October 2014 marks the 200th anniversary of the first publication of “The Star Spangled Banner.” There are only eleven copies of the first edition known to exist, and the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is fortunate and proud to own one of those copies.

The text of “The Star Spangled Banner” was conceived by Francis Scott Key during the critical battle of Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814, during the War of 1812.  Key, moved by what he saw, was simply recalling a popular melody to which he could set his now famous words, an act of appropriation that was by and large practiced freely during that time. 

The melody that Key chose for his stirring words was the English tune “The Anacreonic Song,” or “To Anacreon in Heaven,” composed by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreonic Society, whose President, Ralph Tomlinson provided the song’s original words. The Society was formed around 1766 and  met regularly, first at The London Coffeehouse on Ludgate Hill, then in larger quarters at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand until the Society’s demise in 1792.  Considered by history to be a drinking song, it was originally intended as the Society’s signature ballad whose qualities elicited both cultivation and entertainment, thus arising henceforth as a popular tune that was certainly “in the air,” known and sung by many.

While it is hardly possible that the tune would be reminiscent as a drinking song in Key’s mind under those horrific war-time circumstances, the melody served as a splendid means of conveyance for Key’s vivid description of the battle and its resultant victory.

Key immediately had broadsides of the words printed up, and because the tune was already well-known, the song quickly became popular. Key had the first sheet music produced in Baltimore by Carr’s Music Store sometime in October, 1814.  “The Star Spangled Banner” became our official anthem in 1931.

Some of the significant performers of “The Star Spangled Banner” have included: Jose Feliciano (1968 World Series); Jimi Hendrix (Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 1969); Marvin Gaye (1983 NBA All-Star Game); Whitney Houston (Super Bowl XXV, 1991); and Robert Merrill who often sang the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium, and whose recording with the Juilliard School’s chorus and orchestra features a number of Juilliard students who were former NYPL staff of whom the Music Division is especially proud.

To commemorate the occasion of the song’s first publication, the Music Division participated in Star Spangled Music Day, a national day of recognition and remembrance which took place on September 12, 2014. The Music Division hosted as its special guest, Metropolitan Opera star Susanne Mentzer who commemorated the occasion with a special performance of the anthem in the Music Division’s Special Collections stacks, after which she assisted Music Division Chief George Boziwick with the installation of the artifact in an exhibit case in the third floor reading room. A video of that performance and installation may be viewed here:

The exhibit, “The Star Spangled Banner 1814-2014,” which will run through November 29, celebrates the anthem, its origins, its historians, and those who have performed it.

Select Bibliography

Lichtenwanger, William. The Music of The Star Spangled Banner: From Ludgate Hill to Capitol Hill. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1977.

Sonneck, Oscar (1873-1928). Report on the Star Spangled Banner, Hail Columbia, American, Yankee Doodle. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1909. Reprinted, 1972. NYPL circulating copy call number: 784.62-S.

Filby, P. William, and Edward G. Howard. Star Spangled Books: Books, Sheet Music, Newspapers, manuscripts, and persons associated with “The Star Spangled Banner.” Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1972. NYPL call number: JNF 76-233.

See also: The Star Spangled Music website: starspangledmusic.org