The Star Spangled Banner is the blending of a poem by Francis Scott Key with a popular tune written for a men’s club in London around 1776. Francis Scott Key wrote his poetry during the bombing of Fort McHenry (Baltimore) by vessels of the British fleet in 1814. During the day and evening of September 13, the British lobbed some 1800 bombs in and around the fort. It was not known if the fort had fallen or held fast, until the mists cleared the next morning. At that time, Key was able to see that the American flag was still flying. He vividly tells that story in the first verse of the poem. The entire poem has four verses. Our hymnal omits verses 2 and three, and verse four of the poem becomes verse 2 in our hymnal.
The Star Spangled Banner was not officially named our national anthem until 1931, when it was named as such by congressional resolution. Prior to 1931, several other songs served that purpose—Hail Columbia, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, and America the Beautiful.
The tune originated in the 1770’s, written by John Stafford Smith, for the Anacreontic Society, an amateur men’s music club. It was intended to be sung as a solo, with instrumental accompaniment, by a skilled singer in an operatic style—-which explains why it is so difficult for us to sing today! The last line, of each verse of the song, instructs us to entwine “the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine”. In other words, we are instructed to have love and wine! Over the years there has been some controversy about the use of a “drinking song”as the melody for our national anthem, but that seems to have subsided. The main objection continues to be that it is difficult to sing. And yet, it does stir the soul when we hear it played!
-Lynn Gardner,
Organist/Choirmaster
