The Star Spangled Banner is the national anthem for the United States of America. It is based on the poem written by Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. The song was placed to a typical British drinking song “The Anacreontic Song.” This was a song that was already popular in America because many people could still recall life under the British. Because of this, the lyrics and the song were combined to make an immensely patriot song.
In 1889, it became the song for the Navy and stayed that way until 1916. In that year, it became the song of the President. In 1931, President Hoover signed a bill that stated that the Star Spangled Banner was now the United States anthem. It has stayed that way ever since with it sung at all major sporting events as well as other non-major events.
The national anthem is a song that has one and a half octaves in it which makes it tremendously difficult to sing well. Because it goes from a low note and then high to a high one, the song can be strenuous on the vocal chords of individuals. While Francis Scott Key wrote four entire stanzas for the poem and they can all be put to music, Americans typically only sing the first stanza. The lyrics are as follows:
O! 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.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
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:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest 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, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Rules for the Star Spangled Banner
There are a few rules about the Star Spangled Banner that people tend to forget. The primary one is that there should be no applause for it. While the singer might have done a fantastic job, applauding it is disrespectful and therefore not done. Another important rule is that one stands when it is sung and keeps their hand over their heart. The entire time, they face the flag. If there is no flag, the people stand with their hand on their heart and face the individual singing.