By Charles Layton.
Editor; Blogfinger.net. 2011 Super Bowl.
Christina Aguilera at the Super Bowl
When Christina Aguilera flubbed the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner “at this year’s Super Bowl, it revived the perennial argument that America needs a new national anthem.
It won’t happen, of course, but it’s fun to review the issue once in a while.
The most persuasive argument against “The Star Spangled Banner” is that most people can’t handle its range of more than one and a half octaves. At a baseball game or other such function, you’ll see people silently mouthing those unreachable high notes. Or they’ll drop down an octave when they get to “laaaand of the freeeeee…” Or improvise a few lines of alto harmony. (Aguilera switched very awkwardly into falsetto and still didn’t quite nail the high note.)
Another beef you’ll often hear about Spangled Banner is that it’s too militaristic. It’s about bombs.
Any song proposed as an alternative, though, needs to meet three tests: Are the lyrics appropriate? Is it singable? And (my favorite) does it meet what has been called the “Casablanca challenge”?
Alfred Gingold, writing in Slate, once proposed that a national anthem, when sung by patriotic partisans, should be able to silence those arrogant Nazis in Rick’s American Cafe. The French anthem, La Marseillaise, met this test splendidly in the movie. I think Spangled Banner would also succeed in that situation — but only if the people singing it could reach those stirring high notes. If not, it would be pathetic.
So, here are the two most commonly suggested alternatives:
America The Beautiful. Are the lyrics appropriate for a national song? Yes, they are; they declare that the country is beautiful. Is it singable? Yes, it is. Does it pass the Casablanca challenge? Unfortunately not. Waves of grain, fruited plains — that won’t scare very many Nazis.
This Land Is Your Land. Many people champion this song as a national anthem on the grounds that it’s assertive about democracy, expansiveness and inclusiveness on a continental scale. And I agree. It is easily sung, for sure, spanning one note less than an octave. It passes the Casablanca test in my opinion. Furthermore, it’s often sung to guitar and/or banjo accompaniment — what’s more American than that? And it’s structured like an American folk song, with a repeating chorus; it’s designed for group singing.
Here it is, performed by country music artist Lee Greenwood. Sing along if you want to; it’ll make you feel good.
It’s not a Voice you need to sing the National Anthem….it’s the Heart. While musical education is sadly lacking, so is instruction in patriotism. I will sing those notes badly on any given day…and some days I sing them well, but I always sing them.
Interesting comment, that. Maybe we should run a poll asking how many people can comfortably sing an octave and a half. (I can, but only if the lowest note is at the bottom of my range.
Carol, when the hymnals started putting the limit at D, did this force them to eliminate some songs from the repertoire?
In my opinion, one reason that most people nowadays can’t sing a song with an octave and a half range is that music instruction in the public schools has been sadly neglected, and fewer people sing on a regular basis after they become adults. With a moderate amount of training and practice, all of us should be able to sing that range. Old hymnals often have songs ranging up to an F. New hymnals usually range only up to a D. As a people, sadly, we are losing the ability to sing well. Instead of replacing the national anthem, why don’t we reclaim our ability to sing?
The American Revolution was declared by rich, greedy slave owners of rice plantations who didn’t want to share their blood tainted coffers with the monarchy. It was fought mostly by serfs who really didn’t want to fight, but it was that or be hanged. If there must be a national anthem at all, which seems puerile and jingoistic to me, it should be Guthrie’s labor union supporting anthem of ‘This Land is Your Land.’
I and the Philadelphia Flyers would like to recommend “God Bless America” (and yes, I suppose I’ve been tagged as a liberal!)
I’m a big Woody Guthrie fan and not in the least surprised that Charles would suggest “This Land is Your Land” as a replacement for “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Guthrie did flirt with communism in the 30s, but I assume most of us have forgiven him for that. He wrote some awfully good songs.
As This Land Is Your Land is a Woody Guthrie song somehow maybe this would be poetic justice and a long overdue apology for him being defamed as a commy lefty in the 1940’s/50’s.
Sorry Charles, but the Star Spangled Banner is not about bombs—it is about freedom, success in battle to preserve that freedom, brave troops who put their lives on the line for their country and a flag that looks magnificent to those who are devoted to America.
As for the difficulty hitting those high notes, I don’t think that most people who stand up at Yankee Stadium or the Great Auditorium care about perfect pitch. You must admit that it does sound stirring when thousands join in (regardless of octaves) to sing it together.
“This Land” does not celebrate patriotism, so it fails the test for a national anthem. God Bless America is a prayer and thus would not qualify as a national anthem.
Incidentally the Marseillaise is about killing the enemy, slitting throats, blood running in the streets and dying for France. It does sound more glorious when you hear it sung in Rick’s Cafe without subtitles, but I can see how those words would make Nazis nervous.
America the Beautiful wouldn’t sit well with the left wing progressives. It mentions God.
This could be the next great item for our politicians to vehemently disagree over. I can imagine different melodies blasting over the airwaves on FOX and MSNBC. But which side of the argument would the other take?
BTW I once read that if sung in a different key most people would be able to handle it.