Word: anthem
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...land of the free" as being too high. Instead of being too high, it is one of the loveliest climaxes ever written to any song. ... I have been a composer for many years, and have never heard as much as one complaint about the high notes of our National Anthem until Mr. Lopez came along...
This worried Patriot Lopez, and he decided then & there that something must be done to make the national anthem more singable. Crux of the problem was to reduce its twelve-note range to something more like the average popular tune's eight notes. Originally designed to show off lusty tenors and rumbling bassos,* the tune's high & low notes squeaked and croaked when essayed by snack-fed debutantes and their escorts' whiskey tenors...
Lopez' crusade had the enthusiastic support of D. A. R. President-General Mrs. William A. Becker. But Mrs. Reuben Ross Holloway, prominent anti-nudist, who helped to make the Star-Spangled Banner the official as well as actual national anthem, was scandalized, threatened to picket the theatre...
...than a year ago when crowds of milling Englishmen chanted "We want King Edward!" had stodgy Downing Street seen such a demonstration. Thousands of London's Irishmen and Irishwomen packed the pavement before the black door of No. 10. The rousing strains of southern Ireland's republican anthem, A Soldier's Song, swelled from the lusty throats. Staid civil servants in black jackets and striped trousers poked their heads out Whitehall's windows. Suddenly the singing ceased. "Up Dev!'' roared the crowds. "A republic-no less!" A tall, gaunt, smiling man appeared...
...group; in fact, one school boy confided to me that the students hadn't had much of a vacation this year because whenever there were not enough people in a village to give a proper farewell, the students were asked to provide background of flag waving and anthem singing...