"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…

Music Lesson-Learning about Francis Scott Key and the song The Star-Spangled Banner

Students will be learning about Francis Scott Key, the Battle at Fort McHenry, and the story of the composition of The Star-Spangled Banner.  Students will be learning to sing the song, The Star-Spangled Banner through several methods such as listening, repeating the words in rhythm, and reading the words and following along with the music…

Everyday is The Star-Spangled Banner Day!

 Everyday is “The Star-Spangled Banner” Day! Every teacher can use “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a teaching tool to teach music in elementary school classes.Goals and Objectives Read, write and perform melodic notation, using the terminology of music. Sing a varied repertoire of music from 18th through 20th century. Compose and improvise music and lyrics. Identify…

The Star-Spangled Banner across the Arts

 2nd grade lesson by Jennifer Butler, Northwoods Fine Arts Academy Sand Springs, Oklahoma 2nd grade students will be learning about the Battle at Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, and the composition of The Star-Spangled Banner through music, art, and dance.  Students will study paintings about the Battle at Fort McHenry in art class, learn about Francis…

The Music of Poetry: Decoded_Lesson 3

Guiding Question – What do our National Symbols mean to me? Focus Word – Liberty Lesson 3 – Emma Lazarus Introduction: 1) Introduce “The New Colossus” by asking what immigrant means. Capture the answers in a wordle. 2) Read “The New Colossus” by Lazarus or use an audio clip: Ask students: What did you notice?…

Star Spangled Festival Performance

The Star Spangled Banner Anthem: Celebrating the origin and meaning through performance Information Literacy/Interdisciplinary Arts Grades 9-12 Brenda J. Cowe- School Library Media Specialist Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts Students from choral and instrumental music, theater, dance, visual art and communications will work together to create a creative exploration performance that tells the story…

Star Spangled "Festival Overture" To Be Premiered by Reno Orchestra & Laura Jackson

On the Fourth of July at Lake Tahoe, Maestro Laura Jackson and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra will premiere a new “Star Spangled Music Edition” of American composer Dudley Buck’s “Festival Overture on the American National Air” (1879). The Reno orchestra  commissioned and premiered Michael Gandolfi’s patriotic cantata Chesapeake: Summer of 1814, last year.One of America’s…

Spangled Mythconception #4: Key's Banner is Based on a Bawdy Old English Drinking Song

MYTH #4: Key’s Banner is based on the melody of a bawdy old English drinking song CORRECTION: “The Anacreontic Song” was the constitutional anthem of an elite, London-based, amateur music society… but it gets complicated. Francis Scott Key would have most likely encountered the melody of “The Anacreontic Song” initially through its most popular American…

Dudley Buck's Festival Overture on the American National Air

In 1879, one of America’s leading American composers—Dudley Buck (a name often neglected today)—wrote a Festival Overture to celebrate Independence Day. The seven-minute piece for full orchestra (with optional chorus) was based on the melody of “The Star-Spangled Banner” or what the composer called the “American National Air.” Both the national music festival and Key’s…