David C Rogers wrote:
>
> 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
> >
>
> Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
>subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Where is ANY song sung to the tune of "The Rummer", which first appeared
in 'The Dancing Master' in 1686.
The history of "The Star Spangled-Banner" and it's tune, was
exhaustively treated, with many facsimilies given, in Oscar Sonneck's
monograph of the same title, The Government Office, Washington, DC,
1914.
On page 51 Sonneck gives "Bumpers" above "Anacreon" (transposed to same
key and time) to counter the claim of Wm. Grattan-Flood that the latter
was derived from the former.
On page 50 - 'The only characteristic in which "Bumper" and "Anacreon"
agree is the apparently perfect agreement to disagree completely; for
where one melody ascends the other descends, and vice versa.'....Can
humour further go?
Of the 100 notes of "Anacraon", 7 are matched by ones in "Bumpers".
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
