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.…
Category: Blog
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…
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…
Concert Variations on the Star Spangled Banner for Organ
In 1861 American composer and organist, John Knowles Paine (1839–1906) composed the Concert Variations on “The Star Spangled Banner,” Op. 3, No. 2. It is paired as Opus 3 with a set of “Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn” (Op. 3, No. 1) and thus links the musical traditions of the New World with the…
Guest Post—Marc Leepson on Francis Scott Key (Facts #6–10)
Ten Little-Known Facts about Francis Scott Key (#6–10)By Marc Leepson Key was a close confidant of President Andrew Jackson and a member of his Kitchen Cabinet. Informal meetings often took place in Key’s expansive house on M Street (then known as Bridge Street) in Georgetown. Key served for eight years as U.S. Attorney, appointed by…
Guest Post—Marc Leepson on Francis Scott Key (Facts #1–5)
Ten Little-Known Facts about Francis Scott Key By Marc Leepson Virtually everyone knows the name Francis Scott Key. And virtually everyone knows it for one reason: for the fact that he was the author of the words that became our National Anthem. But there was much more to Frank Key—as he was known to family…
A Spangled "Ode to the Fourth of July" (1826 Style)
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United States, a Mrs. K.A. Ware did what many in the 19th-century did — she wrote a song by creating new lyrics to a beloved and well known tune. This cultural conversation in song is known as the broadside ballad tradition. Building on the patriotic…
Congratulations to SSMF Institute Alum Susan Ferguson
The Star Spangled Music Foundation is proud to cheer our Banner Moments Institute alumnus — Third Grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher Susan Ferguson — whose extraordinary efforts to share the insights and knowledge she gained with us in Maryland with her students, colleagues, and indeed the whole Camden community in North Carolina, has…