Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer. During the war of 1812 he was sent to negotiate with the British for the release of certain prisoners. He dined on board HMS Tonnant, along with a fellow lawyer and one of the prisoners, but they weren't allowed to leave as they now knew quite a lot about the British fleet (which was about to begin a bombardment of Baltimore, and in particular of Fort McHenry) – information that might prove useful to the American defenders. They were forced to watch the bombardment from the safety of HMS Tonnant.
Key was moved to see the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry in the morning, and on his return to shore he wrote a poem entitled Defence of Fort M'Henry, with its now–familiar words: "Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light ... " He took it to a music publisher, who set it to the tune that Key had already used for a poem he wrote in 1805, to celebrate the US heroes of the First Barbary War (a dispute with a number of North African states over piracy).
The tune had been written in about 1780 by the English composer, church organist, and early musicologist John Stafford Smith, for a song entitled To Anacreon in Heav'n. Smith was one of the first serious collectors of manuscripts of works by Johann Sebastian Bach; he was also a member of the Anacreontic Society – an English gentlemen's club, named in honour of a Greek lyric poet of the 6th century BC, whose songs majored on the themes of drinking and love–making. The song became very popular, but was notoriously difficult to sing. With a range of one and a half octaves, it was seen to be so difficult that the police force of the time would use it as a test for drunkenness. If you could sing To Anacreon in Heav'n, you were sober and could go on your way.
Maybe that's why American schoolkids have to practise it every morning ...
Surprisingly, The Star–Spangled Banner wasn't adopted as the USA's national anthem until 1931. It had gained popularity throughout the 19th century, and in 1899 it was officially adopted for official use by the US Navy. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that the song be played during official military events. Two years later, a bill to officially recognise The Star–Spangled Banner as the national anthem, introduced by Maryland congressman John C. Linthicum, was voted down. Linthicum kept trying, and in 1929 he introduced the bill for a sixth time. Later that year, Robert Ripley drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, saying "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem".
In 1930, five million people signed a petition, started by an organisation of American veterans, calling for the United States to officially recognise The Star–Spangled Banner as the national anthem. The petition was presented to Congress on the 31st of January 1930, when two women sang the song to the House Committee on the Judiciary to prove that it was not too high–pitched for the average person to sing. The committee voted to send the bill to the House floor, and it was finally passed by the Senate on the 3rd of March 1931. The Star–Spangled Banner became the national anthem of the United States of America the following day, when the bill was signed by President Herbert Hoover.
© Haydn Thompson 2017–22