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© Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
Quite a few people complain that the U. S. national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, is a bad song. The normal argument seems to be that it is difficult to sing. It does have a wider range of pitch than Happy Birthday or Jingle Bells. And you have to start WAY DOWN HERE, in order to sing "the rockets red glare" way up here. But if difficulty made a piece of music bad, then Beethoven's Ninth Symphony would be bad. I think it is often sung badly, when a singer attempts to make the artistic experience unique.
Francis Scott Key wrote the words while watching the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, at Baltimore Maryland, in 1814. The words were set to the British tune (apparently written by John Stafford Smith) "To Anacreon in Heaven," at Key's suggestion.
My complaint with the Star-Spangled Banner is the words (presented here without punctuation):
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 rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
There are three more verses which almost nobody knows. Anyway, just how do you punctuate that? It seems to be a vague, confusing series of run-on sentences (questions) in an archaic, over-flowery style which I find unappealing. But I suspect that we are stuck with it. Some people complain that the rockets and bombs glorify war. Of course the song is about enemy rockets and bombs, during a British invasion. That shouldn't offend anyone, in my opinion.
Personally, I think the melody is very good. This is especially obvious during the Olympics, when the Star-Spangled Banner compares favorably with other national anthems (many of which are very good). It is stirring and emotional when an American athlete wins a gold medal.