Why do Americans not sing out on the national anthem like the Canadians do? (Friday letter, “A bit more gusto enhances pride.“) Look to the tunes themselves. “O Canada” has a nice compact range of an octave (8th), but is mostly about a 6-note range in the comfortable part of men’s voices. They adopted it only 30 years ago, even though the song is 130 years old. It’s much better than “God Save the Queen.”
“The Star Spangled Banner,” on the other hand, has a wide range of a 12th, and much of the song is on the outer fringes of comfortable. There is no phrase that doesn’t go really high or really low and high. Our only recourse is to teach the children to be able to raise their soft palates so they can easily sing the high notes, and make sure that we keep to the legal keys. Yes, because of the wide range, there are only a few keys that are sanctioned. The original key was G, but acceptable keys include A flat, A, and B flat, and the first printed edition was in C. Unfortunately many choose B flat, putting the high notes well out of the comfortable range for most basses, and a stretch even for some tenors and altos.
That’s what we get for choosing a drinking tune (“To Anacreon in Heaven”) for our national anthem.
Jean DeWitt
Mill Creek
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