Звездное знамя: История гимна США

National anthem of the United States

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a social club in London. Smiths' song, "To Anacreon in Heaven" (or "The Anacreontic Song"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star Spangled Banner", soon became a popular patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing, in part because the melody sung today is the soprano part. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. "The Star Spangled Banner" was first recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889. On March 3, 1931, the U. S. Congress passed a joint resolution making the song the official national anthem of the United States, which President Herbert Hoover signed into law. The resolution is now codified at It has become controversial in the United States since the 1990's due to perceived racism in the anthem's lyrics and Key's involvement in slavery.

Key gave the poem to his brother in law Joseph H. Nicholson who saw that the words fit the popular melody "The Anacreontic Song", by English composer John Stafford Smith. This was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Nicholson took the poem to a printer in Baltimore, who anonymously made the first known broadside printing on September 17; of these, two known copies survive. On September 20, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American printed the song, with the note "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven". The song quickly became popular; it was ultimately printed in 17 newspapers from Georgia to New Hampshire. Soon after, Thomas Carr of the Carr Music Store in Baltimore published the words and music together under the title "The Star Spangled Banner", although it was originally called "Defence of Fort M'Henry". Thomas Carr's arrangement introduced the raised fourth which became the standard deviation from "The Anacreontic Song". The song's popularity increased and its first public performance took place in October when Baltimore actor Ferdinand Durang sang it at Captain McCauley's tavern. Washington Irving, then editor of the Analectic Magazine in Philadelphia, reprinted the song in November 1814. By the early 20th century, there were various versions of the song in popular use. Seeking a singular, standard version, President Woodrow Wilson tasked the U. S. Bureau of Education with providing that official version. In response, the Bureau enlisted the help of five musicians to agree upon an arrangement. Those musicians were Walter Damrosch, Will Earhart, Arnold J. Gantvoort, Oscar Sonneck and John Philip Sousa. The standardized version that was voted upon by these five musicians premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 5, 1917, in a program that included Edward Elgar's Carillon and Gabriel Pierné's The Children's Crusade. The concert was put on by the Oratorio Society of New York and conducted by Walter Damrosch. An official handwritten version of the final votes of these five men has been found and shows all five men's votes tallied, measure by measure.

The song is notoriously difficult for nonprofessionals to sing because of its wide rangea twelfth. Humorist Richard Armour referred to the song's difficulty in his book It All Started With Columbus:

Professional and amateur singers have been known to forget the words, which is one reason the song is sometimes pre recorded and lip synced. Pop singer Christina Aguilera performed wrong lyrics to the song prior to Super Bowl XLV, replacing the song's fourth line, "o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming", with an alteration of the second line, "what so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming". Other times the issue is avoided by having the performer(s) play the anthem instrumentally instead of singing it. The pre recording of the anthem has become standard practice at some ballparks, such as Boston's Fenway Park, according to the SABR publication The Fenway Project. "The Star Spangled Banner" has been performed regularly at the beginning of NFL games since the end of WWII by order of NFL commissioner Elmer Layden. The song has also been intermittently performed at baseball games since after WWI. The National Hockey League and Major League Soccer both require venues in both the U. S. and Canada to perform both the Canadian and U. S. national anthems at games that involve teams from both countries (with the "away" anthem being performed first). It is also usual for both U. S. and Canadian anthems (done in the same way as the NHL and MLS) to be played at Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association games involving the Toronto Blue Jays and the Toronto Raptors respectively, the only Canadian teams in those two major U. S. sports leagues, and in All Star Games on the MLB, NBA, and NHL. The Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, which play in a city on the Canada–US border and have a substantial Canadian fan base, play both anthems before all home games regardless of where the visiting team is based. Two especially unusual performances of the song took place in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. On September 12, 2001, Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom, broke with tradition and allowed the Band of the Coldstream Guards to perform the anthem at Buckingham Palace, London, at the ceremonial Changing of the Guard, as a gesture of support for Britain's ally. The following day at a St. Paul's Cathedral memorial service, the Queen joined in the singing of the anthem, an unprecedented occurrence. The Star Spangled Banner was played by the Coldstream Guards again at Windsor Castle on the 20th anniversary of the attacks. During the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the anthem was sung by protesters demonstrating outside the U. S. consulate general in an appeal to the U. S. government to help them with their cause.

The 200th anniversary of the "Star Spangled Banner" occurred in 2014 with various special events occurring throughout the United States. A particularly significant celebration occurred during the week of September 10–16 in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Highlights included playing of a new arrangement of the anthem arranged by John Williams and participation of President Barack Obama on Defenders Day, September 12, 2014, at Fort McHenry. In addition, the anthem bicentennial included a youth music celebration including the presentation of the National Anthem Bicentennial Youth Challenge winning composition written by Noah Altshuler.

The first popular music performance of the anthem heard by the mainstream U. S. was by Puerto Rican singer and guitarist José Feliciano. He created a nationwide uproar when he strummed a slow, blues style rendition of the song at Tiger Stadium in Detroit before game five of the 1968 World Series, between Detroit and St. Louis. This rendition started contemporary "Star Spangled Banner" controversies. The response from many in the Vietnam War era U. S. was generally negative. Despite the controversy, Feliciano's performance opened the door for the countless interpretations of the "Star Spangled Banner" heard in the years since. One week after Feliciano's performance, the anthem was in the news again when U. S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos lifted controversial raised fists at the 1968 Olympics while the "Star Spangled Banner" played at a medal ceremony. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix often included a solo instrumental performance at concerts from 1968 to his death in 1970. Using high gain and distortion amplification effects and the vibrato arm on his guitar, Hendrix was able to simulate the sounds of rockets and bombs at the points when the lyrics are normally heard. One such performance at the Woodstock music festival in 1969 was a highlight of the event's 1970 documentary film, becoming "part of the sixties Zeitgeist". The Woodstock version by Jimi Hendrix was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009. Marvin Gaye gave a soul influenced performance at the 1983 NBA All Star Game and Whitney Houston gave a soulful rendition before Super Bowl XXV in 1991, which was released as a single that charted at number 20 in 1991 and number 6 in 2001 (along with José Feliciano, the only times the national anthem has been on the Billboard Hot 100). Roseanne Barr gave a controversial performance of the anthem at a San Diego Padres baseball game at Jack Murphy Stadium on July 25, 1990. The comedian belted out a screechy rendition of the song, and afterward, she mocked ballplayers by spitting and grabbing her crotch as if adjusting a protective cup. The performance offended some, including the sitting U. S. president, George H. W. Bush. Steven Tyler also caused some controversy in 2001 (at the Indianapolis 500, to which he later issued a public apology) and again in 2012 (at the AFC Championship Game) with a cappella renditions of the song with changed lyrics. At Super Bowl XLVII’s pre game ceremonies in 2014, soprano Renée Fleming became the first opera singer to perform the National Anthem at a football game, and her emotional, groundbreaking performance (one of the most critically acclaimed renditions of all time) led the Fox network to the highest ratings of any program in the company’s history and remains so today. In 2016, Aretha Franklin performed a rendition before the nationally televised Minnesota Vikings Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day game lasting more than four minutes and featuring a host of improvisations. It was one of Franklin's last public appearances before her 2018 death. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie gave a controversial performance of the anthem in 2018. Critics likened her rendition to a jazzy "sexed up" version of the anthem, which was considered highly inappropriate, with her performance compared to that of Marilyn Monroe's 1962 performance of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President". Fergie later apologized for her performance of the song, stating that ''I'm a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn't strike the intended tone". In March 2005, a government sponsored program, the National Anthem Project, was launched after a Harris Interactive poll showed many adults knew neither the lyrics nor the history of the anthem.

Several films have their titles taken from the song's lyrics. These include the G. I. Joe episode Red Rocket's Glare; the Columbo episode By Dawn's Early Light; two films titled Dawn's Early Light (2000 and 2005); two made for TV features titled By Dawn's Early Light (1990 and 2000); two films titled So Proudly We Hail (1943 and 1990); a feature film (1977) and a short (2005) and a novel titled Twilight's Last Gleaming; Rocket's Red Glare; and four films titled Home of the Brave (1949, 1986, 2004, and 2006). A 1936 short titled The Song of a Nation from Warner Bros. Pictures shows a version of the origin of the song. The title of Isaac Asimov's 1980 short story "No Refuge Could Save" is a reference to the song's third verse, and the obscurity of this verse is a major plot point.

When the U. S. national anthem was first recognized by law in 1931, there was no prescription as to behavior during its playing. On June 22, 1942, the law was revised indicating that those in uniform should salute during its playing, while others should simply stand at attention, men removing their hats. The same code also required that women should place their hands over their hearts when the flag is displayed during the playing of the national anthem, but not if the flag was not present. On December 23, 1942, the law was again revised instructing men and women to stand at attention and face in the direction of the music when it was played. That revision also directed men and women to place their hands over their hearts only if the flag was displayed. Those in uniform were required to salute. On July 7, 1976, the law was simplified. Men and women were instructed to stand with their hands over their hearts, men removing their hats, irrespective of whether or not the flag was displayed and those in uniform saluting. On August 12, 1998, the law was rewritten keeping the same instructions, but differentiating between "those in uniform" and "members of the Armed Forces and veterans" who were both instructed to salute during the playing whether or not the flag was displayed. Because of the changes in law over the years and confusion between instructions for the Pledge of Allegiance versus the National Anthem, throughout most of the 20th century many people simply stood at attention or with their hands folded in front of them during the playing of the Anthem, and when reciting the Pledge they would hold their hand (or hat) over their heart. After 9/11, the custom of placing the hand over the heart during the playing of the national anthem became nearly universal. Since 1998, federal law (viz., the United States Code ) states that during a rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present including those in uniform should stand at attention; non military service individuals should face the flag with the right hand over the heart; members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present and not in uniform may render the military salute; military service persons not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold the headdress at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note. The law further provides that when the flag is not displayed, all present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed. Military law requires all vehicles on the installation to stop when the song is played and all individuals outside to stand at attention and face the direction of the music and either salute, in uniform, or place the right hand over the heart, if out of uniform. The law was amended in 2008, and since allows military veterans to salute out of uniform, as well. The text of is suggestive and not regulatory in nature. Failure to follow the suggestions is not a violation of the law. This behavioral requirement for the national anthem is subject to the same First Amendment controversies that surround the Pledge of Allegiance. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses do not sing the national anthem, though they are taught that standing is an "ethical decision" that individual believers must make based on their conscience.

As a result of immigration to the United States and the incorporation of non English speaking people into the country, the lyrics of the song have been translated into other languages. In 1861, it was translated into German. The Library of Congress also has record of a Spanish language version from 1919. It has since been translated into Hebrew and Yiddish by Jewish immigrants, Latin American Spanish (with one version popularized during immigration reform protests in 2006), French by Acadians of Louisiana, Samoan, and Irish. The third verse of the anthem has also been translated into Latin. With regard to the indigenous languages of North America, there are versions in Navajo and Cherokee.

The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was a political demonstration conducted by African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. After having won gold and bronze medals respectively in the 200 meter running event, they turned on the podium to face their flags, and to hear the American national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner". Each athlete raised a black gloved fist, and kept them raised until the anthem had finished. In addition, Smith, Carlos, and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human rights badges on their jackets. In his autobiography, Silent Gesture, Smith stated that the gesture was not a "Black Power" salute, but a "human rights salute". The event is regarded as one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games.

Protests against police brutality and racism by kneeling on one knee during the national anthem began in the National Football League after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the anthem, as opposed to the tradition of standing, in response to police brutality in the United States, before his team's third preseason game of 2016. Kaepernick sat during the first two preseason games, but he went unnoticed. In particular, protests focus on the discussion of slavery (and mercenaries) in the third verse of the anthem, in which some have interpreted the lyrics as condemning slaves that had joined the British in an effort to earn their freedom. Since Kaepernick's protest, other athletes have joined in the protests. In the 2017 season, after President Donald Trump's condemnation of the kneeling, which included calling for players (whom he reportedly also referred to by various profanities) to be fired, many NFL players responded by protesting during the national anthem that week. After the police involved killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, when the 2019 2020 NBA season resumed play in July 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic, the majority of players and coaches kneeled during the national anthem through the end of the season. In San Francisco, the statue of Francis Scott Key—the nation's first memorial to the anthem's lyricist Key, a slaveowner—was toppled by protestors on June 19, 2020 and in June 2021 was replaced by 350 black steel sculptures that honor the first 350 Africans kidnapped and forced onto a slave ship headed across the Atlantic from Angola in 1619.