"The Star-Spangled Banner"
Francis Scott Key wrote "Defence of Fort McHenry" during the War of 1812, while detained on a British ship during the night of September 13, 1814, as the British forces bombarded the American fort. Key specifically wrote the lyrics with this familiar patriotic tune in mind, just as he had done with an earlier set of his lyrics, "When the Warrior Returns" (in which he had made similar use of 'star-spangled banner' imagery). Later retitled The Star-Spangled Banner, Key's words, set to Stafford Smith's tune, became a well-known and recognized patriotic song throughout the United States, and was officially designated as the U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931. The setting of new lyrics to an existing tune is called a contrafactum.
Read more about this topic: To Anacreon In Heaven
Famous quotes containing the word banner:
“There appears to be but two grand master passions or movers in the human mind, namely, love and pride. And what constitutes the beauty or deformity of a man’s character is the choice he makes under which banner he determines to enlist himself. But there is a strong distinction between different degress in the same thing and a mixture of two contraries.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)