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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
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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. |
That high note - some can do it, others can’t. Worse scenario is when someone tries it even though they can’t do it.
O’er the land of the free-EEEEEE
And the home of the brave!
To me, it’s more about it being the National Anthem than about the singing skill of the singer.
Still, I’ve heard some pretty poor attempts to sing it. I hate it when they try to hip it up or country it up.
Yes
Marian Anderson lived on a back road. As minors, we frequently drove down that road chugging beers on our way back from NY State, where the liquor laws were more . . . liberal. ;)
Didn’t strain anything too much when I was young, but now sing a litle better than I used to. But now I don’t do much anything except to relax as I am fairly old. For instance, I never could run very well, and can’t run at all now.....as well as a few other things I can’t do at all now.
I sing it, proud. Who cares about those covering their ears - they’re not listening anyway!
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