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WASHINGTON, Sept. 13, 2013 – As Congress gathered on the east
steps of the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 11 for its annual National Day of
Service and Remembrance ceremony, Army Master Sgt. Antonio Giuliano
took his place beside lawmakers and sang a powerful a capella
rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Army Master Sgt. Antonio Giuliano, first
tenor section leader for the U.S. Army Band's Army Chorus, sings the
Star Spangled Banner as members of Congress gather on the steps of
the U.S. Capitol for the 12th annual September 11th National Day of
Service and Remembrance, Sept. 11, 2013. (House of Representatives
photo by Heather Reed) |
No matter how many times he sings the national anthem as
first tenor section leader for the U.S. Army Band's Army
Chorus, Giuliano said, he experiences the same flurry of
emotions.
“My heart is pounding before, during and
after,” said Giuliano, who sang the
national anthem 52 times in 2012 alone, including his first
performance at the congressional 9/11 remembrance ceremony.
“There is nothing more exhilarating for me as a
soldier-musician in ‘Pershing's Own' to sing the Star
Spangled Banner,” Giuliano said. “I feel the nervousness and
exhilaration of it, recognizing the importance of what I'm
singing and wanting to get it right.”
Attend nearly
any major public or sporting event -- the Super Bowl, World
Series or a White House honors ceremony -- and chances are
you will hear a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. For
members of the elite military bands, who perform it more
than just about anyone, it is the ultimate command
performance.
Air Force Master Sgt. Bradley Bennett, a
tenor vocalist with the U.S. Air Force Band's 20-member
“Singing Sergeants” chorus, remembers feeling the eyes of
the world on him as he sang the national anthem on the U.S.
Capitol steps for President George W. Bush's second
inauguration.
“It is the one song you absolutely
can't mess up,” said Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Sara Dell'Omo,
a mezzo-soprano with the U.S. Marine Band. “That makes it
the most nerve-wracking piece of music I sing,” despite
hundreds of performances since joining the band in 2005, she
said.
“You'd think it would get easier, but for me,
it doesn't,” she said with a laugh.
Despite the
pressures of delivering perfect performances every time,
Dell'Omo calls the Star Spangled Banner the most meaningful
piece she sings.
“The anthem is not about me, and it
is not about my voice and singing it. It is about what it
represents, and trying to create the excitement and
solemnity of that and translating that through music. I get
a little excited about the anthem,” Dell'Omo said -- an
excitement she enjoys sharing with the high school choirs
she coaches.
“After awhile, the kids get it,” she
said. “They realize that this is not about making a Whitney
Houston impression. This is about something bigger than me,
and harnessing that.”
Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer
Michael Bayes, a saxophonist with the U.S. Navy Band for
almost 17 years, said he feels that power with every single
performance.
“Someone once asked if I ever got sick
of playing the same piece of music over and over and over
again,” said Bayes, who can't count how many times he has
performed the national anthem, numbering it in the hundreds.
“But to this day, every time I play it, it gives me
chills,” Bayes said. “It is a different experience every
time. But the second you hit the first note, you see a group
of people stand up, take off their hats, put their hands
over their hearts and take pride for those few minutes that
the anthem goes by.”
Francis Scott Key captured that
sense of wonder when he penned the words to the Star
Spangled Banner 199 years ago this weekend, on Sept. 14,
1814.
A civilian lawyer during the War of 1812, he
was negotiating with the British to secure the release of an
American prisoner. The British, concerned that Key had heard
too much about their plans to attack Fort McHenry, decided
to detain him aboard a British ship in Baltimore Harbor
until it was over.
The Americans were outnumbered and
outgunned throughout the ferocious 25-hour bombardment. But
“by the dawn's early light,” Key was astounded to see the 15
stars and 15 stripes of the American flag still flying over
the beleaguered fort. He pulled an envelope from his pocket
and wrote the poem that later was put to a popular tune of
the day.
Bayes, who also serves as archivist for the
Navy Band, said a British colleague once asked him why the
United States would celebrate an event that was more of a
draw than a gallant victory.
“The flag that Francis
Scott Key saw that day should not have been flying,” Bayes
said. “The fact that the British had over 1,000 ships and
several thousand guns, and that we had maybe 17 ships and
about 400-some guns, it was a true David-and-Goliath story.
So that flag, for all intents and purposes, should not have
been there. It was a miracle that the flag was still
standing at the end of the day.”
“It speaks to the
tenacity and courage of the democratic republic, and for
fighting for its survival and fighting for democracy and
freedom,” Bennett added. “It encapsulates that spirit of
pride that we all carry with us as citizens of the United
States.”
Today, the national anthem continues to
inspire and bring Americans together, the musicians agreed.
Giuliano said he felt that power this week as the United
States observed the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terror
attacks. The magnitude of Key's lyrics struck him with a
particular intensity, he said, as Americans paused to
remember and reflect.
“No matter where you come from,
what gender, what color, all the differences are put aside.
It symbolizes that sense of unity,” said Dell'Omo. “You hear
the national anthem and we can all come together. It is the
one flag, it's the one nation. It is the anthem for all of
us.”
Yet many people don't realize how closely the
Star Spangled Banner came to not being adopted as the
national anthem – and the key role the military played in
making it so.
It wasn't until 1889 – 75 years after
Key witnessed the Battle of Fort McHenry – that Navy
Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy issued a general order requiring
Navy and Marine Corps bands to play it during their morning
flag-raising ceremonies, Bayes said. The following year, the
Department of Navy ordered the traveling U.S. Marine Band to
start performing the Star Spangled Banner at the end of its
concerts.
Later, as the Spanish-American War was
brewing, Navy Commodore George Dewey and the American
Asiatic Squadron he commanded set sail for the Philippines
the tune of the Star Spangled Banner, Bayes reported.
Ironically, it was the British ships that were with them in
Hong Kong who played it to cheer them on to battle.
When the fleet declared victory in the Battle of Manila Bay
in May 1898, U.S. forces raised Old Glory to the
accompaniment of the Star Spangled Banner.
“It is the
first representation I have seen where the anthem symbolized
our country in that sort of way,” Bayes said. “We weren't
just paying our respects during morning colors. We were
signifying that the United States had declared victory. This
was the musical representation of that.”
The U.S.
government and military services recognized that
significance.
The Navy issued a regulation in 1903
that required all of its members to stand at attention when
the Star Spangled Banner was played. Fourteen years later,
in 1917, an Army regulation designated the Star Spangled
Banner as the national anthem – although in reality, it
still wasn't.
The problem, Bayes explained, is that
many people thought the Star Spangled Banner – with a range
of one and a half octaves and extremely high notes -- too
difficult to sing. Other popular songs, including “Hail
Columbia” and “Yankee Doodle,” were considered catchier and
more “singable.”
Congress debated the issue, ultimately
summoning the Navy Band to its chambers to settle the
argument once and for all. Its members -- joined by two
professional vocalists, because the Navy Band had none at
the time -- performed the Star Spangled Banner “to prove its
singability and playability,” Bayes said.
Congress
was convinced, and President Herbert Hoover officially
designated the Star Spangled Banner the as the national
anthem in March 1931.
But the Navy Band's work was
not yet over.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who
followed Hoover to the White House, was frustrated that the
national anthem sounded different every time he heard it.
Rejecting an arrangement by famous American composer Henry
Filmore, he turned to the Navy to develop an official
version of the Star Spangled Banner.
That version,
arranged at the Navy School of Music, which operated at the
time in Washington, was adopted in 1945. And although one
still hears countless renditions of the national anthem, the
Navy's arrangement remains the official version played by
all military bands. “It is the arrangement we use to this
day [during] White House and Pentagon arrival [ceremonies]
and the standard anthem played throughout any military honor
ceremony,” Bayes said.
Almost two centuries since Key
captured the spirit of the Star Spangled Banner and almost
seven decades after FDR approved the official arrangement,
military band members say it continues to inspire them as
well as their audiences.
“It's wonderful thing to see
the pride in people's eyes as they celebrate America and
listen to the anthem,” Bennett said. “I love singing the
anthem. ... It is just a great tradition for America and the
military.”
As she sings, Dell'Omo said, she sometimes
tries to imagine Baltimore Harbor as Key witnessed it almost
two centuries ago. “We can all imagine how it would be to
visualize this flag being seen through the night sky,” she
said. “Francis Scott Key captured that one moment in time,
but somehow it has transcended almost 200 years.”
Giuliano said he tries to concentrate on Key's words rather
than his audiences as he sings the Star Spangled Banner, but
admits to feeling a ripple of excitement up his spine when
he catches a glimpse of how the anthem affects them.
And no audience is more appreciative, he said, than those
who serve or have served in uniform.
“It thrills my
heart when I sing for the military. It is always awesome,
because they get it,” he said. “They are standing tall,
erect and at attention. They understand the enormity of it,
and the commitment they have made.
“Just like Francis
Scott Key, they understand that freedom isn't free,”
Giuliano said. “It never has been and never will be.”
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2013
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