The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-09-12
NOT ONE NATIONAL SONG.
A CHANCE FOR PATRIOTIC AMERI-
CAN COMPOSERS.
The United tates the Only Country
With No Distinctive National Air
The Worlds National Anthems.

Band at Washington, the United States
ono of the greatest and most powerful
nations in the world, is tho only one not
having distinctive national air.
For more than dozen years Professo,
Sousa has been collecting national airs
and songs. Last May he was authorized
by the Navy Department to make q com,
pilation of these airs and the work is now
nearly completed. This is only the
fourth time any attempt has been made
to publish in book form the national airs
of the world. The last work published
was undertaken by German house as q
private speculation, and included the
songs of fifty nations, Professor Sousa
already has 116 airs in type, and before
the work is completed he will have hall
as many more.
1t was while discussing national music
that Professor Sousa made the startling
statement that we have no national air.
''But how about Hail Columbia THE
Star Spangled Banner my Country,
and few more of the same sort, gener-
ally considered national airs2" he was
confound national air with
and patriotic one," replied
'ousa. SIN Europe they have
irs because they have been
ther by the Government or by
), and on all ceremonial coca
.aa r.y are played as matter of
.H- For example, England has God
slave Queen France La Marseil-
l..-n "a so on. Now, in England, at
an ar of state, whenever the Queen is
present the bands play God Save the
Queen, and the bandmasters of the Life
Guards or the Goldstream Guards OF
any other good band do not have to ask
what air they shall play. They know
only one tune is admissible And when
an Englishman hears the air, no matter
where he is, off comes his hat and he re-
mains standing until the last note. Chill
dren are taught it at school, and they
think it is as sacred as hymn. But
with us, when the President takes part
in any ceremony, one band may play
America and the other The Star
Spangled Banner according to the taste
of the conductor"
"Then Congress by an act could
create national airn
''Well, hardly. Congress can do q
great many things but it cannot do that,
The national air of the people must come
from some great event in the life of the
Nation, perhaps some crisis 1t must be
spontaneous; it must appeal to national
pride and the national sentiment, and
then, when it does that, the country
takes it up and clings to it as iealously
as it does to its other traditions. Take
it as an illustration Rule Britannia, )
which, while not the national air of Eng
land, is its first cousin. There is calm
assurance about the words which are
pleasing to the average Englishman.
When Napoleon was assembling his big
feet at Boulogne to invade England we
are told that the people went about sing
ing Rule Britannia, and l verify believe
they thought that was answer enough to
the threats of French INVASION"
"Wasn't the Civil War great enough
crisis to inspire the best efforts of mu-
sicians2"
"Undoubtedly, but you must remember
the people were divided, and the work
OF Northern composer would not have
been acceptable to the people of the
South. If, however, the country had
risen against foreign foe any song COM
posed at that time would have fired the
national heart, and if of the right kind
would have been accepted by the people.
1t is true We went through crises in the
early days of the Republic, but l guess
in those days our ancestors were too
busy fighting to pay much attention to
music. Hail Columbia belongs to the
last century, but it was composed by
German, the leader of the John Street
Theatre, in New York, in compliment to
General Washington, and for many years
it was known as The Presidents March.
We ought not to adopt as our national
air the work of a foreigner. The words
of the Star Spangled Banner are Ameri-
can, but the music is English"
'In your investigations what have
struck you as the peculiarities of national
anthems?"
.Perhaps the most striking thing is
that the national airs of the great coun-
tries are short, while those of the little
countries are very long. For instance,
God Save the Queen is IA bars; the
Russian national is l6 bars, and Hail
Columbia, the foremost among the Amer
lean national airs has % bars. On the
other hand, Slams national air has rs
bars, that of Uruguay, 20; Chili's 46, and
so on. The national air of China is so
long that when the people want to hear
it they have to take half a day off to
listen to its ancient strains. Another
thing have learned, is that with hardly
an exception the national airs of all the
savage or semi-civilized nations are writ
ten in the major key"
"Are the national airs in any way char
acteristic of the people2"
Every seldom, and then only when
they are the music of lower order of
civilization, Music, you see, is the uni
versal language, and a really great COM
poser seldom acquires his education in |
one country. But it is worthy of note |
that with one or two exceptions the COM
posers of national airs have been men
totally unknown to fame until they wrote |
the one air which has given them last
ing reputation. One of the exceptions is
Haydn, the composer of the Austrian
hymn. Most of the Old World national |
airs were written to glorify some great
man or to celebrate some great event. To
make the air popular so that it could be
sung and whistled by everybody it has
to be written in very limited compass.
God Save the Queen is written in COM
pass of six notes; Hail Columia, Rule, |
Britannia, and La Marseilaise' within |
an octave and note; the Austrian.hymn
within an octave. But the Star Spangled
Banner is composed of thirteen notes,
and for that reason it is very difficult for
voices to sing it with the
proper effect. Judging from the ex-
perience of foreign nations, when our
national anthem is written it will have to
be within an octave and to have a swing
and dash about it which will commend it
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