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For the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a musicologist takes a closer look at the history of the anthem.
"The Star-Spangled Banner" (1814) plays a vital role in bringing together the United States of America. The very idea of nation is impossible without symbols that spark a unifying imagination—the ability of a large, diverse people to see itself as an interconnected whole. "Old Glory" and the song for which it stands are essential components of American dreamings.
Yet the very centrality of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to American identity obscures the specifics of its history. Francis Scott Key's song is so well known as to be all but unknown. Information about the song is certainly easy to find, but only rarely does it penetrate the surface of myth. The anthem's upcoming bicentennial year, however, offers the opportunity for musicians to share recent scholarship on the anthem with audiences across the nation.
The root of the confusion about the song’s history lies with Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) himself. The author of the nation's anthem was rather modest about his lyrical talents and, while justly famous in his lifetime as the writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner," he never preserved a detailed account of its creation for posterity. Key seems to have felt that a patriotic lyric should not glorify its author, but rather the heroes whose actions inspired his pen. He put these values into practice, leaving his own name off of the original printing of his lyric, and distributing the first thousand copies among the soldiers who had defended Fort McHenry. Key’s song is first and foremost a celebration of their courage.
Without a first-hand account of how his most famous words came to be, Key in effect left the task to others. Whether by design or distance from the event, these second-hand accounts confuse as much as they clarify. Over the past century, however, researchers (often musicologists at the U.S. Library of Congress) have shed light on the anthem's history. Building upon their work, several persistent myths about Key's song can now be qualified and corrected.