Posted on 04/12/2006 11:20:33 AM PDT by Pyro7480
...Given its circumscribed ceremonial function, and the general shortage of non-sports public gatherings these days, "The Star-Spangled Banner" doesn't get around the way it used to.... A recent Harris poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans don't even know the words.....
The enthusiasm of new Americans for the national anthem only underscores the indifference and ignorance of the rest of us. This gap between what the anthem could be and what it is has prompted the National Association for Music Education, a teachers' group, to create The National Anthem Project to try to reinvigorate "The Star-Spangled Banner."
There is, however, another point of view: Some of us feel that the current national anthem is not worth saving....
In "Angels in America," Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, an African-American character named Belize suggests that the difficulty was part of the composer's plan. "The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing," Belize insists. "He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it."
Over the years, there have been numerous suggestions for songs that could replace "The Star-Spangled Banner." My suggestion, since I have a weakness for American popular songs, and a sentimental attachment to immigrant success stories, is "God Bless America,"....
There are two obvious objections to "God Bless America," of course: the first two words of the song, "God" and "bless." I'll admit this is a problem, although I feel sure that only the twitchiest atheists would object to the nonsectarian deity that "God Bless America" — and "In God We Trust," for that matter — evokes. The song is literally a prayer, but it's far gentler than one a crazed theocrat might concoct....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The idea that the guy who wrote the tune made "land of the free" specifically difficult to sing to me is ludicrous though - musically, it's the climax of the piece which is often in music an extended high note both for contrast and drama.
That being said, I like the Star Spangled Banner but (and feel free to flame away here), I think my favorite National Anthem is Canada's. Patriotic, easy to sing, meaninful, and I really like the line, "We stand on guard for thee." And if singers can't hit the high note in the penultimate line, they can go low without compromising the song! : )
That's right. As a child I sang it often in school, along with "American the Beautiful" and "Of Thee I Sing". (Actually I'm not sure those titles are correct, but I darn sure know all the words to the songs!)
That Belize problem, he doesn't get it...it's reachable, but you got to work hard for it and work hard to keep it...it ain't a cheap "note" to reach and easy to loose
...would you like it better if it was sung in Spanish?
The NYT is a hatchet job of a newspaper, and it won't last much longer.
They are slashing jobs, and are also having difficulty attracting advertisers.
Help spread the word reference a complete boycott of that rag.
But seriously, I was at some sort of sporting event where they sang a medley of God Bless America, America (The Beautiful), and My Country 'Tis of Thee that I found thoroughly appropriate.
I would miss TSSB but I wouldn't mind if it was replaced by any or all three of those other great songs.
The flag's kind of hard to draw too. Why don't we just replace it with that nice rainbow-striped one and the National Anthem with "We Are The World"?
And Big Media wonders where the pubic gets this liberal bias stuff?
Screw America the beautiful. It contains the word God.
If WATW was the National anthem, Michael Jackson would get a royalty every time it was sung!.
Yes they do and they hate regular Americans such as you or I also. There is nothing to bad that could happen to this country and people such as post here in the eyes of these scum. They want the country broken and lots of us dead.
The argument is an aesthetic one and many Freepers agree with it.
God Bless America is nice and all, but it was written for a WWI USO show.
I prefer the Star Spangled Banner, written on the spot by a patriotic, passionate man the morning after victory in a great battle of the War of 1812.
The teachers wrote my parents that I needed counseling.
It is. I'm now, officially, confused as hell.
Oh, wait. Same problem...
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