America, Why Is Your National Anthem So Goddamn Hard To Sing?

As most every American citizen be intimate all too well , belt out the National Anthem can be a rather unstable proposition . Here ’s what the experts have to say about “ The Star Spangled Banner ” and why it ’s such a challenging piece , even for professionals .

Over at the Smithsonian ’s National Museum of American History Blog , programme producer M.K. Macko describe the history of the anthem , from its musical root in the early 19th 100 song “ Anacreon in Heaven ” to its adoption as the national hymn in 1931 . But as beautiful and historical as this piece of euphony is , it ’s also inordinately backbreaking to sing . Looking to understand why this is the case , Macko spoke to Kenneth Slowick , the Director of Smithsonian Chamber Music Society :

“ It has a lot to do with the chain of mountains , ” he allege . “ It ’s a very wide range . fundamentally , the notes are very high-pitched . ” Okay , fair enough , but how high are we verbalise ?

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“ High f — it ’s traditionally tattle in Bb major because go higher than that arrive at it hard for the altos and basses sing to get to the in high spirits note , and going lower makes it hard for the tenors and sopranos to manage , ” he said .

Educator Dan Holm , a tenor who ofttimes sings the Star - Spangled Banner for , and much better than , me during the Flag Folding Ceremony , correspond , “ I ’m always practicing the first part of the song to verify I ’m low enough , but still starting in a comfortable place so I can run into both the high and very abject distinction . If I do n’t , I just switch the musical octave I ’m spill the beans in . ”

Folk musician Pete Seeger might fit in . Inthis videofrom Smithsonian Folkways , he ask round the hearing to join in and insure him he ’s using a “ a very , very low key , so everybody can sing it , ” which they do .

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