What is the standard time to sing our national anthem

National Anthem Sing The National Anthem During the 19th century, “The Star-Spangled Banner” became one of the nation’s best-loved patriotic songs. It gained special significance during the Civil War, a time when many Americans turned to music to express their feelings for the flag and the ideals and values it represented. By the 1890s, the military had adopted the song for ceremonial purposes, requiring it to be played at the raising and lowering of the colors. Despite its widespread popularity, “The Star-Spangled Banner” did not become the National Anthem until 1931. Symbols of a New Nation • Armed Forces Instrumental Arrangement During World War I the War department established a standard arrangement to be used by U.S. military bands. Although this arrangement is often used in nonmilitary performances, there is no single official version of the anthem designated for civilian use. Courtesy Maryland Historical Society. • Soprano Francis Alda, 1917 By the early 1900s the Star-Spangled Banner was a fixture at public ceremonies and celebrations. Courtesy of Library of Congress. • A Military Anthem The first official step toward making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem was taken in 1889 when the Secretary of the Navy ordered it played at morning flag-raising ceremonies. By 1917 both the Army and the Navy considered the tune to be the national anthem for ceremonial purposes. • The Official National Anthem In 1931, due largely to the efforts of Mrs. Reuben Ross Hol...

Its familiar opening chords bring us to our feet at the start of sporting events throughout the country. During the Olympics, we watch our nation’s top athletes proudly stand on podiums as it is being played in crowded arenas. We’ve heard its notoriously difficult notes sung – sometimes successfully and sometimes not – by celebrities, by choral groups and by children. You are sure to hear it accompanying firework displays this Fourth of July. But what is the story behind “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Let’s find out. American lawyer Francis Scott Key, age 35, was aboard a British ship in the Chesapeake Bay on the rainy night of Sept. 13, 1814, during the War of 1812. This second war between the young United States and Great Britain has taken an ugly turn just weeks before when the British had attacked Washington, D.C., burning the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the White House. Key had boarded an enemy ship in hopes of negotiating the release of a friend, Dr. William Beanes, who had been taken prisoner. Although Key was successful in his legal efforts, his successful departure was thwarted when he and his companions overheard British plans to attack the city of Baltimore that night. Not wanting the Americans to tip off their compatriots, British officers prevented the men from returning to shore. Key had to watch helplessly while British warships pounded Fort McHenry, which was just eight miles away in Baltimore Harbor, with shells and rockets for 25 hours without a bre...

How and why Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that would eventually become our national anthem is a well-known American legend. What is less known is that the journey from poem to anthem was long — more than a century — and fraught with controversy. Here are eight things that might surprise you about “The Star-Spangled Banner” and its divisive history: 1. Francis Scott Key did not compose “The Star-Spangled Banner.” On a list of the country’s greatest composers, you’ll find familiar names like Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin. Francis Scott Key will not — and should not — appear on that list. He was a lawyer and an amateur poet who, on September 14, 1814, wrote a poem called “The Defence of Fort M’Henry” while aboard a British ship during the night-long bombardment of Fort McHenry, Baltimore. Though you might say he “composed” the poem in a broad sense, he was not what is considered “a composer.” Some historians even believe he was tone deaf. 2. The tune for the national anthem is a British song about sex and drinking. The Anacreontic Society was a gentlemen’s club of amateur musicians founded in 18th-century London and named for Anacreon, a 6th century B.C. Greek poet. Sometime in the late 1760s or early 1770s, John Stafford Smith wrote music to accompany words written by Society President Ralph Tomlinson. The result was “The Anacreontic Song,” or “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and its lyrics were no staid bastion of propriety. It ends like this (starting wh...

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban caused a stir last week when he told the sports news website Cuban Still, Cuban’s move catalyzed action by elected officials. Last week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick “It is hard to believe this could happen in Texas, but Mark Cuban’s actions of yesterday made it clear that we must specify that in Texas we play the national anthem before all major events,” Patrick said in a press release about the bill. But why is the national anthem such a staple of the American sports scene? During the 1918 World Series featuring the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, a band in the Chicago bleachers spontaneously played “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a wartime show of patriotic pride. “Then, when the series moved back to Boston, the song was performed at a ceremony before each game,” Kaskowitz told the Texas Standard. But the tradition didn’t fully take root until after World War II. At the time, it was normal for the song to be played before public gatherings, like movies and parades. So sporting events became a natural fit for the song. Kaskowitz says that Americans took inspiration from Canada: during the war, the country’s national anthem was played before hockey games. Ever since then, it became a tradition. “The ritual, once it’s sort of in place, is very difficult to remove,” Kaskowitz said. “It would be hard to step away and say ‘OK, we’re not feeling patriotic anymore.’” Although the Mavericks have started playing the anthem again, Patrick’s bill may ...

The Star-Spangled Banner is one of the most recognizable songs out there — no doubt you’ve heard it dozens of times! It’s also a song that requires a lot of vocal finesse and skill. Here, St. Augustine, FL teacher The national anthem. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s bold. Inspired by seeing the American flag flying at “dawn’s early light” after witnessing the Battle of Baltimore, Francis Scott Key Some of them have been successful at it, and some haven’t. And to tell the truth, it’s one of the toughest songs to sing. It’s wordy in its fast-moving rhythmic patterns, it requires a big range of both pitches and dynamics, and the longest-held note in the song is also the Whitney Houston Considered by many to be one of the best “Star-Spangled Banner” performances, Houston’s soaring rendition (performed in 1991) is pretty exciting. She’s impeccably in tune, gives us plenty of her signature Renée Fleming Grammy-award winning opera superstar, Renée Fleming, is using all of her good training and technique here to sing a the national anthem in a free and precise way. Her diction is great, too. But her best decision was to choose a key low enough to be comfortable enough for her to sing a dramatic high note on “O’er the land of the free.” Mike Eli This lead singer of the Eli Young Band, a popular country band, simply skips two lines of the song, and starts over. The bottom line? Mistakes happen. Performers blank. But what a professional does when they Josh Groban Groban uses a bro...

The first time I heard a large crowd sing our national anthem was at a Major League ballpark when I was 8 years old. It was electrifying. Knowing all the words to The Star-Spangled Banner and singing along with thousands of strangers filled me with such patriotism. Last month, at a middle school event, I was saddened to see students mulling around, checking their phones, seemingly bewildered as a single student sang our national anthem. The Roper Center at Cornell University follows these types of trends and has confirmed that the percentage of national anthem singers is declining. In a survey asking “How likely are you to sing the national anthem?” just shy of 70% stated they would. (PRRI/RNS June 2013) Maryland-based consultant and soloist Eva Doyle believes that our American tendency to play with the traditional tune has contributed to this trend. “Many soloists these days change the tune a bit as they go along or include a large variety of vocal riffs, and the average citizen is too intimidated to try to follow.” Doyle notes that citizens in other countries where she has lived, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, all sing their national anthems, “but the ease of their tune certainly helps.” Roger Austin, a political consultant from Florida, respectfully disagrees. “At any event I have ever attended where the National Anthem was played, everyone stood and many sang along.” Austin finds power in the music and the words. He explains “it is one of my perso...