By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
I read recently on an internet news site that during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama opined to an interviewer that our national anthem was "bombastic." He said he would like us to have something that sounds more peace-loving - at least that is what I took his meaning to be based on the example he gave - which was "I'd Like To Teach the World to Sing." If I recall correctly, this was a song used to during the 70s for a Coca-Cola TV commercial.
The tune is pedantic and repetitive. The lyrics go like this:
I'd like to buy the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow white turtle doves
Chorus:
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to buy the world a Coke
And keep it company.
(repeat chorus)
It's charitable to say his choice was off-the-cuff, but even so, it speaks volumes about the president's world view. None of this American exceptionalism stuff. And forget about being hawklike on foreign policy. If we only speak nicely, the world will like us and do our bidding. Just join hands and sing Kumbaya.
The president's choice offers even deeper insight into his nature. The choice is oddly juvenile and wistful. It lacks any hint of grandeur, any allusion to national pride, courage or purpose.
Our national anthem is a demanding piece of music. It ranges over one and one-half octaves. It demands that the singer be competent enough to handle a wide-ranging melody and have sufficient knowledge to realize that he/she must begin on a low chord. You only have to listen to the opening of any sports events to hear what happens when the vocalist makes a misjudgment. They are sentenced to sign off in a screech at the end. It is also a piece of music that no pop vocalist should attempt to "enhance." These attempts are simply painful to hear.
The lyrics are also demanding. Written with early 19th century eloquence, rhythm and phrasing, they require careful attention. Again, when you witness some public events, the vocalist(s) regularly manage to mangle them badly.
The only dependable vocalists where the anthem is concerned seem to come either from the military or singers with an operatic background or some classical training.
Francis Scott Key, an amateur poet, wrote the poem after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal navy in Chesapeake Bay during the battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. The poem became popular and was later set to the tune of a popular British drinking song that was well=known in America at the time
It has four stanzas, but only the first is generally performed although the fourth is added at some formal events. My husband thought that the second verse should be the one in general use, as it does not end with a question mark. The third was once translated into Latin - I'm not sure why.
With Flag Day just passed and July 4th coming, maybe we can print all four in the next newspaper. Due to immigration, the lyrics were translated - first in 1861 into German and later into Hebrew and Yiddish, Spanish, and Irish and into French by the Acadians of Louisiana. In the indigenous languages, the lyrics appear in Navajo and Cherokee.
"The Star Spangled Banner" was recognized for use by the U.S. Navy in 1889 and by the President in 1916. A Congressional resolution made it the national anthem in March, 1931.
Let's look at those first stanza lyrics:
O! Say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched.
Were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! Say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Bombastic? I think the president is confusing bellicose with a statement of pride and hope.
I understand that he may not like the anthem - it does not match his background in any way. But it is worrisome to wonder if he does not fully appreciate its importance in a visceral way to most Americans.
Copyright©2010SheilahPepper
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