Entertainment - Music

The music of The Star-Spangled Banner as we know it today is English in origin. Ralph Tomlinson, president of the Anacreontic Society, a London social club, wrote a poem in 1770 called To Anacreon in Heaven. A year later John Stafford Smith, an organist and composer set the poem to music.

Forty-three years later Francis Scott Key, a poet-lawyer, witnessed the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during The Battle of Baltimore. One thousand dedicated Americans stopped the British advance on Baltimore, and on September 13, 1814 when he saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry "by the dawn's early light," Francis Scott Key changed the words of the original tune from England, replacing them with his own. He named it The Star-Spangled Banner.

To hear the original music of To Anacreon in Heaven, click on the link below:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/Anacreon.midi

The Star-Spangled Banner's music:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/StarSpangldBanner.mid

Can you hear the difference?

The above info can be found on website, Archiving Early America:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/star-spangled-banner.htm

Keywords used: early american music