Poet Amanda Gorman’s Anthem Protest Lyric

In apparent response to the tragic holiday shootings in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022, the American poet Amanda Gorman posted an alternate lyric for “The Star-Spangled Banner” to Twitter. Appearing that same day at 11:37 p.m., the new lyric evokes the sorrow, frustration, and deadly impact of gun violence in the United States…

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Walt Whitman’s Lost Fourth of July Anthem Lyric

To celebrate the Fourth of July in 1846, American poet and journalist Walt Whitman composed a new lyric to be sung to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Writing alternate lyics to the anthem melody is an American tradition. As musical commentary on the issues and ideas of the day, they were the viral Tweets…

New Book: O Say Can You Hear?

O Say Can You Hear?: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Mark Clague is now available.

A Cultural Biography of “The Star-Spangled Banner”by Mark Clague I can hardly believe the book is done! These 249 pages have been a labor of love for more than a decade. I fully expected when I began starspangledmusic.org that the book would be the first project out of the gate and others would follow. Instead,…

Women's Suffrage Anthem: "The Equal-Rights Banner" (1884)

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.…

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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…