Teaching Music, October 2005, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 30-35. Copyright © 2005 by MENC.

MENC and the National Anthem: From the Early 1900s to Today's National Anthem Project

"Last fall I sat in that great Soldier Field in Chicago at a football game and watched 125,000 people stand mute while a thousand-piece massed band of high school musicians played the national anthem." This statement could have been written last year, but actually appeared in the May–June 1942 issue of Music Educators Journal (MEJ), not long after the United States’ entry into World War II.

You might have the same experience if you went to a major sporting event today—almost sixty-five years later. Many people are still not singing the national anthem. A 2004 Harris interactive poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans do not know the U.S. national anthem. Some do not even realize that the song has more than one verse. American music teachers share the task of helping young Americans learn these songs. The Harris poll found that 70 percent of Americans who know the national anthem learned it in their school music classes. MENC hopes to spread that success through The National Anthem Project, a campaign to help Americans learn—or relearn—“The Star-Spangled Banner” and by doing so, focus attention on the importance of music education in our schools.

"Music education in our schools is vital to our nation’s culture," said David Circle, MENC president. "Our musical tastes may differ, but on these points everyone can agree: every American should be able to sing the national anthem and school music classes are where it should be taught to our children. The National Anthem Project’s purpose is to promote the respectful singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner' by all citizens at public and sporting events and to bring attention to and an awareness of the unique role music education must play in our nation’s educational system. Music education is neither a frill nor an expendable subject," said Circle.

MENC’s National Anthem Project to encourage the singing of the national anthem and draw support for music education has generated much excitement among members, and readers can get a sampling by reading the online bulletin board at http://www.thenationalanthemproject.org. Find out about the SATB and SSA arrangements of the anthem that member Gabrielyn Watson-Foster uses with her students at Kenwood Academy in Chicago. Learn about Sue Jacob’s eighth-grade chorus from Taylor Street Middle School in Griffen, Georgia, leading 33,000 baseball fans at the Atlanta Braves’ Turner Field July 31 after being cancelled by rain in April. Others are going online asking for ideas for elementary school bulletin boards, seeking protocol clarification, and mentioning John Phillip Sousa’s role in having "The Star-Spangled Banner" become the official national anthem.

It’s interesting to note here that MENC’s official position on "The Star-Spangled Banner" has changed over time. In March 1930, at its annual meeting, the Music Supervisors National Conference (MSNC) passed a resolution addressed to Congress vigorously opposing the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as our national anthem. The reasons given: a national anthem should embody the ideals of our nation; the song is a reflection of a single wartime event, which cannot fully represent the spirit of a nation committed to peace and goodwill; and the music is not suitable for singing in schoolrooms and assemblages where a national anthem is needed. Reflected in this resolution is the understanding that music educators deeply affect the spiritual values of their communities and so must choose the music they teach with care and thoughtfulness. The Conference did, however, acknowledge the legitimate place the song has as one of our historic patriotic songs. Despite MSNC’s opposition, President Herbert Hoover signed the law making "The Star-Spangled Banner" our national anthem on March 3, 1931, ending the saga of choosing our national anthem.

This was not the first time that MENC was involved with "The Star-Spangled Banner." Before World War I, several versions of the anthem were in general use. While there was not an officially sanctioned version, a version that earlier had been formulated by the music committee of the National Education Association (NEA) had been included in the pamphlet 18 Songs for Community Singing, edited by MSNC. The NEA, to make it easier to sing, had removed most of the dotted figures, particularly those at the beginning of phrases (see figure 1).

Because those using the song collection had found this version highly unsatisfactory, a Joint Committee of Twelve was formed by MSNC to produce a new version. The committee members represented the military, music publishers, and MSNC. Instead of simply deciding for themselves what the correct version should be, the committee wanted to see how people were actually singing it. So they made a careful study of many groups of people singing the song. They were particularly interested in how soldiers sang it. The song leaders at the camps were asked to start the men singing and then allow them to continue without conducting. The leaders transcribed how the group actually sang the song. While there were certainly differences in how groups sang it, at least one fact was strikingly clear: they usually sang the dotted rhythms. "Whether or not this is connected with our liking for ‘rag time’ may be a debatable question, but the tendency is certainly there. The NEA version therefore, instead of simplifying the song by wiping out dotted eighth and quarter notes, made it more difficult, because more foreign to our natural tendencies" (Music Supervisors Journal, Nov. 1918, p. 4). This version, with the dotted rhythms, became what is known as the service version. The U.S. War Department published it in the three million copies of its songbook that were distributed free to soldiers. It was also the version published in MENC’s Liberty Edition of 55 Songs for Community Singing (1918).

With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, MENC, along with the rest of the nation, wanted to contribute to the war effort. The entire May–June 1942 issue of Music Educators Journal was devoted to this topic. It concluded that every music educator should organize and lead assemblies both in their schools and their communities to build a sense of community and help the country live up to the motto "America Sings to Victory."

Also in 1942, a new committee, including members of the original Committee of Twelve, recommended transposing the anthem from B-flat to A-flat to make the anthem more singable by mixed voices. At the same time, they made a few minor changes in punctuation and wording to make the lyrics more authentic. The 1942 committee also adopted The Code for the National Anthem, which sets forth the procedures and formalities to use when playing or singing it. The code is still in use today.

Throughout the history of the United States, music educators have played an important role in building national unity by teaching students to sing the songs of their country. The words of Helen C. Dill, president of the California-Western Division of MENC, from the February–March 1942 issue of MEJ are as fresh today as they were then:

For those of us whose days are spent surrounded by youth and music, the way lies clear ahead. Our music must be more plentiful and more generally beautiful than ever before, because the need for healing and the need for inspiring are greater. And we must help make more opportunities for participation, more opportunities for listening. These are days in which we must think clearly and act vigorously, if we are to meet the challenge to education implicit in the current challenge to democracy.

By Elizabeth Pontiff, managing editor, Teaching Music.

The Last Verse

An interesting footnote to the Code is Peter W. Dykema’s (MENC president 1916–1917) words about the national anthem in the September–October 1945 issue of MEJ. He points out that the code for the national anthem says that if only one verse is sung it should be the first verse. But he suggests that "With the establishment of world peace and what we intend shall be the complete abolition of war as a means of settling disputes, the question may well be raised as to whether … the Code should not be revised" (p. 18). If only one stanza is sung, Dykema thought it should be the one that set forth the aspirations of the American people as well as embodied the principles of the then newly founded United Nations. He suggested that the best verse to sing was the last:

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: “In God is our Trust.”
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!