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"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", [2] a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, the composer of the French national anthem "La Marseillaise", sings it for the first time. The anthem is one of the earliest to be adopted by a modern state, in 1795. Most nation states have an anthem, defined as "a song, as of praise, devotion, or patriotism"; most anthems are either marches or hymns in style. A song or hymn can become a national anthem under ...
The following gives the original text of the 1811 version alongside the text of the full seven verses as current in the 1830s. Abridged versions of the lyrics as used in the role of national anthem often reduce the text from seven to three verses, giving either verses 1, 2, 6 or alternatively 1, 3, 6 (as numbered below).
Later retitled "The Star-Spangled Banner", Key's lyrics, set to Stafford Smith's music, became a well-known and recognized patriotic song throughout the United States, and was officially designated as the U.S. national anthem on 3 March 1931. [33] The setting of new lyrics to an existing tune is called a contrafactum. [34]
"Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" used as an interval signal during a 1962 Voice of America broadcast from Tangier, Morocco. According to William Studwell, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" is the "oldest well-known song of entirely American origin which could, by style or content, qualify as a national anthem". [10]
If an anthem is defined as consisting of both a melody and lyrics, then the oldest national anthem in use today is the national anthem of the Netherlands, the Wilhelmus. [3] Written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt , it was already a popular orangist hymn during the 17th century, though it would take until 1932 for it to be ...
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a hymn with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954). Written from the context of African Americans in the late 19th century, the hymn is a prayer of thanksgiving to God as well as a prayer for faithfulness and freedom, with imagery that evokes the biblical Exodus from slavery to the freedom ...
"God Save the King" (Afrikaans: God Red die Koning, God Red die Koningin when a Queen) was a co-national anthem of South Africa from 1938 until 1957, [118] when it was formally replaced by "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" as the sole national anthem. [118] The latter served as a sort of de facto co-national anthem alongside the former until 1938. [118]