NYT: One Way to Reach Anthem High Note: Just Make It Lower

[pagerbear]

SOLANA BEACH, Calif., June 1 — Anyone who has attended a baseball game knows how hard it is to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in key. One lonely voice is trying to change that.

Ed Siegel, a psychiatrist from this San Diego County beach town who cannot read sheet music but can play a thousand songs on the piano, wants to lower the key of the national anthem from B flat to G major. That simple change, he argues, would make the anthem accessible to even the tonally challenged. The words, of course, are another matter entirely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/05/national/05ANTH.html?hp

[freetobegay]

1. Does that include Rosanne Barr?

I just want to point out I do love Rosanne! But please leave the singing to the professionals!

[VolcanoJen]

2. What about William Hung?

I hear he gave the ol' anthem a bang-up try the other night...

[freetobegay]

3. Sorry, I don't know him.

[Poiuyt]

16. American Idol

Very bad singer who is becoming a cult favorite

[Bunny]

7. Not the anthem.

He "sang" Take Me Out to the Ballgame, I believe.

[xxqqqzme]

4. who was it that said

the high note 4 the word 'free' is deliberate. It insures that it is out of everyone's reach. or something like that....anyone recall that...was it Chris Rock?

[pagerbear]

5. I don't know what the problem is--it's just an F!

But then, I have most of a master's in voice and I'm a tenor.

[elperromagico]

6. That doesn't fix anything (kinda technical).

The Star-Spangled Banner requires a vocal range of at least an octave and a fifth. Here, I'll illustrate it for you:



Star Spangled Banner range, in B-flat Major

Here are the average voice ranges for trained or professional singers, according to the New Harvard Dictionary of Music:



So, with the song in B-flat, the bottom note's already out of range for tenors and sopranos, and the top note's out of range for baritones, basses, and altos.

Okay, so take the song and transpose it to G major, as this guy suggests:



Star-Spangled Banner range, in G Major

The bottom note's still out of range for tenors and sopranos, and now it's out of range for mezzo-sopranos too. The top note's still out of range for basses. And most amateur singers don't approach these ranges (most amateurs have a range of an octave or less).

Essentially, the song is unsingable for most people. A better solution would be just to pick another national anthem.

[WilliamPitt]

8. I vote for 'Work Song' by Cannonball Adderly as the new anthem

No words t'all.

[pagerbear]

9. Are you sure those vocal ranges aren't for

....choral music parts? They seem a little short for soloists' ranges.

The melody was actually a popular song of the day when dear Mr. Key set his poem to it--not sure, but I think it was a drinking song. That suggests most people then could sing it.

Well, we could have quite a discussion about just who was the intended audience and who would have sung it way back then--drawing room or kitchen/stables/tavern?--not to mention how popular singing styles have evolved since recordings and movies came along. (Just think--Snow White's singing voice wasn't considered unusual at all when the movie was made, but now it's laughed at by kids and considered an historical oddity by many.)

[elperromagico]

15. You're probably right,

but the point remains the same. The song is not designed for the masses. It's designed for soloists and as such, is really a poor choice of national anthem.

[kskiska]

10. The first 4 notes of the Star Spangled Banner

are identical to the first 4 notes of "I'll be down to get you in a taxi, honey…" (Darktown Strutter's Ball).

[leesa]

11. Or just stop singing the nasty song...works for me.

[stopbush]

12. The SSB is tough for non-singers. Pagerbear is correct that the

tune was originally a drinking song. Maybe it would go better for non-trained voices if people adopted a drunken sailor's swagger when singing the SSB.

True story: when I lived in NYC, I often made the trip to Yankee Stadium with fellow opera singers (mostly tenors, all of who sang at the Met, City Opera, Carnegie Hall etc.). We'd buy the $4 general admission seats and head up to the oxygen mask zone behind home plate. When it came time to sing the SSB, we'd give it a real go. Imagine 8-12 trained operatic tenors in a block of seats wailing on the SSB and adding the high A-flat at the climax. Besides the applause from the crowd surrounding us, the ushers usually moved us down into better seats!

Personally, I think the SSB should be replaced with *America the Beautiful* as our National Anthem. It's easy to sing...and it actually says something non-war related about the country.

[NashVegas]

13. I Can't Add 3 + 2. I Submit -

We change the number 5 to become '6' cause that's what I always end up with.

[stopbush]

14. *Babe Ruth through the night...*

That's what we always sang at Yankee Stadium (instead of "gave proof through the night").

We DIDN'T start the SSB with "José, can you see?" as do some fans...