The roots of our national anthem

It may surprise you

Excerpt: Among the world’s best-known national anthems, “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814) emerged out of a welter of patriotic musical activity during the decades following our victorious conclusion of the American Revolution. Nevertheless, its roots were hardly patriotic.

It originated as a popular drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heav’n,” written by English composer John Stafford Smith. A pupil of the eminent composer William Boyce, Smith was a Chapel Royal chorister, a Westminster Abbey lay vicar and eventually Chapel Royal organist. In 1766, he joined the newly founded Anacreontic Society, a London gentlemen’s club named for the ancient Greek poet Anacreon, for which Smith composed his most famous song.