Is it time to change our national anthem?
I still remember being embarrassed during a college summer abroad when our hosts sang theirs and we simply couldn't. We made do with America the Beautiful.
Although the song dates to the 1815, it was only made our anthem recently.That is, in 1931, under one of our worst presidents, Hoover. You have probably read that it was based on an old drinking song. This is not true. It was the anthem of a serious amateur singing society in the days when even serious amateurs were very well trained and practiced (ie., before TV etc). They did drink too, the song was subtle but very libertine. In fact, it was an ode to one of the ancient Greek pedophiles.
Should we change to America the Beautiful? Or perhaps Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, or This Land is My Land, or If Ever I Cease to Love, or anything else?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$9 Answers
Unless I'm mistaken, naming a new anthem would take an act of congress. Getting them to agree on a replacement would be a miracle, but the question says "Is it time", or "should we."
There has been support for changing the anthem, but with the current conservative resurgence, it might not be the time. Conservatives by definition are resistant to change, and are likely to see any attempt to change the anthem as an attack on the traditional values and patriotism of the country, especially when one of the most frequently mentioned criticisms of the anthem is it's militaristic bent (bombs bursting and all that).
So although the timing might not be optimal, the question of "should" is left. In my mind, we would need some compelling arguments to justify changing it. The two main arguments against it seem to be: 1.) It's hard to sing, and 2.) It's militaristic.
Netither of those reasons seem quite compelling enough to warrant a change. It is hard to sing, but we could all do a better job of teaching ourselves and our children to do a passable job, as I have heard it done well, by crowds of amateurs at sporting events, and by children.
Check out my favorite pint-size singers, the PS22 choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnNA5fQ4ySI
As to the militaristic, wouldn't we be better off to first change the fact that we ARE a very militaristic country before we go about changing an anthem that suggests we are?
Personally, I would probably vote for a change if it came to a vote, based on my opinion that we could do better. America the Beautiful would be my first choice, with God Bless America running a close second. It's too bad Kate Smith wasn't around to sing that one for a few years before 1931, maybe it would have won in a vote.
Speaking of votes, I think popular opinon should be polled extensivesly, let's see what the people think. Heck, they poll on how the President is doing every single day, polling on a new anthem for a few days couldn't hurt anything.
For now, I think that singing "America the Beautiful" at more events (and the Star Spangled Banner at fewer) would be a good compromise. I like the nomenclature that designates "America the Beautiful" as our "unofficial" national anthem.
Nobody sings it like Ray:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghz4_kikLkE&feature=related
sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=124012&page=1
http://www.menc.org/documents/temp/NationalAnthemMemo.pdf
http://www.knoxnews.com/polls/2010/jun/070410anthem-poll/?comments_id=1386125
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Just because some people have an issue memorizing the song, it does not mean that it should be changed. There are thousands of school kids that have issues memorizing the Gettysburg Address - should we change that? There are also thousands that have issues remembering the Preamble of the Constitution - should we change that?
The National Anthem is part of American history. Instead of changing it, the singers who sing the song have to come tot he realization of how important the song is. Realize taht it is not a cake walk, and should come out of their mouths exactly. They should learn that they do not need to oversing the song to make it better. The song is good on it's own.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It's not the lyrics, it's the tune that is too hard. It has too wide a range for untrained singers. Ordinary people mangle the notes even if they remember the words. Not that anyone does remember more than a few verses.
It was not our national anthem from 1776 to 1932.
I'm with @albanian on this one. The difficulty is in the music itself, not the lyrics. Whether it's because of tradition or because of the strength of the lyrics or whatever, the song needs to be sung in the modal or belting registers if it's going to sound the way we expect it to. Ordinary people don't have a solid modal register that spans an octave and a half. Either the top notes get sung in the falsetto register and lose their power or the low notes get fried and sound awful.
Absolutely, a trained singer should be able to sing the song well. But I'd think an anthem should be singable by everyone.
Trust me, the Star Spangled Banner is a hard song to sing well. Shouldn't our country's song be one that a regular person can sing and have it come out sounding good?
One of the major issues that comes into play is when singers mess up the National Anthem. Most of the mess ups that I have heard have come when people try to oversing the song. They care more about showing off their vocal chords, then singing it in the traditional way. If they sang the song in the melody that it was written, they would be less likely to screw up the words since their brain would be faster to bring the familiar words to mind.
Easy way to prove what I am saying in this statement - think of one of your favorite songs. Go onto Youtube and find a different variation on the melody of the song. See if you can sing along with it without messing up the words. The brain sets the familiar words with the familiar melody.
There would not be as many mess ups if people sang the song the way that it was written.
Everyone could sing our anthem if it were Yankee Doodle!
More people would know the words if kids learned this song in elementary school. I think it could be taught. When I taught at the local high school it was not lost on me that most of the kids didn't seem to know the words. What a shame. IF I had been their English teacher, or their history teacher, I would have taken the time to teach them - it's so darn patriotic.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I agree. All those fancy "runs" are totally unnecessary. I believe it was Faith Hill who sang it once without doing that, and it was great! I wish more people would just sing the song as written--the basic notes--and put the effort and emotion into the words.
I looked up who Faith HIll was. She is a professional singer so she should be able to sing the song. But it's still too hard for the rest of us.
Lots of countries use "God Save the Queen" with locally adapted lyrics. That's a good one. Our version is "My country t'is of thee".
I think the Brits would be better off with "Rule, Britannia" that is livelier and more specifically associated with Britain.
Back to the Banner, considering the period that the music was written in, embellishments, trills, etc are quite correct and appropriate. That's how Baroque music was intended to be performed.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Hope this helps!
source: experience
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
This particular flub made the subject a current one; but, I have always objected to the difficult tune.
There are a lot of old patriotic songs that would be more appropriate; but, I think the most appropriate is the one used to signify American as a leitmotif in countless situations -
Yankee Doodle!
It has a longer history dating from the Revolution, and it is very easy to sing, is known as American world wide, and is really catchy.
And you can sing it as a round!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
So prove it mathematically. The range is too great for me at least.
1.5 octaves is not bad for a professional singer. The notes only get harder to hit when you change the key and start adding a little artistic license to its notes. Also, the flub of the verse of the star spangled banner that is sung is virtually always lyrics, which besides some poetic word ordering and choice, is very short with very simple English, with every word having three or fewer syllables.
Face it, tradition is tradition. It should be changed because it's not that good, seriously. Problem with celebrities singing the song is that they start too high on the registry, so the song gets mangled.
While some things should be changed, it's hard when tradition is so stuck-in-the-mud about it. So, we live with it.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It just occurred to me, we should use a song that goes right back to the Founding Fathers: Yankee Doodle! Everyone can sing that, it's really catchy. It has a history as long as our country. I don't mind it being a little military.
http://www.walnutpta.org/images/YankeeDoodleBoy.jpg
http://www.pawls.lib.ms.us/yankee_doodle.JPG
You may be onto something. I particularly like the drum and fife versions with no singing at all: