‘By the Dawn’s Early Light’

It was September 1814, and British warships were unleashing a fierce bombardment on Fort McHenry, the American fortress guarding Baltimore Harbor. Rockets streaked across the night sky, shells burst in flashes of light, the city’s fate hung in the balance.

A few miles away, Francis Scott Key watched anxiously from a British ship, where he had gone to secure the release of a captured friend. Key feared the fort had fallen — until, by dawn’s light, he saw a large American flag still waving over McHenry’s ramparts.

Inspired, Key composed a poem, “Defence of Fort M‘Henry,” about what he’d witnessed — with the tune of an 18th-century British song, “Anacreon in Heaven,” in mind for it. Key’s creation, when set to that music, forever after would be known by another name: “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The Library’s Music Division today stands as the principal center for research about the national anthem, thanks in large part to the visionary work of Oscar G. Sonneck.

In 1902, Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam hired the young, New Jersey-born musicologist to establish a music department and transform it into a world-class research center. By Sonneck’s resignation in 1917, he had elevated a collection of modest parlor songs into one of the finest, most comprehensive music libraries in the world.

In 1909, Sonneck published an influential report on patriotic songs like “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Hail Columbia,” “America” and “Yankee Doodle.” In the following years, the Library amassed a rich archive of those airs, including hundreds of items related to the national anthem.

The Music Division holds, among many other things, the first printed lyrics and the first printed sheet music of “Anacreon”; Key’s own copy of that song; the first printed sheet music setting Key’s lyrics to “Anacreon” and bearing the title “The Star-Spangled Banner”; and a presentation copy of the lyrics handwritten by Key years later.

A standout treasure: the first printing of Key’s poem, one of only two copies known to survive.

Typeset in Baltimore by Samuel Sands and issued as a broadside just days after Key composed his poem, this printing of “Defence of Fort M‘Henry” vividly explains the circumstances of Key’s composition and, just below, notes the intended tune: “Anacreon in Heaven.” And then: one of the most memorable opening lines in music, followed by the four full verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” More than a century later, the copy at left was found pasted in a scrapbook, then acquired by the Library.

Another treasure: An arrangement by renowned Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. At the start of World War II, Stravinsky fled Europe for America, and he created his own heartfelt arrangement of the anthem as a gesture of thanks to his new homeland.

In a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, he explained: “It is a desire to do my bit in the grievous times toward fostering and preserving the spirit of patriotism in this country that inspires me to tender this my humble work to you as President of this Great Republic and to the American People.”

Stravinsky’s stately arrangement sparked controversy before it was ever heard. A leading officer of two major music organizations contacted Roosevelt, warning against Stravinsky’s “mutilated version” of the anthem. Roosevelt ignored the plea, and the first performance was presented by the Los Angeles WPA (Works Progress Administration) Symphony and a chorus. Stravinsky and the audience joined in singing the final two verses.

In 1942, Stravinsky and the WPA gifted his draft letter and manuscript to the Library, further enriching its collection of patriotic music.

It’s a charming detail that “The Star-Spangled Banner,” in its traditional form, is the only national anthem that ends in a question mark — inviting us all to keep participating in this great American experiment of democracy.