Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 04/24/2026 10:06:34 PM PDT by CharlesOConnell
Opera singer Jessye Norman says https://youtube.com/shorts/rzgees_8oII?si=7Aahdum4rPW92GZ7 it has "too much territory". (Its tessatura = an octave, Do to Do, 12 notes from Ab to Ab, PLUS an additional "fifth", 7 notes from Ab to Eb).
Marian Anderson effortlessly sang https://youtu.be/_iYcheeUS5A?si=t2zq5uuyr-DPnQ-v?t=29s The Star Spangle Banner with her 3 octave vocal range. "Registers" is a confusing term. It usually means, one's personal range. But I was taught that a register is a narrow range in which you sing with the same tone; then you have to switch to different positioning of the vocal "mechanism" to go to "another register". You can hear Marian Anderson notably change her tone as she moves to a very different register, and you may even be able to detect a change in her posture -- she tilts her head to a different angle when moving to a far note.
In working today on compiling five verses of The Star Spangled Banner from various sources for intermediate pianists to learn it to play for their families to sing, https://1000-good-songs.org/the-star-spangled-banner-the-national-anthem-of-the-u-s-a-0401-of-1000/, my thinking is that the music by John Stafford Smith, strongly resembles a bugle call, though it is disputable to claim that was the composer's conscious intention.
Here baseball boosters in a local stadium show that, without a band and despite the difficulty of The Star Spangled Banner as music, they are able to handle it quite well. https://youtu.be/M_cMi7y5uqk?si=zpW0fkSyTowekJfP
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
It’s a drinking song. Maybe you just need a drink.
Geez, I don’t know, I can sing it. Seems singable to me.
Our local TV station plays a short clip of this a couple times a day where the singer mutilates “land of the free” by singing, “land of the ‘free-EE’” taking the “EE” up a fourth. It’s become pretty common and it makes me cringe. WHY?
My niece sings “Star Spangled Banner” before sports events at her school and does an amazing job — a capella, and pure. In her state, she’s the only one who has consistently scored 100% in auditions for All State Choir. She’s a total mean girl brat, though, and that makes us sad. (She’s influenced by dot-Indian mean girl brats she hangs with.)
The best verse, for sure.
I'll drink to that!
To Anacreon in Heaven (c. 1780)
I also like the second verse in which the rising sun reveals that the flag is, indeed, still there, and the third verse that taunts the British soldiers and sailors and makes a reference to Job 7:2 in the Old Testament.
Very nice. Thanks for posting.
That’s weird, Jessye Norman had a pretty good range. I loved her cover of “Remember Me,” from Aenaes. She’s been dead for six years, though, so this must be an old interview.
Whenever I hear the Star Spangled Banner, Whitney Houston immediately comes to mind.
I hate the word “literally.”
Great, now let’s add “At the end of the day” and “That being said” to that...
I can honestly say that the responses when I sing the Star Spangled Banner are no different than the responses I get whenever I get drunk enough to sing any other song.
And “It is what it is,” although I’m not hearing that one as much anymore.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ObKfrlsi770?si=-5BMHGXqZ61zNLXo
That gentleman does it beautifully to my mind.
.
Yes.
Good, vocally trained singers can do it.
(Operatic singer range is at least 2 octaves!)
Jessye should be able to do it!
But we, the ordinary folks, have hard time to do it without botching it.
That why we usually do not sing it.
Star Spangled Banner is usually sung just by some leading singer only.
And even they botch is sometimes.
While a sung version is traditional, there are instrumental versions that might be appropriate for sporting events. There is an excellent arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner done by Felix Vinatieri,band master for Custers 7th Calvary, Hear excerpts here:
IIWII
https://youtu.be/XDSZxUlGZnA?si=QI3tqsgVcPgc0bBi
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.