“The Star-Spangled Banner”
The band stopped playing, and the minister prayed. Then the band tuned up again and everybody rose. Men and boys took off their hats. The band played and everybody sang… — Farmer Boy, Chapter 16, “Independence Day”
The music to “The Star-Spangled Banner” comes from an old English drinking song. Around 1775, it was adapted by English composer and organist, John Stafford Smith (c.1750-1836), as the music to a poem, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The music was used in “Ye Sons of Columbia” and a number of other pieces before Francis Scott Key (1780-1843) wrote the familiar lyrics.
On September 13, 1814, during the War of 1812, a doctor from Maryland, Dr. Beanes, had been captured by the British and was being held prisoner aboard ship. Francis Scott Key was at that time a young lawyer in Baltimore, and he went to the commander of the British fleet and asked that his friend be released. Key’s wish was granted, although the two were unable to leave because the British were preparing to attack Fort McHenry and the British refused to have the two leave prior to its capture. Through the night, Key watched the attack, and by the light of gunfire could see the American flag still flying over the fort, the attack having failed. Key was inspired by the event and made notes to a poem on the back of an envelope, which he finished the next day. It was set to Smith’s music and was first sung in public by an actor, Ferdinand Durang, in a tavern in Baltimore.
On March 3, 1931, Congress passed an Act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States. During the Little House years, both “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hail Columbia” were sung in celebration. Although two songs were included in published Farmer Boy, there was no singing written in connection with either song in the existing manuscript. At the Independence Day celebration, the only reference was to the noise of the cannons being fired: “As Yankee Doodle said, it made a sound like father’s gun, only a nation louder.”
The American flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner” is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ 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 thro’ 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!
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 wash’d 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 free-men shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d 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!
(from Farmer Boy)
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 watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
CLICK HERE to listen.
Click on the above images to view a copy of sheet music of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with music composed by John Stafford Smith. This copy was prepared following World War I for use by military bands, school and community groups.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” (FB 16; LTP 8; PG)
“Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light”