O Say, Did You Know?: Patriotic Music Trivia!

You don’t need the radio on for very long today to hear it: the jubilant rhythms of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the triumphant strains of “The Star Spangled Banner,” or, if you’re listening to a classical station, the majestic opening viola solo of Dvorak’s “American” quartet. Independence Day has come again, and patriotic music of every genre is pervading the airwaves, putting us all in a good enough mood to endure the incessant popping of fireworks and pungent odors of grill fires that are transpiring outside. But while you may know the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” by heart, can you easily recount their musical and inspirational origins? Here are some patriotic musical trivia for you to impress the guests with at whichever celebratory function you’re attending on America’s 237th birthday:

1. A British composer wrote the music for “The Star Spangled Banner”

We all know the story of how Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics for our national anthem, but in spite of his born-to-be-a-composer last name, Key did not, in fact, pen the tune that would go on to engender cringe-worthy intonation at American baseball games for decades to come. That honor is attributed to the English composer, John Stafford Smith, who had originally written the music for the Anacreontic Society of London, an eighteenth-century gentleman’s club of amateur musicians. Key’s brother-in-law, Joseph H. Nicholson, happened to be aware of this particular song, and observed that the words of Key’s poem (originally titled, “In Defence of Fort McHenry”) fit its melody well. Apparently without pausing to consider the implications of turning a British piece into an American pride song just thirty years after the end of the Revolutionary War, Nicholson had it printed in a Baltimore newspaper, and the rest is history.

2. “Dixie” was the unofficial national anthem of the Confederacy

The catchy flute tune of the mid-nineteenth century was originally composed by a northerner, Daniel Emmett, but Confederate leaders adopted it at the beginning of the civil war and altered the lyrics to reflect their own political agenda. While the original version of the song is generally accepted today, there are still some people who consider it to be offensive as a result of this dodgy history–in spite of the fact that President Lincoln had it played at the announcement of Robert E. Lee’s surrender in 1865.

3. “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” is not actually called, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”…and it wasn’t written by an American composer, either.

Just like everyone thinks that the first line of the “Pledge of Allegiance” is “I pledge of allegiance,” the song beginning with the words, “My country, ’tis of thee” is not really called “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” In actuality, it’s simply called, “America,” although one can see why subsequent generations would refer to it under the alternative for the purposes of differentiation. The confusion surrounding the hymn doesn’t end there, however–its stately melody is taken directly from the British national anthem, “God Save the Queen,” leading one to believe that the early American musicians were perhaps forgiving of their former arch-nemesis.

4. “This Land is Your Land” was written with political motives

Apparently, the 99% had an advocate way back in the 1940s. When Woodie Guthrie first heard Irving Berlin’s, “God Bless America” he was discontented with what he felt was an inaccurate portrayal of the distribution of land and wealth in the country–so much so that he wrote his own song, “This Land is Your Land,” in response. Although Guthrie didn’t do any number-crunching himself, history has proved him correct: about 20% of America’s wealth belonged to only one percent of its population during the Great Depression.

5. The Brits also gave us “Yankee Doodle”

Believe it or not, the timeless tune that would go on to be sung to generations of children by a purple dinosaur was originally composed by a British Army surgeon during the French and Indian War as a means of mocking the colonists he attended to. Richard Shuckburgh is said to have set his lyrics to the melody of the popular nursery rhyme, “Lucy’s Locket,” around 1755. “Doodle” was slang for “fool” or “simpleton,” and “macaroni” was a reference to the “macaroni wigs” that were an extreme fashion of the period, subsequently coming to imply foppishness. In spite of these decidedly un-patriotic origins, however, the song has maintained popularity throughout the generations, and remains the state anthem of Connecticut today.