{"id":2325,"date":"2022-07-05T18:50:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T22:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2022-07-07T21:43:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T01:43:21","slug":"mocking-freedom-what-to-do-with-the-star-spangled-banner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2022\/07\/mocking-freedom-what-to-do-with-the-star-spangled-banner.html","title":{"rendered":"Mocking Freedom? What To Do With the “Star-Spangled Banner”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My July 4 “More than Music” special for National Public Radio seems to me the hottest radio show I\u2019ve ever managed to produce. The topic is The<\/em> Star-Spangled Banner<\/em> \u2013 as an instrument for exploring issues of race and national identity. You can hear it here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em> is controversial today for three reasons. The first is that Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words, owned slaves. The second is that the little-known third verse references \u201chireling and slave\u201d \u2013 and we\u2019re not sure what that means. The third is that American identity is being scrutinized as never before in living memory \u2013 what does it mean, right now, when we sing \u201cland of the free\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music historian Mark Clague, who invaluable partners the broadcast, has written an important new book: Oh, Say Can You Hear?<\/em><\/strong> <\/a> It\u2019s a \u201ccultural history\u201d of The Star-Spangled<\/em> Banner<\/em>. Mark has many answers. He tells us that Key both owned slaves and, as an attorney, freed nearly 200 enslaved Black Americans. He explains that \u201cslave,\u201d in Key\u2019s third verse, doesn\u2019t refer to African-Americans (which, he adds, doesn\u2019t let Key off the hook). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Mark eloquently makes a case for retaining The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em> \u2013 with two revisions. As part of our national inheritance, it stands witness to our history; it changes significance over time; it instigates a virtual \u201cconversation\u201d about the shifting meaning of American patriotism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outstanding African-American bass-baritone Davone Tines, however, finds The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em> \u201ccolonialist\u201d and \u201cbellicose.\u201d He builds a case for a new national anthem: \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing.\u201d The \u201cBlack national anthem,\u201d it\u2019s as harmonious and inclusive as Keys\u2019 song is (\u201cconquer we must\u201d) is martial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third participant in the show is the eminent Civil War historian Allen Guelzo, who tackles a related issue: what to do with statues of Francis Scott Key and other famous slave-owners? Leave them alone, he argues. We are an increasingly forgetful nation. We need to possess a national past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the way, partnered by Peter Bogdanoff\u2019s technical wizardly, I sample renditions by Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Morton Gould, and Igor Stravinsky, among others. And we also hear two of the more than 500 (!) alternative verses for The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em> \u2013 a post-Civil War anti-slavery lyric by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., which Clague believe should be formally adopted; and a bitterly sarcastic 1844 Abolitionist lyric that, when we hear it sung, chills the spine: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh say, do you hear, at the dawn\u2019s early light,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shrieks of those Bondmen, whose blood is now streaming<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the merciless lash, while our Banner in sight,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its stars, mocking Freedom, is fitfully gleaming?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you see the backs bare, do you mark every score<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the whip of the driver trace channels of gore <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh Say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019er the land of the free<\/em>, and the home of the brave?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a listener\u2019s guide: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7:40 \u2013 A close look at Whitney Houston\u2019s 1991 Super Bowl rendition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:00 \u2013 Stravinsky\u2019s version, for which he was accused of \u201ctampering with national property\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14:00 \u2013 A close look at Francis Scott Key and slavery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15:04 \u2013 What does Key mean by \u201chireling and slave\u201d?
18:00 \u2013 Allen Guelzo on those statues, and related matters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25:00 \u2013 Davone Tines on \u201ca demonstrably toxic way of building a foundation for a nation\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26:00 \u2013 The Star-Spangled Banner recast as an Abolitionist salvo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

33:30 \u2013 \u201cHail Columbia\u201d as an alternative to The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

35:00 \u2013 Antonin Dvorak\u2019s alternative to The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

37:00 \u2013 Davone Tines\u2019 alternative to The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

43:30 \u2013 Mark Clague\u2019s \u201cnew verse,\u201d courtesy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can link to previous “More than Music” radio documentaries via the bottom of my home page<\/strong>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My July 4 “More than Music” special for National Public Radio seems to me the hottest radio show I\u2019ve ever managed to produce. The topic is The Star-Spangled Banner \u2013 as an instrument for exploring issues of race and national identity. You can hear it here. The Star-Spangled Banner is controversial today for three reasons. The first is that Francis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Bv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2333,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}