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Show Urmin if Eur Bd Wkbim Sunjf ; ) ( "Siar Spangled Banner" once an old EnglisJi club scr.g, according to research re-search of Music Division chief in Library of Con-gress Con-gress Use "New Federal bong ar.d te rrasjeents March"-The tura of "Ai'jisiica" is Germanic ! A T no time so much as upon A Independence day are the patriotic songs of this Yf T country sung, and upon . PJj.;''i. the aiming Fourth of July, 1 j winch finds the United I j J Slates at war, the words Lv and the tunes of the national na-tional songs will moan more to every American than ever before. Realizing that as time goes on, t is-tory, is-tory, which may be probed for truth now, in another generation would be too far removed from the links of living liv-ing memory to certify accuracy, many men are giving time and effort to extracting ex-tracting the real historic facts from the maze of fiction surrounding the origin of many of this country's national na-tional songs, which have become an important part of her integral life. No man has given more time and more effort, nor sifted facts more thoroughly thor-oughly to get- at the true history 'of our national songs, than has Mr. O. G. T. Sonneck, chief of the division of music of the library of congress, and he has embodied these facts in reports published pub-lished by the government In book form, which save them for all time. Unless he has traced a matter to the bedrock of certainty, a report with Mr. Sonneck is never complete, and a call at his office in the music division of the library found him with his latest published reports on the national songs on the bookcase at his side, and all heavily interleaved with penned and penciled annotations winch bring evidence evi-dence down to the very minute. Mr. other cities, until it ijnd become a popular pop-ular patriotic song throughout the country. In its original printed form it bore the title. "Defense of Fort McHenry, with the following introductory remarks, re-marks, written by Judge Nicholson: The annexed sons was composed under the follow!!. circumstances: A gentleman had l"ft Hnkirr.ure in a lias? of truce for the purpose of (rettins released from the British tleet a friend of his who had been captured at Marlborough. He went as far as the mouth of the Fatuxent and was not permitted to return lest the intended in-tended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed. dis-closed. He was therefore brought up the bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag: vessel was kept und,-r the guns of a frigate, and ho was compelled to witness wit-ness the bombardment of Fort McKenry. which the admiral had boasted that he could carry in a few hours and that the city must fall. He watched the flag of the fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can better be felt than do scribed, until the night prevented him from seeing it. In the night he watched the bomb shells and at early dawn his eyo was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country. The tune is that of "Anacreon of Heaven." Heav-en." originally an English club song, popular pop-ular among the younger set of Baltimore at the time Key wrote the stanzas. "Hail Columbia" is a pure product of American soil in regard to both words and music, and was written in 1798 by Joseph Hopkins, a prominent jurist, who. lived from 1770 to 18-12. The poet himself explains the circumstances circum-stances which led to the writing of the words as follows : "Hall Columbia" was written Jn the summer of 1798, when war with France was thought to be Inevitable. Congress was then In session In Philadelphia, debating de-bating upon that important subject, and acts of hostility had actually taken place. The contest between England and France was raging, and the people of the United States were divided into parties for one side or the other, some thinking that policy pol-icy and duty required us to espouse the cause of republican France, as she was called, while others were for connecting themselves with England The theater was then open in our city. A young man belonging to it, whose talent was high as a singer, was about to take a benefit. I had known him when he was at school. On this acquaintance he called on me one Saturday afternoon, his benefit being announced an-nounced for the following Monday. His prospects were very disheartening, but he . written by Rev. Samuel F Smith, who ,lved until 1803. "ud has himself writ ten luminously upon the subject. . B rora Boston he wrote to Admiral Pieble September 12, 1S72 : The origin of my hymn "My Country Tis of Thee." is briefly told. In the year 1S31 Mr William C. oodbridge returned from Europe, bringing a quantity of Ger man music books, which he passed . to Lowell Mason. Mr Mason -tth v horn I was on terms of friendship, one flay turned them over to me. knowing that I was m the habit of read ng German works, saying. "Hero. I can't read ese but they contain good music. M should be glad to use. Turn over the leaves and If you And anything par t cu larlv good, give mo a transition or mn tation of II, or write a wholly original snnanvt!iing. so I can use It. Accordingly, one leisure afternoon, I was looking over the books and fell m with the tune of "Cod Save the Kin end at once took up my pen and wrote the niece In question. It was struck out at a sitting without the slightest dca that It would ever attain the popularity It has since enioved. The first time It was pub-Scly pub-Scly sunVwa. at a children's ce ehration of American Indppcnden . the Par Street church, Boston. I think July 4. It I had anticipated the future of t doubtless I would have taken more nalns with It. Such as it is, I am glad to have contributed this mite to the cause of American freedom. Mr Sonneck had this to say regarding regard-ing the use of an English tune to the words of -America:" "The main objection raised against 'America' has been the union of the words with that foreign air of cosmopolitan cosmo-politan usage. 'God Save the King. Tet there is this difference, which should never be overlooked: If the Danes or the Prussians use 'God Save the King' they have deliberately borrowed bor-rowed it from the British. Not so with us.' 'God Save the King' was, before 1776, as much our national anthem as thnt'of the motherland. Being a British Brit-ish air, It belonged to the British colonists col-onists just as much as it did to the Britons at home. " 'Yankee Doodle' is sometimes called call-ed a national song incorrectly so, because, be-cause, with a practically now obsolete text, or texts, it Is hardly ever sung, but merely played as an instrumental ii TATIIKK and went down to camp, And struck a crooked stabbing iron . v llllllllllllll: AJiml the music ' n:d ti? jt-p, They scuiTiper'd Hke the nation.. - J lllllllll And there' we see a' thousand men,- -, ' J see a little barrel t', ' -s ' -! , f As rich, as Squire- David; " " ' The heads were made of tenthcr, , I And-n hat 'they wafted every dajv 'They knock'd upon't with little clubs, 1 ?tiiiiiii$ iiiiiiM The 'Lissesithey eat every day, ' And there was Captain Washington, 1 Sonneck permitted a recent caller to glean from these documental data regarding re-garding this country's national songs and supplemented theni with some additional ad-ditional verbal information. Almost everyone knows how the stirring stir-ring words rushed from the heart and hand of Francis Scott Key on the early morning of September 14. 1S14, when the Knglish were bombarding Fort SIc-llcnry. SIc-llcnry. Fewer, perhaps, know that he jotted down the first rough draft of the song on the back of a letter as he sailed up the Patapsco on one of the enemy's vessels that early morning, when he saw "through the dawn's early ear-ly light that our flag was still there." lie completed this draft upon the American boat which brought him to Baltimore that evening, and later that night, in his hotel in Baltimore, he made a clean copy of those .jottings, and this first fair copy of the words Is still in existence and may yet lie seen at the Walters gallery in Baltimore. Balti-more. On the morning after his arrival In Baltimore Key took his poem to his friend and relative. Judge Joseph Hopper Hop-per Nicholson, for his critical opinion upon It. This was Evidently favorable, for it was immediately printed and its first appearance in public was 1l the form of a sheet, or broadside, which was distributed through the streets on the day after it was written. Its first dated appearance was in the Baltimore Balti-more I'atriot of September 20. 1814. Next day It appeared in exactly the same form in the Baltimore American, and then, in single sheets and In newspapers. news-papers. It spread from Baltimore to said that If he could get a patriotic song adapted to "The President's March" he did not doubt of a full house; that the poets of the theatrical corps had been trying to accomplish It. but had not succeeded. suc-ceeded. I told him that I would try what I could do for him. He came the next afternoon, and the song, such as it Is, was ready for him. Such is the history of the song, which has endured Infinitely beyond the expectation of the author. The song met with immediate success suc-cess and was repeated again and again, being named "New Federal Song," and no entertainment of the day was considered con-sidered complete without It. To run down the history of the music mu-sic of "Hail Columbia," written originally orig-inally as the "President's March," Mr. Sonneck found a much more difficult task than giving the plain narrative of the applied words. Wading through an immense amount of historical data and some controversy upon the subject, sub-ject, he has brought out facts which he would only put forth after the most careful process of sifting and deduction. deduc-tion. "Until recently," he said, "the musical musi-cal origin of 'Hail Columbia' was as obscure as its literary history was clear." But, weighing all the evidence in the case, he carefully sets down the fact that the "President's March," which supplied the music for "Hail Columbia," Co-lumbia," was composed hy Philip Phlle, a resident of Philadelphia, of perhaps Gertian or Swiss origin, and musician and Instructor of note. (His name is usually spelled Incorrectly; the above is the correct spelling.) "America," the national hymn, contains con-tains no mysterious history! It wus piece. Though no longer a national song, it is still a national air and second sec-ond only to 'Dixie' in patriotic popularity. popu-larity. For 150 years 'Yankee Doodle' has appealed to our people, and the tune shows no sign of passing into oblivion. Many words have been spent In discussing dis-cussing the origin of the title of this song, and at least sixteen separate and distinct derivations of the words have been-seriously set before the public. pub-lic. The earliest dated reference to the tune appears in the first American Ameri-can ballad opera, "The Disappointment," Disappoint-ment," Philadelphia, 1707. It was played in America ns early as 17G8, for In the Journal of Transactions In Boston, September 2S, 1708, we read : "The fleet was brought to anchor near Castle William; that evening there was throwing of skyrockets, and those passing In boats observed great rejoicing re-joicing and' that the Yankee Doodle song was the capital piece In the baud of music." The earliest appearance in print of "Yankee Doodle" in Kttrope has been traced to James Alrd's "A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs," published in Glasgow about 17S0, Mr. Sonneck asserts that "Yankee "Yan-kee Doodle" did not appear In print In America until Benjamin Carr's "Fed-oral "Fed-oral Overture," a medley of patriotic songs, including "Yankee Doodle," and composed In 17!M, was published, "Adapted for the pianoforte," by n! Carr, New York, In January, 17!!.-,' Since then some Interesting n,,, ,10w rare renderings 'of the piece have been Issued. |