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Star Spangled Banner Music Analysis

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We are all familiar with our national anthem and some of us may have even learned in elementary school that the lyrics were penned by Francis Scott Key but do you know who composed the music? The music for the “Star Spangled Banner” was composed by John Stafford Smith. He was a musicologist, composer, and church organist from Gloucester, England. He lived from 1750 to 1836 and was the son of church organist Martin Smith. John was a choirboy at the Chapel Royal in London, England and he was a pupil of the famous composer William Boyce. John Stafford Smith was elected as a member of the exclusive Anacreontic Society and composed the music for the society's constitutional song "To Anacreon in Heaven" (a.k.a. "The Anacreontic Song)." It was this same music that was used for the “Star Spangled Banner”. This melody after it was originally composed became popular not only in England but also in Ireland, where, with different words, it was used as a drinking song. Later, the melody came to America. One of the earliest alterations of this melody in America was the Boston patriotic song by Thomas Paine, "Adams and Liberty," which appeared in 1797. Sometime later, it was used with other lyrics in "Jefferson and Liberty." This melody was so popular in America, in fact, it was adapted to more than 20 different songs. …show more content…

Francis Scott Key was a 35-year-old lawyer and poet from Washington, D.C. He had just successfully arranged the release of an American prisoner there and witnessed the “bombs bursting in air” from a

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