Anthem ?

[weedie]

G'day all,
I was watching another one of my old movies last night ,Meet John Doe starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwick and at one stage,there was political rally type of gathering in a big auditorium.The film is set in the late 1940's or thereabouts,somewhere in the USA.
Before the speech,they played the Anthem and everyone sang.What puzzled us was the tune.It was the same melody as the English 'God Save the Queen' but different words.
What's going on here ?? Seemed really odd to hear this melody being played as an Anthem...in America .Any ideas ,anyone ?

[Whistlin' Will]

Because we Americans have a patriotic song called My Country, 'Tis of Thee that has the same melody as God Save the Queen.

Since that was set in the 1940's, the song that is now our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, had probably not been adopted as the official national anthem yet.

[I.D.10-t]

"My Country, 'Tis of Thee" was used for the de facto Anthem for awhile in the US along with Hail, Columbia until some where in the middle of last century when a radio show brought it to the attention that we didn't have an official one. Like many songs at the time, the tunes in early parts of US history were often reused with different lyrics. Our current anthem is an old poem hacked up to one quarter of it's original length erasing the answers to the questions asked in the poem and set to an old drinking tune. Bruce and Emmett's has the tune to our current anthem listed as an exercise with no name attached as it wasn't as significant tune at the time.

Last night I was at an event and was wondering how the tradition of playing an Anthem before a competition got started, and if other countries do it for every other event.

[Redwolf]

Yep...used to be one every schoolkid in the U.S. learned, long after it served its time as the de facto anthem. I don't think they learn any political songs anymore...when I taught music in my daughter's elementary school, not a single child knew the words to our actual national anthem.

In case you're curious about the lyrics of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," here they are:

My country,' tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

Personally, I prefer "America The Beautiful":

http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/americ ... tiful.html

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is nice enough, but impossible to sing unless you've got an amazing range.

Redwolf

[MTGuru]

The Star Spangled Banner has been official since 1931. But in the New York City public schools in 1957, singing My Country 'Tis of Thee was still part of the morning ritual, immediately following the Pledge of Allegiance. Presumably because they thought it was shorter and easier for us to sing.

That's where I learned that the name of our country was apparently not the USA, but "Tizzathee". What else could "My country, Tizzathee" have possibly meant to a 4-year old?

The next time The SSB comes up, try singing To Anacreon in Heaven instead. I especially like "Voice, fiddle, and flute / No longer be mute", and it's much jollier than all the turgid bombast of the other.

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw234.html

[Redwolf]

The Star Spangled Banner has been official since 1931. But in the New York City public schools in 1957, singing My Country 'Tis of Thee was still part of the morning ritual, immediately following the Pledge of Allegiance. Presumably because they thought it was shorter and easier for us to sing.

That's where I learned that the name of our country was apparently not the USA, but "Tizzathee". What else could "My country, Tizzathee" have possibly meant to a 4-year old?

The next time The SSB comes up, try singing To Anacreon in Heaven instead. I especially like "Voice, fiddle, and flute / No longer be mute", and it's much jollier than all the turgid bombast of the other.

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw234.html

No matter what the words are, I can't sing it. The lows are too low and the highs are too high. Stirring enough, but a poorly written tune for us ordinary singers.

Redwolf

[dwest]

I can still sing the SSB, better yet I even know the words, but I prefer Woody's song the best. That's what we always sang at National Park campfire programs back in the 50's and the Canadian version up north. Of course we was all classed as a pinkos back then. The Pledge of Allegiance is a pinko work also so at least we have that to hang onto in spite of it's mangling by the US Congress.

[fearfaoin]

The next time The SSB comes up, try singing To Anacreon in Heaven instead. I especially like "Voice, fiddle, and flute / No longer be mute"...

"And, besides, I'll instruct you like me, to intwine
"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."

Woah, score! Esp. since Venus Murtia
was the goddess of laziness. Rife with
context, that is.

[I.D.10-t]

...but I prefer Woody's song the best.

Talk'n bout "this land"? Great song, take a public domain hymn, tweak the tune and write lyrics about how property is owned by all, and make royalties off of the copyrighted lyrics.

[dwest]

...but I prefer Woody's song the best.

Talk'n bout "this land"? Great song, take a public domain hymn, tweak the tune and write lyrics about how property is owned by all, and make royalties off of the copyrighted lyrics.

That's a bit of a simplification of Guthrie's use of parts of other melodies but the royalties part is correct, even Communists believed in copyrights, not saying Woodie was one 'o them though.

[crookedtune]

That's where I learned that the name of our country was apparently not the USA, but "Tizzathee". What else could "My country, Tizzathee" have possibly meant to a 4-year old?

And to the Republic, for Richard Stans......

[dwest]

I like the 1967 version: Oh say can you see. My eyes if you can. Then my hair's too short. Down to here. Down to there. Down to where ...

[izzarina]

And to the Republic, for Richard Stans......

Well, he WAS a decent guy...or so I hear. So why not have the Republic for him?

Oh you just have to love Mondegreens

[I.D.10-t]

Come to think of it, neither the "spangled banner" or "tis of thee" even says the word "America" in it. It would be good to rectify this with a tune like "America the Beautiful", but I can only think of one that is unique to the US and well known. My proposal for a new anthem is this well known jem. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

[dwest]

I wish we had something like La Marseillaise:

The bloody banner is raised, (repeat)
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They're coming right into our arms
To cut the throats of our sons and women!

That's pure poetry!