Journal of Singing Featured Article:

The Star-Spangled Banner — A Tutorial

by Robert Edwin

IN MY STUDIO, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a very popular song. It seems not a week goes by without a student coming in and saying, "I was asked to sing the national anthem at an event. Can we work on it?" My students' renditions have varied from the sublime—Timmy Kelly singing gallantly in the bitter cold at the nationally televised Philadelphia Eagles NFC Championship game in 2005—to the ridiculous—Les Pitchy's sincere but pathetic vocal attempt in January of 2011 (see the PS&MT column in Volume 67, No. 3 of the Journal of Singing). After more than thirty-five years of teaching it and even more years of singing it, I have grown quite fond of the musical symbol of our country. It being the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, I thought it an especially good time to offer a tutorial on the teaching of this important piece of music.

For close to two hundred years, "The Star-Spangled Banner" has challenged trained and untrained singers alike. With a range of over one and a half octaves, the average or below average singer often considers it a difficult song to sing. For the more vocally gifted, the range is not as much a problem as are the lyrics. At Super Bowl XLV in 2011, yet another singer stumbled over the highly poetic descriptions of the naval portion of the Battle of Baltimore. Pop star Christina Aguilera is now a member of that infamous group of highly visible professionals who have mangled the song. There is nowhere to hide when tens of thousands of people in person and over one hundred million TV viewers see and hear your gaffe. Yet it is still proportionately devastating when a nine-year-old girl messes it up at her local softball game with perhaps fifty people in attendance, counting the players.

The predominant reason for these lyric lapses, in my opinion, stems from a lack of understanding of the text. Only a very small number of people have come into my studio with any idea of the "who, what, where, when, why, and how" of the song. In order to diminish the chances of public failure and subsequent embarrassment for your students when they perform our national anthem, a short history lesson should precede any singing of same.

At the time "The Star Spangled Banner" was written, the United States of America and England were involved in a conflict called the War of 1812. The scene is Baltimore, Maryland in September of 1814. Francis Scott Key, a 35 year old Washington lawyer and amateur poet, is trying to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, a civilian prisoner of war held by the British. Key sails out on a U.S. truce ship to the British fleet massing in Chesapeake Bay. Although he is successful in his negotiations, while on a British warship he has been privy to the Royal Navy's plans to attack, and is subsequently detained until after the battle.

From his ship in the Patapsco River, Key observes the attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor. Beginning at 6 a.m. Tuesday, September 13, the British pound the fort with mortars and rockets for twenty-five continuous hours. On the morning of September 14, the bombardment stops, and Francis Scott Key strains through the fog and smoke to see if Fort McHenry is still in American hands. To his great joy, the huge thirty foot by forty-two foot flag sewn by Mary Pickersgill and requested by the fort's commander, Major George Armistead, to be large enough "that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance," is still flying proudly above the fort.

Duly inspired that the fort did not surrender, Key begins writing "The Defence of Fort McHenry" with a tune already running through his head. The melody and rhythms are from a previously composed song called "To Anacreon in Heaven," penned by Englishman John Stafford Smith. The poem and subsequent song now titled "The Star-Spangled Banner" become an instant hit. However, it takes until 1931 for Congress and the President to declare the Key/Smith song America's na­tional anthem.

Although the song is in English, it is not the modern English with which today's singers are familiar. They understand little of the language or the context. Pedagogically, I find a question and answer format helpful for teaching any of my students a "foreign language" piece such as this one. The Q & A also gives me a sense of what students already know and to what extent they understand what they know.

We begin with a review of the history. Question: So, which war are we referencing? Answer: The War of 1812 between America and England. Q: Where and when is this particular battle taking place? A: Baltimore harbor, Maryland in September of 1814. Q: Who won? A: We did (if you're an American patriot), or they did (if you're a British sympathizer).

Now, to the lyrics. O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light. Q: What time of day is it? A: Dawn Q: What are you trying to see? A: The flag in the fort; the whole song is about the American flag and its position on the flag pole. What so proudly we hailed (saw and acknowledged) at the twilight's (dusk) last gleaming? Q: When did you last see the flag? A: Last night at twilight. Q: What did the flag look like? A: Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous (dangerous) fight, o'er (old-fashioned word for "over") the ramparts (the top of the walls of the fort) we watched, were so gallantly (bravely with dignity) streaming (fluttering in the air).

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air (remember, the British warships were shooting at the fort for twenty-five hours straight), gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: Q: What does that line mean? A: In war, if you want to surrender (give up), military protocol says you lower your flag and put up a white one ("wave the white flag"). The British kept on shooting because the Americans didn't surrender and therefore, didn't take the flag down, thus giving proof through the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner (the flag's stars were "spangled" which means set at different angles to give the effect of twinkling as the flag waves) yet (still) wave o'er (over) the land of the free and the home of the brave? Q: Why does this line end with a question mark? A: Because poet/lawyer Key cannot clearly see the flag through all the smoke and fog and dark of night. When dawn breaks and the guns are silenced, he is still not sure who won the battle. It is only in the second verse (there are four verses to the poem) that Key finally sees the flag and ends the line with an exclamation point. 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 on the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

A good analogy for the sports-minded among us is that the last line of the first verse is similar to a fumble in football when all players in the vicinity try to jump on the ball. The referee blows the whistle and in the silence, everyone waits to see who has the ball after the pile of human beings is dismantled. In 1814 at the Battle of Baltimore, the Americans keep possession of the "ball." When we sing the song, however, we really need to put in an exclamation point since there is no second verse to clarify the ending.

Now, armed with an exciting story to tell, we bring in Mr. Smith's contribution to the song. Your singers who choose to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" using one voice register will need to pitch it so the high notes create excitement rather than fear and trepidation while the low notes remain audible and intelligible. For example, a female belter with a trustworthy C5 high note in her TA-dominant voice might want to look at the key of F with the top notes at C5 and the low notes at F3. If those notes prove too low, a half step up into the key of F# might work if the belter can deal with the three C#5 notes on the words "red glare" and "free." Singers with a limited range should be encouraged to sacrifice low note clarity for high note confidence—better to growl a bit on the bottom rather than strain or crack a lot at the top. Yet another option would be to suggest they refrain from singing the national anthem in public until they have all the notes in place. The choice of key for singers using a voice register transition (chest to head, TA to CT, lower to upper, M1 to M2) is less critical since they are accessing a fuller range of their voices which we would hope would exceed an octave and a half. If a singer is interested in having the audience participate in the singing of the national anthem, then the key of Ab might be most accommodating with low notes of either Ab2 or Ab3 and high notes of Eb4 or Eb5. All bets are off, however, if the singer personalizes the song with melismas that no ordinary audience could duplicate.

Since many performances of the SSB are done a cappella, singers must be sure of their starting pitch. I have to remind my students that the key and the starting note are different. For example, in the key of Bb, the starting pitch is F. A good old-fashioned pitch pipe serves quite a few of my singers, as do electronic metronomes with frequencies for tuning, and phones with musical apps. Those with absolute or relative pitch can save a few bucks on accessories.

In the almost two hundred year history of "The Star-Spangled Banner," it is only in relatively recent times that singers of styles other than classical or legit have been permitted to perform it in public venues. Historians point to October 1968 and Jose Feliciano's guitar-accompanied, slow and soulful, blues-based rendition of the national anthem at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan before the fifth game of major league baseball's World Series, as the door opener for future CCM artists. Feliciano's performance was incredibly controversial since it was the first untraditional version seen and heard by mainstream America, an America embroiled in the already controversial Vietnam War.

Marvin Gaye, famous for his song, "Sexual Healing," did a sexy drum track-accompanied funk/soul version of the SSB at the 1983 National Basketball Association All-Star game that put a spin on the song never heard before. This, too, created a stir in as much as traditionalists still felt that there was only one right way to do the national anthem. Ironically, it would be rare and perhaps even refreshing if one heard a classically-based rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a major public event in the twenty-first century.

That said, whether your students are singers of classical opera or punk rock or somewhere in between, "The Star-Spangled Banner" can be on their rep list and can be performed in their styles of singing. However, regardless of style, any performance of our national anthem should honor America and show respect for its heritage. The best way to do that? Learn and understand the song!

Robert Edwin has served NATS in many capacities—among them: New Jersey Chapter President (1985–92); author of "The Bach to Rock Connection"—the first regular feature in the Journal of Singing dedicated to CCM (nonclassical) voice pedagogy (1985–2002); National Secretary/Treasurer (2002–06); first Master Teacher in the NATS Intern Program to represent the private studio sector (2005); first "wired" master class clinician at a NATS national conference (Nashville 2008);and JOS Associate Editor (2002-present).

Mr. Edwin is a frequent faculty member of the Voice Foundation's Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice, and is an active member of the distinguished American Academy of Teachers of Singing. His DVD on child voice training, The Kid & the Singing Teacher, with CCC-SLP Barbara Arboleda, is available at www.voiceinsideview.com. He is a chapter author for the 2011 Oxford University Press, Handbook of Music Education, and his chapter on teaching children appears in the book, Pediatric Voice Disorders (Plural Publishing). www.robertedwinstudio.com

Reproduced with permission.
Journal of Singing, September/October 2011
Volume 68, No. 1, pp. 63–65
Copyright © 2011 National Association of Teachers of Singing

Journal of Singing is the official journal of National Association of Teachers of Singing, providing current information regarding the teaching of singing as well as results of recent research in the field. A refereed journal, it serves as an historical record and is a venue for teachers of singing and other scholars to share the results of their work in areas such as history, diction, voice science, medicine, and especially voice pedagogy. Journal of Singing is published five times annually (Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec, Jan/Feb, March/April, May/June). Richard Dale Sjoerdsma, Editor-in-Chief

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