
- #How long is the star spangled banner song time full#
- #How long is the star spangled banner song time free#
In 1780, the diverse membership included “peers, commoners, aldermen, gentlemen, proctors, actors, and polite tradesmen.” The meetings included a formal concert, a dinner, and a social time afterwards during which the members entertained each other by singing catches, glees, and amusing songs. The club met every other week in the winter. The song dates from the mid-1770s and it was composed for a group of London gentlemen who had recently formed a social club. Unlike most common melodies, we know who wrote the original words, music, and why! In fact, by 1820, eighty-four were written in the United States alone. Many sets of lyrics have been written to the melody that Key chose for his verses that eventually became our national anthem. Melodies to theater songs were used for dancing, and dance tunes, even fast Irish jigs, were sometimes given sets of words. These melodies, known by name by almost everyone, were used for whatever purpose presented itself-a political song, a hymn, a march tune, a drinking song, or a country dance. Before there was copyright protection, melodies were recycled over and over again. Many lyrics for songs written in the 18th and early 19th centuries were based upon popular melodies. That Francis Scott Key borrowed a popular melody for his famous song is very much in keeping with common practice of his time period. Other references to Poe’s work appear in songs from Bob Dylan and the White Stripes.The words to our national anthem have nothing to do with consumption of alcohol, but the melody that Francis Scott Key had in mind when he wrote those words did originate decades earlier as the melody for a song in praise of wine. In 2003, Lou Reed released an album called The Raven, featuring spoken-word interpretations of Poe’s writing from actors like Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe. Poe’s work has been inspiring composers and musicians across a broad range of genres for over a century. The Shakespeare-penned song, “Under the Greenwood Tree,” which is performed by Amiens and Jacque in the play As You Like It, was covered by Donovan on his album A Gift from a Flower to a Garden in 1967.īut the poet with a particularly deep musical legacy is Edgar Allen Poe. It turns out many of our greatest poets inspired musicians and composers. Natalie Merchant set Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death” to music in 2005.
#How long is the star spangled banner song time free#
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,Īnd this be our motto–“In God is our trust,”Īnd the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation! O thus be it ever when freemen shall standīetween their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!īlest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land

No refuge could save the hireling and slaveįrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,Īnd the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution. That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusionĪ home and a Country should leave us no more? O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!Īnd where is that band who so vauntingly swore, ’Tis the star-spangled banner-O long may it wave
#How long is the star spangled banner song time full#
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream, Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,Īs it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O say does that star- spangled banner yet wave Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,

O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?Īnd the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, Here are all the four verses, as they were written more than 200 years ago by Key:

While the first verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is widely known by the American public, the last three verses are generally omitted in performances. What are the forgotten verses of the “Star-Spangled Banner”? The tune has kicked off ceremonies of national importance and athletic events ever since. More than a century later, in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order designating “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem, and in 1931, the US Congress confirmed the decision.
