On Wed, 27 Jun 2001, W. B. OLSON wrote:
> > If you mean the (rather good) march "The Stars and Stripes Forever",
> > that would be pretty astonishing and I'd like to know more about it.
> > It sure doesn't sound like anything that could have an 18th century
> > antecedent.
I agree.
> > If you mean the music for "The Star-Spangled Banner", yawn. I think
> > they teach the origins of that godawful tune in American high schools;
> > at least it is rare to find an educated American who can't name the
> > original. I think we can blame the English for it, though it must
> > have been reprinted in some of those late-eighteenth-century Scottish
> > drinking-club songbooks whose contents display no discernible taste
> > whatever on the part of the editor. But the Americans get to carry
> > the can for the present-day text (which is even worse).
The tune of "the Star-Spangled Banner" was made deliberately hard to sing
because it was a test to see if you were too drunk to reach the awkward
range of the melody. As a lot of people know, it had been the tune to the
English drinking song "Anacreon in Heaven". But there were other
closely-related tunes circulating around the British Isles for centuries,
all drinking songs: "The Rummer" from John Playford's "Dancing
Master" books (1600s) and the Irish drinking songs "Bumper Squire
Jones" and "Charles O'Connor" attributed to O'Carolan (early
1700s). (Just three examples) All of these were calculated to entertain
certain stages of inebriation.
So in celebration of this noble tradition, let's hoist a pint for the
holiday!
Dave Rogers
> >
> > =================== <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> ===================
> >
> > Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
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>
> The 'march king' Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever", 1898, can be found
> on the Levy sheet music collection website by doing a simultaneous
> search on 'stars', 'stripes' and 'forever'.
>
> Bruce Olson
>
> Old British Isles popular and folk songs, tunes, broadside
> ballads at my no-spam website - www.erols.com/olsonw or
> just <A href="http://www.erols.com/olsonw";> Click </a>
>
> Motto: Keep it up; muddling through always works.
> Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
>subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
>
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