The Star-Spangled Banner

The U.S. national anthem to its original tune “To Anacreon In Heaven”.
words by Francis Scott Key
music by John Stafford Smith, according to The Anacreontic Song

This poem “The Defense of Fort McHenry” was written during the War of 1812 by Francis Scott Key. It was first published as a poem. At some point a little later it was realized it fit the well known tune of The Anacreontic Song. The original song was written for a men’s social club in London. It’s title was “To Anacreon In Heaven” and had been around since 1771. Anacreon was a Greek poet from about 570 B.C. It is difficult to sing because its range is one octave plus one fifth. Usually only the first verse is sung.

The sheet music:

The-Anacreontic-Song – Sheet MusicDownload

Accompaniment:

Star-Spangled-Banner – MIDIDownload

Lyrics

  1. O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light
    What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming
    Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
    O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
    And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air
    Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
    O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
    O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
  2. On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
    Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes
    What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep
    As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
    Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam
    In full glory reflected now shines in the stream
    ‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
    O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave
  3. And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
    That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
    A home and a country, should leave us no more?
    Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution
    No refuge could save the hireling and slave
    From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
    O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave
  4. 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 Heav’n 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

Sung here by Fred Feild: