My objection to the Star-Spangled Banner is on solely musical grounds: It’s way too long and has way too wide a range (that is, its low notes are very low and its highs are very high.)
Come up with a replacement that’s 1/2 the length and 1/2 the range.
A National Anthem is by its nature, a “We’re #1, We’re #1” also its a “We are all one big happy family and we all agree we’re #1 and this song is symbolic of that”.
That goes for most nations.
My country tis of thee, sweet land of well maybe we shouldn’t have committed genocide again indigenous people, tolerated slavery, but we did fight a civil war to end slavery so that’s good, but there were Jim Crow laws, so that’s bad. Immigrants are welcome sometimes, depending on what part of the world they are from, and the socio-economic climate at the time.
Doesn’t quite sound as catchy.
Here is my nomination for new National Anthem.
I think the best we could likely do any time soon is to change it where only the first verse is official. That gets rid of the issue with the verse mentioning slavery (which may or may not be about actual slavery), but without directly saying that’s what we’re doing. And it has precedent in other countries.
I know the song is about a specific war, but I think the first verse can also be read as metaphorical. It’s saying that the American people will weather any battle that comes against us. Even as we see the fight (the rockets and the bombs), we are reminded that America still stands.
As for the range issue? I think this can be handled with two observations. The first is that there’s no reason that bottom note has to be very strong. It’s only present twice, at the bottom of the arpeggio “O-oh say” When singing with a crowd, you can easily hit it softly, let it fade to nothing, or even repeat the previous note. The real floor is the note above it (D in the original key of Bb.)
The other observation is that harmony sounds really nice both of the times that you would normally go for the high note (an F in the original key). For “and the rockets’ red glare” you can sing Bb-Bb-Bb-C-D-D instead of D-D-D-Eb-F-F, and even continue the harmony past that for a bit. And for “For the la-and of the free,” you can sing F-F-Bb-C-Bb-C-D instead of F-F-Bb-C-D-Eb-F.
Sure, when singing it as a solo, you need that 1.5 octave range. But, really, that’s achievable with a tiny bit of training. When singing as a crowd, my version with a bit of harmony limits it to only an octave for those who have trouble with the high and/or low notes, and puts the harmony on the two climaxes.
Really? That’s the Egypt-themed classical piece you go with? Not this?
Only down side is that there was a contemporary Confederate version of the song that would undoubtedly be disinterred by a certain segment of the population.
You first!
Nah. This:
WEll we could use a tweaked version of the "beds are burning " by aussie new waveish band midnight oil which would make a certain segment of people drop dead of apoplexy … that’d be worth some lulz…
Nope. Old Hickory reference. Andrew Jackson, Indian killer.
I vote for US Blues. You can’t get more American than the good old Grateful Dead.
They didn’t change the UK national anthem. What is you quoted is just the fourth verse, which almost nobody ever sings.
I might go with the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian.”
I remember this version:
This land is my land
And only my land
If you don’t get off
I’ll blow your head off
I’ve got a shotgun
And you ain’t got one
This land was made for only me
Looking at it now, it’s pretty much the perfect American anthem.
I think Texas has adopted it.
Right – I can just imagine the fuss from part of the population if we suggest changing to a song based on a love poem from a liberal college professor to her lesbian lover as our national anthem. And full of double-ententes, too – like “purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain”.
When our choral director composed a new arrangement, he had us Basses come all the way up to that high note on “brave”. And damn, we did it!
Weirdly, the Aida march always makes me think Italy, not Egypt. I suspect it was particular advertising usages when I was a kid that instilled that association.
[Britain used to have for God Save the Queen](https://Britain used to have for God Save the Queen)
Not quite. The original song, written in the turmoil of the 1745 rising, did, but (though no version has been “officially” adopted, let alone written into law) custom and convention stick to the opening verse almost all the time. You won’t hear either of those verses anywhere these days.
Occasionally, there is Britten’s 1967 arrangement, which strikingly has the opening verse very quiet, like a prayer, and then hits the loud button for the second: but its only regular appearance, that I’m aware of, is at the Last Night of the BBC Proms concerts.
Was this an a capella arrangement, or did you some instruments under you? I would find it odd to have the lowest voice sing the fifth at the end instead of the root, but I could see doing that if some other instrument playing the root.
Also, do you happen to remember what that high note you sang was?
I think it was Terry Pratchett who said that the second verse of any national anthem is a mumbled “tum tum te tum tum…”