At Rio Olympics, the National Anthem Sounds ... Sad?

New York Times ^ | 8/11/2016 | David Segal

[simpson96]

RIO DE JANEIRO — The playing of the United States’ national anthem at medal ceremonies is bringing tears to the eyes of American athletes here. Elsewhere, the song is having a very different effect.

“It is driving me crazy,” said Jason DeBord, a 45-year-old living in Ann Arbor, Mich. “I hit the mute button, or I make dinner, or I just sit there and brace myself.”

DeBord has nothing against displays of patriotism, nor is he simply eager to return to the action. What irritates him is the version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” being used at the Olympics. Put bluntly, it has been butchered.

O.K., that might overstate the problem. Maybe it would be more accurate to say the song has been altered in ways that rob it of its oomph, its power and its optimistic essence.

Specifically, DeBord says this “Banner” segues several times to minor chords, which in the Western canon have a melancholic tone, in places where major chords, which are heartier and more upbeat, are the norm. The effect, he says, is a rendering of the anthem that is darker, duskier and sadder.

“It has a totally different emotional feel,” he said. “It is supposed to have an ascending chord structure. Instead, it sort of has a descending chord structure.”

In short, this is a defeatist “Star-Spangled Banner,” and it is broadcast, around the globe, at a moment of ecstatic, international triumph. (snip)

Asked for the particulars of his beef with this “Banner,” DeBord offered to head to the piano in his home and provide a live tutorial, over the phone. (snip)

Once he pointed out the difference, it was obvious. The Olympic version was conciliatory, maybe even retreating. The standard version was chest-thumping and on the offense.

[Red Badger]

It needs to be in the key of F!.....................

[MeganC]

I’ve always said that if I win the proverbial lottery I’m going to commission John Williams to compose an entrance theme for me that I can play when I enter a room, a McDonald’s, or anywhere else.

[simpson96]

I recall the rendition of the Anthem that way played at Olympics 20-30 years ago was very different. It started off with a military style drumroll. It was very strong, upbeat, and stirring. It made your heart swell with pride.

This 2016 version is the very opposite. Someone at the US Olympic Committee sent this version to Rio to be the one played whenever the US won a gold medal. And that someone chose this version for a reason. I would be interested to know who that was, and to hear an explanation as to why they chose it.

[GOPJ]

Think of it as the ‘liberal version’ the “Obama’s ashamed of his country’ version... The ‘trashy American elites’ want better... version.

[chajin]

its in the wrong key at the Olympics. Its supposed to be done in the key of Bb, not C.

The Olympics almost never gets the national anthems "right," in the sense of having them sound the way people of the respective nations expect them to sound. It would be much easier for the organizers to simply go to the respective nations' teams and have them provide the sheet music and/or recordings for their national anthems, but that doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone in charge.

Having said all that, Anacreon, the tune that eventually becomes the tune for our national anthem, was originally written in C:

But as with everything else in history, this is not all that it seems. The "C" of the late 1700s was tuned to a lower pitch than the "C" of today, so someone singing a "C" in the late 1700s would be singing a tone somewhere around the "B" below today's C. Moreover, "To Anacreon in Heaven" was a drinking song, and people who are drinking can't effectively control their vocal cords, so someone who is SUI (singing under the influence) is probably going to sing flat. Put all that together, and chances are that the people singing Anacreon in the late 1700s might have thought of themselves as singing in C major, but they might well have been singing at a pitch level equivalent to Bb major by today's standards.

[grobdriver]

Did it sound like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_PtnvVQhqA

I've always thought this should be played in the background while showing images of Obama's America and the destruction he has wrought.

[Conan the Librarian]

Thanks for posting this. I was trying to think of a way to bring it up, but, you did it quite well.

I once heard a guy play the tune on a guitar for an historical re-enactment. The original does have a slight mournful tone to it.

[Carriage Hill]

The way it should be played, w/ drumroll:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGodJTgCwE

[Savrola]

I know exactly what the writer means.

They have also taken a curious approach with ‘God Save The Queen.’

[ErikJohnsky]

it could’ve been “written in C” for a Bb instrument like Trumpet

see transposing instrument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposing_instrument

[simpson96]

Yikes. That would be effective.

[simpson96]

That’s the version I remember.

[dfwgator]

And then there's Enrico Pallazzo....

Oh say can you see / By the dawn's early light / What so proudly we hail / In the twilight's last gleaming? / Whose bright stripes and broad stars / In the perilous night / For the ramparts we watched / uh, da-da-da-da-da-daaaa. / And the rocket's red glare / Lots of bombs in the air / Gave proof to the night / That we still had our flag. / Oh say does that flag banner wave / Over a-a-all that's free / And the home of the land / And the land of the - FREE!

[CAluvdubya]

I don't think it sounds that bad, either. Seems to me, the Olympics when held in other countries than the U.S. have always a slightly funky version.

[windcliff]

ping

[chajin]

it could’ve been “written in C” for a Bb instrument like Trumpet

I don't think trumpets and clarinets were Bb until the mid-1800s; IIRC even in Brahms' day the trumpets were still not keyed.

[sockhead]

Here but it doesn't sound that bad to me.

It doesn't sound terrible to me either. Although it was meant to be an upbeat, fast tempo piece, I think the version used in Rio is simply intended to sound dramatic. Not mournful.

[firebrand]

: )

[TEXOKIE]

I agree. And I bet the one(s) who chose it did not think we would notice and see (hear) through it. Very ham-fisted, aren’t they? We hear. We see. We take note.

[Vroomfondel]

Maybe they should play Darth Vaders Imperial March Theme?

Can't speak for anything else, but they've been playing that a lot between fencing matches.