The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920 was a signal achievement. It enshrined the right of women to vote in the nation’s founding document and propelled a revolution that continues to reverberate today in the service of American women as elected leaders in local, state, and national offices.…
Author: starspangled
New Anthem Arrangement Confronts America's 2020 Challenges
American pianist Tony Lee has created a heartfelt and personal arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the 2020 July Fourth holiday. Featuring enriched harmonies and melodic quotations of the Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” as well as the spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” his performance speaks to today’s national crises as well…
An Erroneous Francis Scott Key Quote
Francis Scott Key is a complicated historical figure. As a slaveholder and a Southern attorney who often volunteered his services in representing enslaved people and free Blacks but who also fought passionately against abolitionists, Key has a troubling relationship with slavery. That his attitudes perpetuated white supremacy and have been proven wrong by history is…
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"—Free Sheet Music Download
The Johnson Brothers Originally published in our 2014 Star Spangled Songbook, we are pleased to make the sheet music for the African American Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” with by the brothers James Weldon Johnson (lyrics) and J. Rosamond Johnson (music) available. Despite the broad popularity of this song, which was featured recently by…
Band Music of Alton Augustus Adams—Free Downloads
Alton Augustus Adams, Sr. (1889–1987) was a pioneering performer, composer, educator, and author who advanced the band culture of the Virgin Islands. A flutist and piccolo player, he founded the Adams Juvenile Band in 1910, teaching each of its musicians and drilling the ensemble to such a professional standard that the unit was inducted as…
Abolitionist Star Spangled Banner —"Oh Say, Do You Hear?" (1844)
In the 19th-century, the music and words known today as the national anthem of the United States —”The Star-Spangled Banner”—was deeply associated with American identity but just one of many patriotic songs. All of America’s patriotic songs were part of an ongoing cultural dialogue known as the broadside ballad tradition. New lyrics were written to…
Star-Spangled Myth #8: Igor Stravinsky's Mug Shot & "Illegal" Anthem
MYTH #8: A mug shot offers proof of composer Igor Stravinsky’s arrest by the Boston Police for desecrating a national symbol after conducting a performance of his own arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with the Boston Symphony. CORRECTION: The supposed mug shot is actually part of Stravinsky’s 1940 visa application for residence in the United…
You May Have Been Illegally Singing the National Anthem Your Whole Life
…if you live in Michigan.Though it’s an obscure law, in 1931, Michigan passed three criminal codes governing performances of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Proper performance is defined as follows: How played—The national hymn or anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”, shall not be played, sung or otherwise rendered in this state in any public place nor at…
Star Spangled Songbook Hardback Edition Published
We’ve created a new hardback edition of our Star Spangled Songbook specifically for libraries and collectors. Click here to order ($35). The book contains 73-sheet music editions of historic arrangements of “The Star-Spangled Banner” plus its musical antecedents and parodies. Chief among these is the original source of the melody Key would use—London’s amateur musicians…
Star Spangled Music Day—Wed. Sept. 14, 2016
JOIN US TO CELEBRATE A BANNER BIRTHDAY! The Star Spangled Music Foundation (SSMF) is pleased to announce a national Star-Spangled Music Day #3 for Wednesday, September 14, 2016 in celebration of the 202nd anniversary of the United States National Anthem — “The Star-Spangled Banner.” For this day we ask that Americans far-and-wide and especially K-12…