (and also fairly gory), the third is virtually never sung.

* The first stanza is full of questions. It is in the other stanzas that these questions are answered, although they are almost never sung.

* The ''Minden'' was built at [[Mumbai]], formerly known as Bombay, India.

* A common stage trick done by [[vocalists]] is, during the singing of the words "free" and "brave" near the end of the song, to jump up to the tonic as a demonstration of [[Virtuoso|virtuosity]]. For example, when [[Whitney Houston]] performed the song at [[Super Bowl XXV]], her voice jumped to higher notes on the word "free" than was intended in the original song.

* [[Mariah Carey]] hit the B6 note in her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at the 2002 Superbowl.

* A similar trick may also be done by instrumentalists, who play higher notes on the same words as the vocalists. [[Saxophone|Saxophonist]] [[David Sanborn]] did this in a duet with [[Brian McKnight]] when they performed together at the [[1997]] [[NBA All-Star Game]]. When McKnight sang "free," Sanborn responded by playing a much higher note on his saxophone.

* In [[March 2005]] a government sponsored program was started in the USA to help the population learn the lyrics of the national anthem.

==Local variations==

There are several popular local variations on the ending and other changes in emphasis:

*The [[University of California, Berkeley]], at the singing of the National Anthem, will replace "the rockets' red glare" with "the rockets' BLUE glare" and "home of the brave" with "home of the BEARS".

*Rock singer [[Steven Tyler]] of [[Aerosmith]] improvised on the song's ending by singing "...and the home of the [[Indianapolis 500]]," in reference to the race he performed at. This offended veterans' groups, and they demanded an apology from Tyler.

*The anthem's performance at every [[University of North Dakota]] hockey game ends with the entire crowd yelling "SIOUX!" in the place of "Brave." (Similarly, whenever the national anthem is performed at [[University of Oklahoma]] sporting events, the last line becomes, "and the home of the 'SOONERS!'")

*At [[North Carolina State University]] sporting events, students and fans often shout the word "red" in the line "the rockets' red glare" and replace "brave" at the end of the song with "wolfpack" in tribute to the school's color and mascot. However, this practice has come under fire recently, though it has not led to any change in behavior.

*When the song is performed at [[Atlanta Braves]] games, the final word is pluralized, making the last line "and the home of the BRAVES!" (Sometimes, "Atlanta" may be added before "Braves.")

* When the song is performed at [[Tacoma Rockets]] hockey games, the word "rockets'" is shouted. ("...and the ROCKETS' red glare...") This is also done at [[Houston Rockets]] games.

* At home games of the [[Baltimore Orioles]], who are affectionately known as the "O's", when the song is performed, the "Oh" in the line "Oh say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave" is emphasized and yelled out, rather than sung. Fans also raise their hands above their heads to form a circle/"o". This is such a tradition in Baltimore that this practice may also be heard at many places in and around Baltimore when the anthem is performed or where there is a large congregation of Orioles fans. Orioles fans are also known to shout "Boom!" after "bombs bursting in air."

*The "O" is also done by the [[Cameron Crazies]] at [[Duke University]], although their reason for doing it is unclear.

==In fiction==

"The Star-Spangled Banner" has often been referenced in [[fiction]] and [[pop culture]]:

*In the [[1997 film]] ''[[Men in Black (movie)|Men in Black]]'', a group of [[Extraterrestrial life|alien]]s sing a song that closely resembles the National Anthem in [[gibberish]]. The anthem is also featured in the [[2002]] sequel ''[[Men in Black II]]'', in which another group of aliens living in a locker sing the song to honor the man who has given them a watch to keep time. One version of the song goes: "Oh 'K,' can you see..." until 'Agent K' ([[Tommy Lee Jones]]) removes his watch from the locker, upsetting the aliens. When 'Agent J' ([[Will Smith]]) puts his own watch into the locker, the aliens are happy again, and they sing: "Oh 'J,' can you see..."

*In the original [[BBC]] version of the ''[[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', the characters Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox sing a "Betelgeuse Death Anthem", the melody of which somewhat resembles the U.S. National Anthem, albeit very much off-key and with lyrics in a presumably made-up language that sounds like gibberish.

==Performances and adaptations==

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 [[Kingdom of Great Britain|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|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!"''

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 [[Fenway Park]]) 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.

[[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. And unlike many of the artists who turn it into a "performance", with pauses at their own discretion that make it impossible for the audience to sing along, Messmer does it "straight".

==Lyrics==

[[Image:The Star-Spangled Banner.JPG|200px|thumb|right|This [[1814]] copy of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was the first printed edition to combine the words and [[sheet music]]. Copies such as these were sold from a catalog of Thomas Carr's Carr Music Store in [[Baltimore]]. Currently this is one of only ten copies known to exist, and is housed in the [[Library of Congress]].]]

:'''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''.

==Media==

{{multi-listen start}}

{{multi-listen item|filename=Star-spangled banner.ogg|title=The Star-Spangled Banner (1942)|description=[[Fred Waring]] and His Pennsylvanians sing The Star-Spangled Banner in 1942|format=[[Ogg]]}}

{{multi-listen item|filename=MargaretWoodrowWilson-TheStarSpangledBanner.ogg|title=The Star-Spangled Banner (1915)|description=A 1915 recording of the Star-Spangled Banner as sung by Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of [[Woodrow Wilson]]|format=[[Ogg]]}}

{{multi-listen end}}

==External links==

*[http://www.seaborne-intl.com/sounds/midi/UNITED-S.MP3 MP3 Audio File of Star Spangled Banner]

*[http://www.star-spangled-banner.info/ Star Spangled Banner Lyrics, history, sheet music, photos and wav files.]

*[http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/BruceSpringsteen/BruceSpringsteen_StarSpangledBanner_full_100.asx Bruce Springsteen preforming an acoustic "Star-Spangled Banner." Only available as a streaming audio]

*[http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm Isaac Asimov on the four stanzas of the anthem]

*[http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmah/starflag.htm Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on "The Star-Spangled Banner"]

*[http://www.infoplease.com/spot/starmangledbanner.html "Star-Mangled Banner: A look at some controversial, and botched, renditions of our national anthem"]

*[http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/northamerican/TheStarSpangledBanner/Chap1.html "The Star-Spangled Banner" by John A. Carpenter]

* [http://www.easybyte.org Easybyte] - free easy piano arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner / Anacreon in Heaven

{{American songs}}

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[[Category:American culture]]

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[[Category:Baltimore, Maryland|Star-Spangled Banner, The]]

[[Category:National anthems|Star-Spangled Banner, The]]

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