I’m not entirely sure whether this deserves its own thread, or should be folded into another thread, or moved to another forum, but I just wanted to share this rather unique, um, metatonal take on the national anthem. The first few bars relatively within the usual Western framework of pitch and melody. But I say that very loosely. Like, she is hitting notes wrong, but a lot of people might not catch it. Things are going relatively (once again, I’m grading on a curve here) okay … a bit shaky at “twilight’s last gleaming.” “Perilous fight” OOF. Really getting off the rails now. “And the rockets red glare” – what happened to the key? “Our flag was still there” What fricking key are we in now? And the home finish … our tonal center changes a couple times, our melody is well into microtonal territory, the drawn-out “free” goes sharp in the middle of the phrase, falls back down relatively close to the original pitch, and then breaks sharp as she stops the note, and we end in yet another key, I think, but I can’t keep track of what keys we are in.
They couldn’t find someone who could at least sing? Or at least give this singer the training wheels of a backing track?
That gave me chills, and not in a good way. This entire CPAC conference feels like some kind of low rent Amazon Prime show about an alt-history where a secret cabal of fascists are taking over the government using a former game show host as their figurehead. This show is badly written and I hope it doesn’t get renewed.
The national anthem is a very difficult song to sing because it requires a broad range. Her opening notes suggest to me that she has attempted to drop the key as low as possible so that she can hit the high notes. Unfortunately for her, she keeps drifting out of whatever key that is and into something more comfortable. Then the melody drops back below her bottom register and she tries to correct. You can hear it on “whose broad stripes” around 0:30.
A pianist would have kept her on track, but she still would have bottomed out on the low notes. She just doesn’t have the range.
Oh, who among us hasn’t spent way too much time at the bar, stumbled home wildly in the dark, and then fumbled for our keys as we tried to get into the (ours or a stranger’s) house ?
Which still leaves pacing and pronunciation.
BTW, you can be assured that a “corrected” version will be the one played on the right-wing media outlets.
Having defined “keys” that MUST be adhered to is a liberal plot to nanny state singing. Everyone knows Geroge Soros came up with the concept of “keys” that musty be “unlocked”. Those lib dem socialist communists fascists are trying to say that “WE THE PEOPLE” shouldn’t be allowed to sing.
