Happy birthday to our national anthem

“It is liberty set to music.” These were the words expressed by then director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in 1891. The director? None other than John Phillip Sousa!

Surprisingly, “The Star Spangled Banner” was not officially signed into law as our national anthem until 1931 by President Herbert Hoover. However, most of us learned that Francis Scott Key is the one who officially penned the words to a poem he titled “The Defense of Fort McHenry.”  It was then set to music by John Stafford Smith, likely to the tune of “Anacreon in Heaven,” a well-known English song.

History tells us that 200 years ago, during the War of 1812, the Mother Country of Britain was ravaging the shores of the fledgling United States, where a ragtag militia of farmers and volunteers were defending. The mighty British Royal Navy was docked off the shores of Virginia and Maryland and had detained Americans on their ship to use as slave soldiers. Francis Scott Key, a 34-year-old Georgetown attorney and skilled negotiator, asked for, and received, permission from President James Madison to execute a rescue mission. While being forced to stay on the British ship overnight, he witnessed a horrific bombing of Fort McHenry. During the bombing, brave militiamen and women would replace others killed during the shelling, making sure the flag remained waving.

It was during this terrible battle that Key feared the flag would be taken down and the young nation would dissolve once again to the mighty power of the Royal Navy and the British Empire. Once the smoke finally began to clear from the relentless barrage of rockets and bombs throughout the night, Key looked toward Fort McHenry and was amazed to see the flag was still there, waving. With tears in his eyes and pride in his heart, he sat down and penned the words:

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? 

It was 200 years ago in 1814 that Key penned these words. Little did he realize that he was writing the words to the national anthem for what would become the most powerful country on the face of the Earth. There by the dawn’s early light, a national anthem was born.

It was two years later that the Marine Band would first play what The National Intelligencer in Washington, D.C., would call “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  In 1891, the Marine Band took its first national tour across the United States and performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at each concert for enthusiastically patriotic citizens. This is when Sousa remarked, “Besides its soul-stirring words … it is the spirit of the music that inspires. It is liberty set to music.”

Today, we honor our country with the playing and singing of our national anthem before ball games, ceremonies, celebrations, and many public gatherings. Those performing it should know, realize and respect the homage it truly is to those brave militiamen and women, for whom without, we would most likely not have the privilege to gather and celebrate with the freedom we enjoy.

We hear many renditions today of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but I find interesting the statement made by Master Sgt. Kevin Bennear.  He has sung the national anthem at July 4 celebrations, Memorial Day celebrations, at the Pentagon on the first anniversary of 9/11, at Honor Flight ceremonies at the World War II Memorial, and even on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”.  He states: “Some singers might try to make it their own and embellish the music, but that’s not the point. When I sing other tunes, I can think about the notes and make them my own. But when I sing the anthem, it’s not about me. The purpose is to remember the men and women who have sacrificed so much for our country; those who came before us and everything they did to ensure our freedom. We honor them.”

And today, we honor the anniversary of the words of Francis Scott Key … and the land of the free and the home of the brave. May we never forget this!

FINÉ.