New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-13
Birthday of ''St0E
Spangled Banner
To.morr0w-Seto
tins OF Verses.
BY H. E. KREHBIEL.

BY H. Z. KREHBIEL.
II vUIl be one hundred years to 8 day
to.morrow that Francis Scott Key,
fresh from witnessing the scenes de-
seribed in the FIRST two stsnzss Of the
pOen, and in fine burst Of patriotic
fr,nxv. wrote the words Of "Ths Star
sDanelsd Banner; wherefore there are
yraat eoings-on, commemorative and
joyful, in Baltimore this very minute
II il therefore appropriate that some
thing be said about the history OF the
patriotie efusion, and first, because II
i the older element, about the music
to which it is sung.
Everybody has heard at one time VI
another that the melody to which me
star4Spangled Banner" is sung Is the
tune Of an old English drinking song
Some people, given to curious inquiry
and gifted with retentive memories re-
cell also that the tune originally be-
lonRed TO a composition which was tne
Official club song OF an anseTeohtIC sH
ciety which fourlshed IN bon St y,
The last four decades Of the elghteehth
csntnrv. But who wrote it Historians
not obsessed by q spirit Of skeptieism
U,hieh refuses to accept anything SNORT
~ nroof positive and irretutable nave
LONG ago agreed that it was kalph
Tomlinson, ESQ, one Of the early PFes-
dSnts az the Anacreontic Society, lot
his name has been associated win u
ever since it left the privacy OF ths
cIubrooms in the jolly old Crown s Az
Anchor in the Strand, But Wheh o,I
he write il? And was the song of'glhass
or a paraphrsse of pre-existen' 'he
WARNING NOTE TO THE LAMBS
Truth 70 tell we do not know and 40
not much care. The old AnacreShttt,O ~,
sono mas lived its life and served us
,,vr6ose which was to provide en- AMER
- natriot with the Yerse-torm IVI
tLa song which has stirred the hearts
- csnerations of American cltizens'
tko,asyb never so much as just now Ge'
AZ president of the AnecreonAc go
c;e+y an excellent and jOvial genue-
man. We may be sure, have ms hlOu,
cnm of fame He lived Wen ahG H Sb
we'll and possibly was three LOru ttSS
or of his jovial organizatlon' V w..
Who came after him spoke wen % nv" ~
l..
~ Alu.-.oytic longer il would probably
Lave lived longer and not gone 10 ue-
atr,.tion because a twoo bl1ging MEM
49, enabled a too-inquisltlve laoy u
b;eh degree TO crafty her CURIOSITY
sDuSoling her within the sacrsu
,rslls in mans attire. Let The LAMBS
in New York take warming So.
Rut who wrote the music! scores
~ times patient Investigators nave
rasrshalled the evidence and saiG hO
Joubt il was John Stafford SHIsh,
Gentleman Of His Majesty CnSPS'
ROYAL who fiourished conle1iPoiL"
neously with Mr.. Tomiinson' shu WuV
surely was musician enough " w
and do better. But PROOF OF lhe @u9
thorship Of the music is hos quI'SS ~
Obvious as that Of the WORDS; SsT 80
there has been a great demand OF laSe
co. authenticated documents, nrst pup
I;cafiong. copyright entries OF the
what-not of evidence.
WARFARE OVER AUTHORSHIP.
Il . ever the fate of melodies which
become widely popular to provoke con,
troversv Patriots are always on mann
n claim every good tune for their own
neonle or deny it to the people wnom
tbev hate. In music property rights
are difficult of proof. Phrases OF mel
odv cling unconsciously to the memory,
and MANY but repeat them when they
think they are making somethlhg new
popular songs, the world over arc
more or less Of kind; hundreos dIt
made over the same last. PerpetraVoIs
of ragtime tunes have MADE fortunes
within the last lustrum out OF dance'
and songs which are the merest COM
niIations of phrases that have done ser
vice for hundreds. The old ScOttish'
Irish. Welsh and English songs nave
intermingled so long in Great Britain
that IL is a pretty question to when
neople any one of a hundred OF tnem
beIongs Stafford was an Enghshmah
and probably thought it was greatly 10
his credit to be an Englishman, ana oy
thet token an Irishman arose and de-
nieS that he wrote the tune OF TO
Anaereon in Heaven" or that any Eng
Hshman had written 1t; 1t was, ne SAID,
the old tune of Bumpers, Squire
Jones" composed by the blind Irish
barper O'Carolan. Now, there is no
more similarity between the two tunes
chan between "The Old Hundredth"
and HSugar in the Gourd," and no
Irishman would ever have thought
there was if John Stafford Smith had
been born in Ireland; instead, he would
have been hailed as another proof that
All great. Englishmen are lrishmen
AS witness Kitchener and Roberts
this blessed minute. But it is this
same deplorably uncritical critical and