National anthem subdued at Olympics

timesstar.com ^ | Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 3:38:24 AM PST | Wayne Lee Gay

[Destro]

"The Star-Spangled Banner" didn't become the official national anthem until 1931.

So my question is, what was congress thinking? Was this a plot by the 1931 Democrats in congress to make our anthem unsingable?

Listen to a web broadcast on a discussion of the history of the American anthem @ http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2001/11/20011123_b_main.asp

[Pyro7480]

The anthem isn't unsingable. It's just that too many of the people singing it in public just are plain awful.

[Destro]

Cool - just listening to them play Elvis reading "America the Beautiful" in concert as a poem.

[fso301]

I have to agree, it is a very difficult song to sing.

[pbear8]

I hate this version of the anthem. It's like something the Dems would come up with. Our anthem is a joyous celebration that 'our flag was still there' through a night filled with doubt and uncertainty.

A good arranger would use lots of strings and brass!

[faithincowboys]

Yeah, I have been very annoyed that the Anthem has been so subdued, almost melancholy. What the Hell???

[nuconvert]

I think it's a beautiful version. Most yrs they seem to rush through it, and this year it seems slower and more reverent.

[Skooz]

The national anthem should be changed to the theme from "Peter Gunn." And it should be played LOUD.

Yea....we bad.

[Destro]

Anthems sould be easy to sing - it is the very reason anthems were invented during the nationalist movements of the late 19th and early 20th century in Europe as unifiying instruments. We still see in European football - a substitute for tribal warfare - the need for easy to sing "team anthems" to unite the fans during a match.

Maybe back then in the olden days when people sang in parlors and took music lessons they could sing it?

[Destro]

I find I can't remember the words as its played.

[xzins]

I agree with the article. The Olympic's version is a weak musical arrangement of the National Anthem.

It has no strength.

[ride the whirlwind]

Haven't watched much Olympics so haven't heard this rendition, but Roger Hedgecock complained about it today when filling in for El Rushbo. Violins?

[Brandon]

The music should have contrast, Breiner says. It's not just about glories of war. There should be contemplation, too.

Eh. The version they're using at the Olympics is too soft and way too slow. I noticed it the first time I heard it, and complained about it to my son. He agreed.

[Destro]

I would not mind if it was scrapped all together for a new anthem.

[knarf]

I agree.
Symbolism has its place, for sure ... but I'm still trying to accept the pubbie red ... they're the ones that are red. I think we should be blue.

I thought the quiet strings were nice, but I would've liked a more profound, "O say does that star bangled banner yet wave .. ff.

[faithincowboys]

Seriously. Who decided how are Anthem would be played? The anti-American Greeks? It's hideous.

How do you make such a stirring song milquetoast? They've done just thought and it is terrible.

[Not A Snowbird]

The anthem isn't unsingable. It's just that too many of the people singing it in public just are plain awful.

And too many try to sing it in a key that doesn't fit their range.

I noticed this kinder, gentler anthem the first time we won a gold metal. I thought someone had deliberately made it less "militant" so we wouldn't offend anyone. The Star-Spangled Banner played by strings? Interesting, and pretty, but it was weird.

[StayAt HomeMother]

The Women's Soccer Team may not have been "good" singers, but they were certainly joyous.

One male rower could barely keep it together, but made it through the anthem

In contrast, some gold medals winners don't even seem to know the words, and appear more embarrassed than proud to be up there. Can't they at least be taught what to do with their hands?

(And put me down as voting against violins during rockets glaring and bombs bursting.)

[tellw]

I definitely notice the anthem is different, but if we really cared about the anthem we would put a stop to the "note bending" that so many singers do to it today.

The Olympics version is respectful enough for wartime. The Rockets red glare section should be quieter (so we can have the climax at the end) but the strings alone is too quiet.

[chalkman]

During one of the sports they did actually play a different version that was mostley brass but I forget which event.