Patriotic Music Lesson

Star Spangled Banner - Francis Scott Key / John Stafford Smith

Originally entitled "Defense of Fort McHenry", this stirring poem was written by Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key after observing the Battle of Baltimore between the British and American forces during the War of 1812 in Baltimore, Maryland on September 13 - 14, 1814.

Mr. Key had been sent aboard one of the British battleships to help free a civilian prisoner. He was successful, but was not to be released until after the battle because the British knew he could ruin their surprise attack plans. Therefore he observed the long battle from the British side. After seeing the "rockets red glare" and hearing "the bomb's bursting in air" "through the night" he was not aware of the condition of "what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming" (flag) through the smoke and confusion. He knew if the Americans were defeated, the flag would be down, but if it were still "streaming gallantly", the Americans had survived the hard battle. Imagine his excitement when he saw "by the dawn's early light", the "broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight" and it "gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there"! The battle was won and "that Star Spangled Banner yet" waved, "o're the land of the free, and the home of the brave"!

English composer John Stafford Smith titled the tune we use for the SSB, "Anacreontic". Composed while Smith was in his teens in the 1760's, its original lyrics and meaning are completely different than how we refer to the music today. The tune's lyrics had been changed several times over the years, and the tune was a popular one at the time in America. It was Mr. Key's brother-in-law, Judge Nicholson, who put the tune and the lyrics together the first time.

The original garrison flag sewed by Mary Pickersgill and her team of seamstresses was to be displayed 90 feet in the air and seen at very far distances. The dimensions of this humungous flag were 30 feet by 42 feet with each star being 2 feet in diameter and each strip 2 feet long! The fifteen stars and stripes were to represent the original 13 colonies plus Vermont and Kentucky. The flag that we now know as the "Star Spangled Banner" was delivered to Fort McHenry in August of 1813. That original flag from the battle is displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, USA for all to see.