How do I know?
Well, I don’t REALLY know this, but here is my core belief surrounding our National Anthem Arrangement:
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The amount of time it should take our choir to learn the Star-Spangled Banner should be so minimal. We should be able to perform it that it after one rehearsal.
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Every year, new members of our ensemble should be able to pick up their part, practically through osmosis.
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A last minute, make-shift choir can still be successful. The ensemble should sound full and balanced regardless of which students show up.
If your arrangement has passed all three of these parameters, it is probably not too difficult. However, I still invite you to understand my rationale, as it extends far beyond the Star-Spangled Banner.
How to Train the Student’s That Can’t Sight-Sing – a simple system
Trick or Treat Halloween Round (4 part) – they will love it at ALL ages!
Why does this even matter?
The Star-Spangled Banner is perhaps the most important, and most frequent song most of our choirs will sing. My choir sings it at dozens of school and community events each year. The purpose of each National Anthem performance is to honor others. We MUST always have this piece ready-to-go in our repertoire, and it must sound polished, regardless of the circumstances.
Here is the cold-hard truth about our performance: the more traditional our Star-Spangled Banner Arrangement is, the better it will be received by varying audience.
Some of my readers don’t believe me; Eric Whitacre has an awesome Star-Spangled Banner arrangement. I love the Patriotic feel mixed in with the occasional Whitacre-esque chords. I especially love his “Cloudburst“ pitches that lead to the final cadence, leaving us with an unresolved, murky chord, probably intended to embrace the fact that our National Anthem ends with a question mark.
With the sophistication, creativity, and beauty of his arrangement, does it suit a school pep rally in an open gym or on a football field? How about singing it outdoors at a Memorial Day Parade? Of course, the answer is no. Eric Whitacre’s piece is meant for a select and well-balanced college or professional choir in an indoor performance. Sure, an honors high school ensemble could perform this piece, but it would be a big time commitment; would this commitment really be an investment or would it just take time away from learning other repertoire? Does a complex National Anthem honor our country any more than a tight, simple and well-written Star-Spangled Banner arrangement?
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What a challenging National Anthem can do is take time away from our opportunity to expose students to better repertoire.
Even the “best” arrangements of the Star-Spangled Banner cannot compare to the best quality repertoire in the choral world. There are thousands upon thousands of choral works with more poetic lyrics, a better melody more interesting harmonies, etc, that would be a better use of our singers’ rehearsal time. At the same time, there are very few pieces of higher importance than the National Anthem. In fact, we probably perform that one piece more that all other pieces combined through the year.
Self-Assessment Rehearsal Participation Rubric(s)
Serving our Community
I have a choral colleague of mine who was once asked by his building principal if his choir could sing holiday songs in the lobby as students entered the school. The choral director was deeply offended; as a result, he responded to the principal by asking if he believed the math teacher should sit in the hallway and have his students perform math equations.
My dear friend is correct in his comparison, if the principal was referring to the purposeful educational repertoire that he had chosen for his students for the Winter Concert, Spring Concert, or Adjudication Festival. But the principal was not asking the high school choir to sing their educational repertoire; he was asking them to sing holiday tunes.
To this director, the prospect of singing a song like “Jingle Bell Rock” was an insult. I view it as an opportunity to make a positive impact within our community…..with minimal effort. If my choir was asked to sing “Jingle Bell Rock”, we would learn the melody in 5 minutes and add a few simple, yet effective harmonies on the fly. Our choir would positively impact the school community with very minimal preparation. For a few days in a row, we would break-up our rehearsal for a few minutes and improvise an arrangement….when in doubt, we would stay on the melody. That is how I created my arrangement of “Dreidel” and “Oh Hanukkah”.
Pitch-Matching Rubric – get ALL students to match pitch!
Our role of community performer is very important, BUT it does not need to take away from our primary focus. Our primary focus is purposeful repertoire and high-quality instruction.
This concept brings me back to our National Anthem. Sure, we know that we will be singing this piece throughout the year, and every year; but we also know, that the amount of students at each performance may vary, the size of venue, microphone situation, type of audience, etc., will be different each and every time. If we learn an arrangement that is concise and easily adaptable to varying situations, our performances will be set up for consistent success.
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Star-Spangled Banner (SAB – Unaccompanied)
Star-Spangled Banner (SSA – Unaccompanied)
An Ideal “Star-Spangled Banner” Arrangement
My idea of a perfect arrangement is one that provides the opportunity for all parts to have shape and line, one that can be sung with a limited number of men, and one that can be both heartfelt and patriotic. In my “mixed” arrangement, the sopranos have the melody with a melodic alto harmony and a men’s part that fills out the chords. A treble ensemble can sing this arrangement in two parts, leaving out the baritone part completely. My arrangement and any other ideal arrangement can be conducted by our students, due it it’s traditional and simple form.
I also wrote a brand new “treble” arrangement for SSA, which is quite similar to the “mixed” arrangement, but intended to focus on treble voices. It too is patriotic, easy to learn with smart voice-leading, concise, sounds full, and has a vocal range of G3-F5. This allows for all grade levels of treble choir (elementary, middle school, high school, college, community) to perform this well.
A traditional, and compact arrangement will sound patriotic, will lock well, will allow for pure emotion, will clearly state the famous melody, and will effectively serve each audience as well as our country. Less is more.
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The Complex Star-Spangled Banner Arrangement is Symptomatic of a Larger Issue
My choir sings God Bless America, mainly in unison with a few harmonies near the end. We also have several rounds in our standard repertoire along with many holiday pieces (for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) in well-written and concise 4-part arrangements. We also have a dozen pieces of standard repertoire that we perform year after year, where we invite our alumni to come back and join us.
All of the pieces I mentioned are easy to learn, sound great, are easy to balance, and are hard to forget. They take up very little rehearsal time and have great impact on our community. As a result of these well-constructed, standard repertoire, my choirs are always ready to perform!
The “perfect Star-Spangled Banner” arrangement for Treble Voices – SSA – It is patriotic, easy to learn with smart voice-leading, concise, sounds full, and has a vocal range of G3-F5.
The “perfect Star-Spangled Banner” arrangement for Mixed Voices – SAB (this WILL work with SATB too!) – It is patriotic, easy to learn with simple voice-leading.
Back to the program
If we keep the primary focus of patriotic, holiday, and traditional music to appeal to our community, we can then spend the bulk of our rehearsal time focusing on our educational goals. These goals can include developing aural training skills, sight-singing skills, building vocal technique, and learning fantastic choral repertoire. The “fantastic” repertoire I’m alluding to is whatever we, the director, believe our students will benefit the most from. Each year, we should expose our students our students to new repertoire that expands their emotional, intellectual, and musical capacity.
We must always remember the impact we can have on our community what our primary goal is to emotionally connect and serve them.
Amen! There’s a famous arrangement of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” which is–to me–the prime example of a simple, powerful song destroyed by excess. But–our system of choral education, performance, adjudication, and employment rewards (demands?) this!
Agreed! I don’t give into the system when we focus on community. Songs for the community are not for anyone but the community. Our main performances (Winter, Spring, adjudication, etc) are NOT for the community. Those are ones where we need to focus on educational and musical growth, but we can still sprinkle in some simple community crowd-pleasers, along with educational music. Those are my thoughts!
Commenting as a retired director, I find this topic amusing. Why you would need to waste rehearsal time on an “arrangement” beyond what is commonly found in any hymnal? Considering the current NFL kneeling/standing issues, I’m also troubled by pop-singer personalities who stylize the Anthem and dis-invite community participation. Using a choral “arrangement” also discourages participation. Teach the students a common hymnal harmonization, ask the assembly to rise and participate.
I taught the National Anthem using solfege as part of my sight-reading program. We didn’t add text until the students were able to sing their solfege parts perfectly in tune. No piano was used during the learning process, only a pitch pipe. I insisted on long phrases and breath support. Clear diction was expected. Surprisingly, we often heard people joining us with harmony at community gatherings.
Best wishes to younger directors as you choose your repertoire. Keep in mind, there are ways to avoid expensive arrangements and wasted rehearsal time. Choose wisely.
Thank you! My choir sings the Hymnal version 4 part in HS and 3 part in MS moving boys where they can “sing”. I personally sing it without stylized notes because the first time I sang a Veteran came up to me and thanked me for singing it the way it was written…I was in HS and I have sang and taught it that way ever since.
It is one of the first songs we learn and introduce to new members in our choir. We have sang it at many professional and college sport events. One of the first years we sang at a State event a choir student had an usher say (as we were walking off the court) “Oh you sing that in a traditional plain way.” Because they were my student they were offended by the comment, she even said to me “what’s so wrong with it being sung as it is written?”
We also sing a 3 part version of God Bless America.
I love the idea of using it for solfege….stealing that idea.
Thanks
My anthem, “The Spirit of America,” written shortly after 9/11, has been performed in hundreds of schools across America. It’s easy to teach and easy to sing. Check out my website http://www.AmericasSongwriter.com, or email me at hank@hankfellows.com for the free SATB arrangement. Best wishes, Hank Fellows