page_title: The Anacreontic Song
section_title: Subsequent history
hierarchical_section_title: The Anacreontic Song / Subsequent history
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail from the first sheet music publication of The Star Spangled Banner (Thomas Carr, 1814)
context_page_description: "The Anacreontic Song", also known by its incipit "To Anacreon in Heaven", was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Composed by John Stafford Smith, the tune was later used by several writers as a setting for their patriotic lyrics. These included two songs by Francis Scott Key, most famously his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry". The combination of Key's poem and Smith's composition became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner", which was adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America in 1931.
context_section_description: The song, through its bawdy lyrics, gained popularity in London and elsewhere beyond the Anacreontic Society. New lyrics were also fashioned for it, including several patriotic titles in the United States. The most popular of these at the time was Robert Treat Paine Jr.'s "Adams and Liberty" (1798).
caption: Detail from the first sheet music publication of "The Star Spangled Banner" (Thomas Carr, 1814).  Note the F sharp in the melody.
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