TY - JOUR
T1 - Educators in search of an anthem
T2 - Standardizing "the star-spangled banner" during the first world war
AU - Warfield, Patrick
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Society for American Music 2018.
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - In the spring of 1917 several of the most prominent musicians in the United States, including the bandleader John Philip Sousa, the orchestral conductor Walter Damrosch, and the scholar Oscar Sonneck, joined together in a fruitless effort to establish a standardized version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Most histories of the song note this effort but fail to recognize that the impetus for it came from the music division of the National Education Association and reflected a Progressive Era faith in the efficiencies of business, which could be manifest through the mass singing of schoolchildren. This paper examines the standardization of "The Star- Spangled Banner" in light of first world war political concerns, as well as broader cultural trends. It also explains the reasons for the effort's failure and shows how the period around the first world war set up many of the struggles that inform the national anthem even today.
AB - In the spring of 1917 several of the most prominent musicians in the United States, including the bandleader John Philip Sousa, the orchestral conductor Walter Damrosch, and the scholar Oscar Sonneck, joined together in a fruitless effort to establish a standardized version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Most histories of the song note this effort but fail to recognize that the impetus for it came from the music division of the National Education Association and reflected a Progressive Era faith in the efficiencies of business, which could be manifest through the mass singing of schoolchildren. This paper examines the standardization of "The Star- Spangled Banner" in light of first world war political concerns, as well as broader cultural trends. It also explains the reasons for the effort's failure and shows how the period around the first world war set up many of the struggles that inform the national anthem even today.
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U2 - 10.1017/S1752196318000172
DO - 10.1017/S1752196318000172
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85049880296
SN - 1752-1963
VL - 12
SP - 268
EP - 316
JO - Journal of the Society for American Music
JF - Journal of the Society for American Music
IS - 3
ER -