is a very unusual poetic structure, you will not find other pieces of poetry that's set up exactly like that. and you'll notice in the printed forms how it's laid out. that is the case. more importantly, though. you find that people love this melody, but they aren't so enamored with the words to start with, i'm going back now to the english version. the parodies of to a background in heaven start to show up in the '80s. we believe this publication starting in 1780.

it's a fairly easy path to trace. let's go to the next picture, please. then pass that. without doubt, the boston patriotic song. it came with wide statistics, you can count how many times a new set of lyrics shows up in the song or if it's so lucky to make it into print music form. adam a wealthy man, the leader

of the nation, wealthy people could afford to stimulate the music enough to print notated versions of his as well. here's what happened. immediately if the first version " ♪ you sons of columbia who have bravely fought ♪ ♪ may you long taste the blessings your valor has bought and your sons reap the soil which your fathers defended ♪ ♪ with the gory of roam and the wisdom of greece ♪ ♪ and there i will plant while the sea rolls its waves ♪ . and then the chorus would come in and repeat those lines. you know, americans, we called ourselves colombians so back

then, and d.c. of course. and going into d.c., or district of columbia, you would hardly ever say that, but americans considered themselves colombi s colombians, and the term is in lots and lots of-so defines ourselves as the sons of columbus, columbia, the land of columbus is the opening to this song. this next one will surprise you, next image please. a woman in boston, he moves to america and retires in boston. i believe this came out before adams and liberty. you date adams and liberty into late 1798, this was written early in 1798 for washington's birthday. there are three verses, but it's all about referring back to the

greek gods and goddesses, it's got that connection back to the original story of anacreon, but now we're starting to insert another american hero into the story. so fast forwarding -- e ♪ beside in among them will emerge a man undaunted and wise ♪ nice lines. did you know that during the civil war, oliver wendell holmes wrote an extra verse to this melody? civil war. next slide. okay how does frances scott key get involved? first of all it's interesting, not only do we see a picture of

his mother-in-law, he was born in 1779 which seems to be a year of publication. in england. it says poems of the late frances scott key. he certainly was a poet, he was gentleman poet. if you go through this biography written just after his death, you'll read lots of poems about friends and family, domestic poet poetry, but something got him going in 1805. in 1805 he went to a dinner. the tripolitan wars. a big dinner was being thrown for sfooechb-either someone asked frances scott key or he came up with the idea that everyone's singing, adams and

liberty. i'll write one for deindicator, and that's what he did. i draw your attention to the third verse. ♪ and pale beams the crescent it's splendor obscured by the star spangled flag of our nation ♪ ♪ 1805, nine years before ft. mchenry. ♪ the ter binned heads bowed to its terrible glare and now mixed with the olive the laurel shall wave and form a bright wreath for the prows of the brave ♪

>> so not only is frances scott key writing the lyrics in his mind as he's observing, as he's watching this stuff going on, and by the way, when you watch the -- i don't know if of you saw the preview of the 1812 documentary that's coming up on pbc. they did a marvelous job of animating this in print. so they're not just sitting in the sk sky, but they're actually moving and growing and stuff. so frances scott key is way out of form here. far from mchenry, worried about what's going on. here's where we get to the scary stuff. "the star spangled banner" flew. what was flying and why? a storm flag because it was storming.

it was raining, it was a horrible night. a flag the size of a true star spangled banner. it was only raised the morning after. and that's fine. because if you read scott key's words carefully, he's talking about it. in the morning. anyway. he's back on his ship. is he writing a poem with an envelope in the pouring rain? whether he started jotting his thoughts down on an envelope, i don't know that we'll ever know, he probably did, but you can be sure through his mind, he's absorbing these images of the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air. it's not going to be an olive branch that's waving now of

course, it's going to be the flag. and remember how, and maybe you're not aware of it. i showed you a songster, he didn't call it the st"the star spangled banner" at first, did he? all of these things are going on in frances scott key's mind, i doubt that we will ever know when he crafted it into a full set of tight lyrics, and it was brought up before he started tonight. perhaps the copy here at the maryland historical society, the loan surviving hand copy of the lyrics was a very important correction right at the beginning. perhaps that was his last copying over from an envelope or two envelopes, mixed up with

some of his own ideas that he was crafting her. and he wrote those out and they were sent to a printer. and the next image is this first broad side. this is the first written appearance in the streets of baltimore after he came back to shore. it took a little while for the british to get their pour wounded troops back on their ships to put their killed general into his cask of rum. and it wasn't many think until the 17th of december mckee actually came back on shore. and it may be the lovely valuable people here. that's what went to the printer who set and spread this thing out. all they had to do, remember, this is parody, all they had to do was say, i don't know if you can see it between the pro's description and the four

versions, tune anacreon in heaven. when the descendants of john durang, he said i know, let's use the tune of anacreon in heaven. the first person to sing in public was probably one of the people on the streets of baltimore was between the printers and ft. mchenry because they really wanted to distribute this great, incredible piece of lyrical poetry. so this is our first documented evidence of that. next slide. this is a different edition. there are only six in the world. lester levy, these are from the levy collection, separate

publications, so we have got like a third of the world's supply of first editions of the star spangled banner. a parodiic song. corrected in the second edition. this is what you buy and you play in your nice, wealthy homes. this is what you work from if you're like most of the rest of us. this is how the song was initially disseminated.

let's go ahead two slides. >> is there any possibility that he might have had a small instrument, a flute or something with them that he might have been playing the tune and thinking of the words? i know he knew the tune, but did he have anything to play. >> when he was aboard ship, or when he got ashore. >> certainly once he got to shore, he would have access. i doubt that he thought to bring ahead anything musical where him when he sailed down. that's a long sail from baltimore where he first encountered the british fleet. a musician doesn't even need an

instrument, you hear it up here. writing the notes is just getting it out. so he was working through that over and over in his mind, but i have no idea once he got back to shore what happened next. it's a good question, and we may never know. >> is the anacreon and the versions of it later, were they used for something beyond being a drinking song, were they also people dancing to them? were they moving to them? was there, it's a great dance tune, it's got a jaunt to it, it can full full those functions.

>> i want to really surprise you with what happened in 1816. >> you had mentioned that they were, so what's too conflict there. >> it depends what kind of bar. i don't know that tonight is the time to answer it fully. [ inaudible ] >> because most of us are used it to starting, bum, bum, bum, that's a desending triad.

believe it or not, as early as the 20th century you'll find pin indications of that triad, it's not codified. it's not formally. even back in 1951. but when hoover signed the declaration, i mean the effort that began in 1918, it wasn't completed until 1981, there was no addressing a version on it. the different branches of the american military had their own versions. they tried to write an official version, and all this testimony and time went on, they went forget it, we just can't do. so nothing came of that is thing

singer is so busy, they changed the time signature from three beats to the measure which i think is really going too far. sing the song the way it's supposed to be sung, it's got some vim and vigor, sure the key's lyrics differ in mood for the melody for shumplt and that's why i'm about to sing for you a resetting of key's lyrics from a new melody from 1816. so this addresses that often made complaint, well it shouldn't be our national anthem because it's too hard to sing. it wasn't designed for everybody to sing. the only part designed for everybody to sing is the chorus and the chorus doesn't have as

wide a range. in the case to the left of thomas carr's first edition of t "the star spangled banner," is james huet's setting of the star spangled banner. i believe on one of huet's publications in east 1816 or 1817, he specified in full type at the bottom of the page, i have composed a new melody to frances scott key's words because of the many complaints of its difficulty of things. so we're talking two years after it was written. ironically, huet's version is even harder to sing. and that's why it only survived in several editions it was republished into the early and mid 1820s, someone tried publishing again in the 1840s and it just lost completely.

let me give you a little bit of its flavor, because it's s a di words. here's somebody's fresh take in 1816 about how could he make a melody fly represent the militaitaryistic moment that he describes. and i think this is successful. i haven't worked up a full keyboard version of it. the six string guitar, 1814 into 1815, 1301820, this was the newer version of the old colonial style 11 spring guitar. they show up in the hands handse

thomas wall theater collection at the historical society. thomas wall was a guitarist, we know that. very few of them. but the guitar finds t s its wa american culture in 1850. this is the instrument people were playing "old susanna" on. anyway on the guitar here's how someone would have tried to get this new musical setting of keye's words going. wn's early light what so proudly we've hailed at the twilight gleaming ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars and perilous fight over the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ over the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪

>> he repeats like an italian open ra, you'll take a word and repeat it for emphasis, but it's got the -- ♪ -- this would not be a glee in a gentleman's drinking club. it's a new melody inspired by francis scott keye and it is an interesting thing. another question or shall i briefly address how it became our national anthem? okay. arguably the most popular patriotic song in america in the 19th century was not "the star spangled banner" it was "hail columbia" a resetting, i love it, a parody of a march written by a heshen captured by george washington. they are all the great musical connections to american history.

anyway "hail columbia" was really the president's march for george washington. that's how it was composed and it served as the president's march until 1818 or 1820 or so when this unusual song "hail to the chief" became popular from a setting of sir walter scott "lady of the lake" poetry and suddenly "hail to the chief" displaces the president's march and it became the vice president's mar march and it becomes the most popular american ceremonial piece. the first glimmer, the first call to name the "star spangled banner" specifically as our national anthem comes from the pen of a minister, who after the civil war writes a song -- excuse me, writes a book saying we need a national song that we're a nation that was nearly torn asunder, we're back together. the french have theirs, and the

germans have this and that and the english have "god save the king." on page 47 or something like that, i'd have to check, he says the best expression of american patriotism is francis scott keye's song, i suggest we name that our national anthem. it didn't get a movement started, but for some reason i mentioned john phillip sufil li before he toured worldwide with his own private souza bang, he played "the star spangled ban r banner" as a band, but sometimes sung. he had a lot to do with displacing "hail columbia." by the turn of the 20th century there are people that don't like the "star spangled banner" and they put on contest for a national song. trying to get new submissions, i need something better than the

"star spangled banner", you know? 1918, the first time the "star spangled banner" is song at the world series. daughters of the war of 1812 write a letter to maryland congressman lincecum, that's where baltimore, maryland, airport stands is in lincecum, maryland. they say francis scott key was a marylander, we need a national anthem. you are a maryland elected official. we want you to present and pass a bill to make it our national anthem. and it took, what, 1918 to 1931 before it happened. it's an interesting story. and there's lots more to it. i mean, there are all sorts of interesting tangents and so forth. but i hope you'll agree with me that, you know, the "star

spangled banner" isn't any worse than "my country tis of thee" because "star spangled banner" parodied a light, humorous drinking song. "my country tis of thee" parodied a serious song about a king. does it really matter where it came from? or is it more important that music could play such an expressive role in american history? i so wish it would again. music doesn't today. it did in my lifetime. think of the civil rights movement and woody guthrie and pete seeger, people don't express themselves today by music as they used to and there are a bunch of reasons for that, but that may be another lecture in itself. other questions? sir? >> one more question. i was just wondering, you mentioned that people were getting this out very quickly

when a person wrote it. was the very singing of it an act of telling the news, or are they really two separate things? everybody knew the story of the battle and this was just a way of celebrating it. or was it really telling the news to people? to sing this song. >> that's a good question. remember, though, that scott key's interpretation of the successful defense of baltimore is much more of a lost union, sort of philosophical, he's at a bit of a distance. he understands the importance. unlike the yankee doodle battle of baltimore, he's not naming the generals or making fun of this or that or alluding to washington being burned 2 1/2 weeks before. so, my answer to your question is sort of yes and no. i think the story, what's interesting -- can we back up again on the images to the --

there, stop. that was it. yeah. back the other direction. keep going. i'm sorry, i meant by "other" forward. stop. thank you. this paragraph 14 lines, that's the story. why do they have to tell the story on the broadside? because this is not a narrative ballad. this is not like the death of general wolf in 1759 where they describe verse by verse the details of how wolf was killed. no. and this is not like -- my favorite -- actually my favorite song from the war of 1812 is set to the tune "the girl i left behind me." do you know that? ♪ o it's 21 verses. and believe me in the ballad set to "the girl left behind me" you don't have to explain what it's about. but key is being much more

lofty. he understands the critical turning point we were at as a nation, 200 years ago almost now. and therefore he's waxing poetic. every time that this is reprinted in a broadside or in a song, it includes the story of how this happened and why this happened. and maybe i could -- do i have two minutes left? maybe i could close with that story and read it to you from -- i'd love to read from the case over there, but i think i need to stay where i am. here's what's written, and you probably can't see it. the annexed song was composed under the following circumstance. a gentleman had left baltimore in a flag of truce for the purpose of getting released from the british fleet. a friend of his who had been captured at marlboro. he went as far as the mouth of the potuxen and was permitted to return lest the intended attack

on baltimore disclosed. he was brought up the mouth where the flag vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate and he was compelled to witness the bombardment of ft. mckinley, which the admiral had boasted that he would carry in a few hours and that the city must fall. he watched the flag as the fort -- doesn't say which flag, does it? he watched the flag at the fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can be better felt than described until the night prevented him from seeing it. in the night he watched the bombshells and at early dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country. good punctuation point and say thank you for having me. and god mbless us all as we get into it. thank you so much.