Dayhoff Soundtrack: January 1, 1971: The latest in the series of efforts to discredit "The Star Spangled Banner"

Saturday, January 01, 2011

January 1, 1971: The latest in the series of efforts to discredit "The Star Spangled Banner"

Community Reporter, January 1, 1971.

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM - The latest in the series of efforts to discredit "The Star Spangled Banner" as this country's National Anthem has come from the Artistic Administrator of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D. C. George London, a 50-year-old Canadian vocalist who has made a name for himself in the opera world by singing grand opera parts in the Hollywood Bowl, in San Francisco and in Vienna, Austria, and who also sang the title role in "Boris Gudunov," in Moscow, in the U.S. S. R., has given it as his opinion that "The Star Spangled Banner" is "difficult for most people to sing."

Mr. London may be an authority on opera music, but apparently he possesses weak objections to patriotic airs.

"The Star Spangled Banner" is sung by thousands of Americans in patriotic gatherings all over the country, and apparently not too many who have any talent for singing at all have difficulty in handling this number.

Authorities in the type of music which stirs and stimulates the patriotic feelings, such as John Philip Sousa, the "March King," have given it as their opinions that it is an excellent composition, well-adapted not only for singling, but also for marching music.

We have no criticism of Mr. London's ability in his field, but his field is not patriotic musical composition. Irving Berlin, who wrote "God Bless

America

," would be a more acceptable critic in this area.

Millions have grown to love Francis Scott Key's stirring version, and perhaps it is not so much the fact that the music is objectionable as it is that the words were inspired during a British abortive attack on Fort McHenry.

After all Mr. London is a Canadian native, and may still have some feeling for the land of his birth, which has pretty close ties with the British Crown.

Community Reporter, January 1, 1971.

[19710101 The latest effort to discredit Star Spangled Banner]