Chabrier Times Two

Lincolnites will have two chances to hear works by Emmanuel Chabrier this Sunday, April 22nd. The Lincoln Youth Symphony will be performing Espana, while the Lincoln Civic Orchestra will perform Habanera.

The French composer, Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894), made his greatest contribution as a composer of piano music, but is remembered for a couple of orchestral pieces, including Espana. Chabrier, a pianist, always wanted to focus his life on music, but spent nearly 20 years as a civil servant in the French Department of the Interior, as his parents wanted. During those years Chabrier continued his musical activities as a sidelight, including playing piano in Parisian nightclubs. He resigned from his day job in 1880 in order to truly devote himself to music. He and his wife visited Spain in 1882. Inspiration from that trip led to both Espana and his Habanera.

Chabrier began the composition of Espana as a piano duet. But soon the sketches based on dance rhythms took on the life and color that only an orchestra can provide. Written in the first few months of 1883, the work was originally titled Jota, but was retitled in October 1883. It premiered to critical and public acclaim and has remained a favorite to this day. Mahler supposedly proclaimed Espana to be the beginnings of modern music. But Chabrier kept his perspective, calling it "a piece in F and nothing more." Modern listeners may hear in the work strains of "Hot Diggity," a popular song from 1956.

Chabrier's Habanera was written a couple of years later for piano. It became so popular that it was soon orchestrated. Habanera is a dance form of Cuban origin that had been brought back to Europe and popularized (somewhat like the tango). It was especially popular in Spain, and was danced in bars and taverns, among other places. Chabrier catches the feel and spirit of the dance, and incorporates the basic rhythmic patterns that define the dance.

The Lincoln Youth Symphony will present their concert at East High School, Sunday, April 22, 2012, at 7 p.m. They will also be performing Faure's Pelleas and Melisande, the Academic Festival Overture by Brahms, and the first movement of Lalo's Cello Concerto, with senior soloist Maddie Witters. The concert is free.

The Lincoln Civic Orchestra will be performing at O'Donnell Auditorium in the Rogers Center for Fine Arts on the Nebraska Wesleyan University campus, Sunday, April 22, 2012, at 4 p.m. Their program includes Rimsky-Korsakov's Procession of the Nobles, Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys Overture, Rossini's Overture to Cinderella (La Cenerentola), Finlandia by Jean Sibelius, and music from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, in addition to the Habanera. The concert is free.

And if you're in the mood for band music, instead of orchestra music on the 22nd, the Waverly Area Community Band will present their free concert at Waverly High School, at 7 p.m.

So many choices...

Haydn Who?

The Lincoln Community Concert Band is performing a mostly British concert Monday, March 19th, at 7:30 p.m. While several of the composers are well known, one in particular, is not -- especially in the U.S. That's Haydn Wood. In the UK, Wood is remembered as a composer of light orchestral music, but he was much more.

Haydn Wood (1882-1959) was born in Yorkshire, England into a very musical family, but at the age of 2, moved with his family to the Isle of Man, where he grew up. He was considered a violin prodigy, who entered the Royal College of Music at 15. He made a life of music, touring as a musician, composing songs, light music and serious classical music. A few of his songs became so popular in the World War I era (Roses of Picardy in particular) that Haydn Wood was able to compose what he wanted, rather than worrying about if his music would be published or performed.

Wood always considered the Isle of Man to be his home, and a number of his compositions recall that island in the Irish Sea. The band will be performing one of them, A Manx Overture: The Isle of Mountains and Glens. Some 40 of Wood's works are for band, either written or arranged. That's not suprising in that Haydn Wood's father conducted a brass band.

A Manx Overture can be heard Monday, March 19th, 7:30 p.m. at the College View Seventh Day Adventist Church here in Lincoln.

If you're interested in hearing more of Haydn Wood's works, the library has some CDs, including one with his Violin Concerto.

Itsy Bitsy Bikini

Sixty-five years ago, on July 5, 1946, the modern bikini was invented by a French engineer named Louis Reard. (A similar garment had been worn by the Greeks and Romans for athletic purposes, so Reard's invention is the modern version). Reard expected the tiny swim suit to have the same impact as the US atomic tests on the Bikini Atoll, that had just occurred, hence the name bikini. The bikini was first worn in public a few days later, on July 11th. The itsy bitsy garment was slow to become fashionable. Bridget Bardot helped. And in the US, the 1960 song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" is credited with helping to make the bikini fashionable.

The song about a shy girl too afraid to be seen in her new swim suit was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss. The original release by Brian Hyland in June 1960 made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on August 8, 1960. Several other singers, including Connie Francis, also sang it. And the rest is history.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

On August 27, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris by 15 nations, including the United States, and many other nations signed on later. Originally conceived as a treaty between France and the U.S., it was soon broadened to include other nations. The Pact's formal name, General Treaty for the Renunciation of War, indicates the purpose of the treaty -- for nations to renounce war as a primary means of settling disputes. It was ratified by the Senate and appears to be a matter of U.S. law that's still on the books.



Suggestions for celebrating the idea of peace on this anniversary include a Let there be peace on earth sing-along or John and Yoko's Give peace a chance.

The aliens among us

On July 8, 1947, a press release from the Roswell (New Mexico) Army Air Field noted the recovery of a crashed "flying disc". While the next day a higher command in the Army issued another press release calling the debris that of a weather balloon, rumors continued to circulate that alien bodies had been recovered. The press releases fueled public interest in UFOs and aliens and conspiracy theories that has flourished to today.

What I know of aliens and UFOs I learned from Hollywood films (or television shows from my childhood, like My Favorite Martian). And some of those films have great soundtracks. My favorite is the 1982 film E.T., with wonderful music by John Williams. Another film with music by John Williams is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And there's James Horner's score to the 1986 film Aliens.

Celebrate the anniversary of the Roswell incident with a soundtrack from a sci-fi film, or watch the film, and remember that there may be aliens among us -- or all those UFOs could just be weather balloons.

From the Stage at 4

Program Notes for the Lincoln Civic Orchestra Concert, April 25, 2010
Written by Carolyn Dow, Polley Music Librarian (Lincoln City Libraries, Lincoln, Nebraska)

George Gershwin (1898-1937)
The American composer George Gershwin was born and raised in New York. He became interested in music at the age of 10; he studied piano and was introduced to European classical music. Gershwin left school at 15 and became a performing "song-plugger" on Tin Pan Alley. His first song was published at 17. Composing, arranging and performing led to work on Broadway shows. His collaboration with his brother Ira began in 1924 and continued for the rest of his life. Although George Gershwin was earning his living in popular music, he continued to be interested in classical music. He composed his most famous work, Rhapsody in Blue, incorporating jazz into the sork for piano and orchestra. He traveled to Europe in hopes of studying with someone like Ravel or Nadia Boulanger, but they rejected him as a student, not wanting to ruin his jazz-inspired style; while in Europe, he composed An American in Paris. On Gershwin's return to the U.S., he turned to doing music for the movies. He also composed his opera Porgy and Bess. In 1936, his score for the film Shall We Dance blended balled and jazz. George Gershwin died of a brain tumor in 1937 in Hollywood, at the age of 38. His legacy in both popular and classical music lives on.

Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)
George Gershwin's older brother was one of the great American lyricists of the twentieth century. Ira didn't get involved with the music business until 1921, when he was hired away from his cashier job to write music for a show. He teamed up with his brother in 1924 to write the songs for Lady, Be Good! After that, the Gershwins worked together until George's death in 1937, writing the music for a dozen shows and four films, as well as the opera Porgy and Bess. In 1932, Ira Gershwin received the Pulizer Prize for drama for Of Thee I Sing. A few of Ira Gershwin's notable songs include "Embraceable You," "I Got Rhythm," "Someone to Watch Over Me," and "'S Wonderful." Later collaborators included composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen and Arthur Schwartz. Ira Gershwin died in Beverly Hills, California in 1983 at the age of 86.

Strike Up the Band, by George and Ira Gershwin
In 1927, the Gershwin brothers were leading Broadway songwriters. Using Gilbert and Sullivan as a model, they wrote a political anti-war satire about a cheese merchant, who trying to maintain his monopoly, works to get the U.S. to declare war on Switzerland. In 1927, the show played a short try-out run in Philadelphia, never making it to Broadway. The musical is generally thought to have been ahead of its time. The 1930 revised version that did make it to Broadway lightened up on the political satire and emphasized romance instead; it ran for 191 performances. And, a 1940 film starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney took the title and the title song, "Strike Up the Band," but nothing else from the Gershwin musical. As of 1936, the Gershwins allowed UCLA to use the musical's title song as one of their school songs. "Strike Up the Band," the title song of the musical, is the march the patriotic Americans sing as they head off to war with Switzerland.

The Man I Love, by George and Ira Gershwin
Written for the original 1927 production of Strike Up the Band, the song "The Man I Love" was removed from the 1930 version of the musical. However, it quickly became a popular standard on its own. A few of the singers to record the song are Helen Morgan, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Cher, and Barbra Streisand. Even Tony Bennett recorded the song as "The Girl I Love."

A Foggy Day, by George and Ira Gershwin
The Gershwins provided several songs for the 1937 musical film, A Damsel in Distress. The film was loosely based on a P.G. Wodehouse novel about an American songwriter and his success. Among the songs written for the movie was "A Foggy Day," which was sung and danced by Fred Astaire in a classic scene in the woods. Other cast members included George Burns, Gracie Allen and Joan Fontaine. George Gershwin died while the film was in production. Sometimes called "A Foggy Day in London Town," his song has become an American standard, performed and recorded by numerous singers and jazz musicians.

Lullaby, by George Gershwin
One of George Gershwin's first serious scores, Lullaby was originally written for string quartet in 1919, when Gershwin was just 21 years old. The next year, it was scored for string orchestra. The short piece is in a three-part song form, and anticipates his later song, "Summertime," from Porgy and Bess. Words that are commonly used to describe Gershwin's Lullaby include tender, touching, and beautiful.

Selections from Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin
George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess was based on the novel (and stage play) by DuBose Heyward which dealt with 1920s African American life on "Catfish Row" in Charleston, South Carolina. Heyward provided the libretto for the opera, in addition to collaborating on the lyrics with Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin began thinking about composing a folk-opera after reading Heyward's novel in 1926. Although Gershwin had contacted Heyward about collaboration in the 1920s, Gershwin did not find time to begin working on the project until 1934. The opera premiered in 1935, in New York, with a cast of classically trained African American singers -- quite a daring production for its day. The 1936 tour included the first integrated audience at the National Theater in Washington, D.C. George Gershwin considered Porgy and Bess to be his finest work, but Porgy and Bess was not fully accepted as a legitimate American opera until the 1975 production by the Houston Grand Opera. It is now part of the standard operatic repertoire.

The story concerns Porgy, a disabled black man living in the hot southern slums who attempts to rescue Bess from her violent lover and from a drug dealer. Two murders and a church picnic on an island punctuate the opera.

Gershwin's music incorporates jazz and blues, southern black musical traditions, and even melodies from Jewish liturgical music. Themes are used to depict specific characters or objects, so they appear throughout the opera as those characters or objects (such as drugs) appear. Many notable songs are from the opera, including "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty o' Nottin'," "A Woman is a Sometime Thing," "Bess, You is My Woman Now," and "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York" (which the drug dealer sings to Bess about what a wonderful life the two of them will have up north). "Oh, Lawd, I'm on My Way" ends the opera. Today's selections include these songs and many more from the opera.

Music from The Lord of the Dance, by Ronan Hardiman
The Lord of the Dance is an Irish dancing spectacular featuring Michael Flatley, who starred, choreographed, and produced the show. He had come to fame starring in the Irish dance musical, Riverdance. The plot of the musical involves the Lord of the Dance fighting and preventing the evil Don Dorcha from taking over Planet Ireland. In a love story also running throughout the musical, Saoirse fights the wicked Morrighan for the love of the Lord of the Dance. The plot is based on Irish folklore. The show opened in Dublin in 1996, and touring trouped performed the show for the next 10 years or so.

The Irish composer Ronan Hardiman provided music for the show. Born in Dublin in 1962, Hardiman began a successful career composing music for Irish film, television and commercials in the 1990s. Along with The Lord of the Dance, he has provided "Celtic" music for other Flatley shows. More recently, he has combined Celtic music with pop influences.

Today's selections from The Lord of the Dance include the title song, "The Lord of the Dance," and "Cry of the Celts." The music is definitely Irish flavored, with lots of fiddling and drumming. The theme song borrows from the Shaker hymn tune variously called "Simple Gifts" or "Lord of the Dance." Yet it is Irish through and through.

Highlights from Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz
The musical Wicked was based on Gregory Maguire's best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which tells the story of Oz from the perspective of the witches of Oz, especially Elphaba (the future Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (the future Glinda, the Good Witch of the North). Their complicated relationships, rivalries, and differing views and reactions to the corruption of Oz form the basis of the show. The first act takes place before Dorthy's arrival from Kansas.

Although Wicked premiered in San Francisco in 2003, it soon broke box office records in productions around the world. It has seen great popular success, despite mixed critical reviews. The music by Stephen Schwartz has had a part in the popular success. Schwartz uses two musical themes that occur throughout the score, but he changes the instrumentation to fit the mood. Songs to be heard today include "No One Morns the Wicked," "The Wizard and
I," "Dancing Through Life," "Popular" and "Defying Gravity."

The composer and lyricist for Wicked, Stephen Schwartz, has had a career full of musical hits in theater and film. From Godspell and Pippin in the early 1970s to Wicked, and from Pocahontas to Enchanted, Schwartz has crafted music and lyrics -- winning three Grammys, three Oscars, one Golden Globe, four Drama Desk awards and been nominated for six Tonys. Born and raised in New York City, Schwartz began his broadway career shortly after college with a song for Butterflies are Free in 1969. Still going strong, in 2009, Schwartz collaborated on two songs for the album Slice by the group Five for Fighting.

Beautiful Nebraska

March 1st is the date Nebraska gained statehood in 1867. For the first hundred years, Nebraska didn't have an official state song. That was remedied by the state legislature in 1967. Quite a few songs were introduced as legislative bills, but after the legislature got the help of a group of Nebraska musicians to sort out the contenders, a song was chosen by the legislature's secret ballot: Beautiful Nebraska. Of the final three songs voted on by the legislature, Beautiful Nebraska garnered 31 votes to a total of 12 for the other two songs. Jim Fras of Lincoln wrote the music and the lyrics, with help from another Lincolnite, Guy Miller, with the lyrics. Nebraska's first lady, Mrs. Frank Morrison had been promoting the song for a couple of years, even singing it at the New York World's Fair in 1965.

Fras was born in 1925 in the Soviet Union where he lived for the first 18 years of his life. He emigrated to the United States in 1952 by way of West Germany, and landed in Lincoln through the sponsorship of the Lincoln Council of Churches. He fell in love with Nebraska, a feeling that comes across in his song. Inspiration for Beautiful Nebraska came from a drive out in the country, and he wrote the song in an hour in 1965 after spending nine years trying to write a song about his adopted state. Aside from composing Nebraska's state song, Jim Fras worked as a musical entertainer, and later as a piano tuner and rebuilder. He died in 2002.

"Beautiful Nebraska, peaceful prairie land..."

Ice Dance Music

One of the most frequently heard comments on ice dancing -- especially the compulory dance -- is "boring". The music is played over and over, and the couples skate the same steps. It's ballroom on ice. The compulsory dance skated in the Olympics a couple of days ago was the Tango Romantica, so the music provided by the International Skating Union was a tango. Actually, the music was rotated so more than one tango was used. The other compulsory dance selected for the 2009/10 season was the Golden Waltz, which was not drawn for the Olympics.

The second part of the ice dance competition is the Original Dance. The ISU selects the dance rhythm or rhythms and the character of the dance, then couples select their own music within those requirements. The Original Dance functions like the short program in singles and pairs, with required elements which must be skated. But, in the Original Dance, those elements must be skated to music of the selected rhythm and character. This year, it was folk or ethnic dance which represented a specific geographic area, and American "country" music was acceptable. While some couples chose the folk music of their own countries, others branched out. The top couples performed dances representing Spain, the Indian subcontinent, Australian aboriginal culture, and Moldovia.

The third part of the ice dance competition tonight is the Free Dance. Pretty much anything goes as far as music -- as long as the music lends itself to skating and interpretation. Long gone are the days of the Free Dance being waltz-polka-foxtrot or tango-samba-paso. Free dance looks like pairs except that there is much greater flow in the footwork, couples skate holding on to each other in various "dance holds" much of the time, lifts don't have the full arm extension of pairs skating, and ice dancers don't have to worry about those pesky doubles, triples and quads.

The last major competition to use this year's selected dances and rhythms will be Worlds. Then the couples will begin to prepare for next year when the compulsory dances will be the Ravensburger Waltz or the Finnstep (a quickstep), and the Original Dance will be skated to dances of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. And, as always, the Free Dance will be to music of the couple's choice.

Name that Olympic Theme Song

As I've been watching the first few days of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games on television, the television theme song, or at least the clips being used seem to be different. They started out with Leo Arnaud's Bugler's Dream, introduced at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. Then clips of Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams started appearing. That was written for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. I'm waiting for another John Williams piece, The Olympic Spirit, written for NBC Sports to use at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. After all, there's still lots left of the games to televise.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

The immortal words of Sammy Cahn about snow were quite appropriate this week, with Groundhog Day on Tuesday and National Weatherman's Day on Friday. At least this week, the snow wasn't Blowin' in the Wind. But, Baby, it's Cold Outside, so you should probably Button up your Overcoat. Personally, I'm tired of Dreary Weather. I'm not quite ready for the Stormy Weather already forecast for the spring. Rather, I'm waiting for Blue Skies so I can walk On the Sunny Side of the Street. The Clouds will soon Roll By and we'll find ourselves with Some Sunny Day. Or, maybe, we'll be Singin' in the Rain because Raindrops keep Fallin' on my Head. Spring is just around the corner in another six weeks or so.

Quantz, the finest flutist in Europe

Johann Joachim Quantz, know in his day as the finest flutist in Europe, was born on January 30, 1697. Son of a German blacksmith who had wanted Quantz to follow in his trade, Johann Joachim Quantz studied music instead. In 1740, he became composer, flute teacher and flute maker to Frederick the Great, also a flutist. As a flute maker, Quantz added keys to the instrument to improve intonation. As a composer, he left hundreds of pieces of flute music. But it was as a teacher that he left his mark, with the publication of a method, published in English as On Playing the Flute, a book that documents not only Baroque flute playing, but also the performance practices of Baroque music in general. Quantz died on July 12, 1773. Happy birthday, Johann Joachim Quantz.

Monty Python

The Monty Python television show began airing 40 years ago, in 1969. It was a cultural icon for a generation, and as such, has influenced what people think of when they hear the theme song -- Sousa's Liberty Bell march. Sousa may have written the march in 1893 for an operetta that he never finished, but it wasn't long before the piece had been published and had become a popular march. Since Monty Python went into reruns/syndication, Liberty Bell has been played by the US Marine Corps Band for three presidential inaugurations -- presidents from the Monty Python generation, Clinton, Bush and Obama.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum... It may be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, but piracy is serious music business. And a long standing tradition. Little Wolfie Mozart used his ear and his amazing memory to copy music from a performance that was never to be copied. Bootleg recordings of performances abound -- opera, classical concerts, rock... And then there's the sharing of recordings via the internet -- of which the RIAA takes a very dim view via their lawsuits. However widespread the phenomenon of piracy, the composers and artists are entitled to the fruits of their musical labors. And there's the rub for intellectual property.

Paul Taffanel

Happy birthday, Paul Taffanel! Taffanel is generally considered to be the father of the modern French flute school, which became the dominant style of playing in Western Europe and the U.S. through the mid-20th century. He was born on September 16, 1844, in Bordeaux, France. His father was a music teacher. By the age of 10, Paul was playing flute in local concerts, and at 12, he was accepted as a student byLouis Dorun, who he followed to the Paris Conservatoire in 1860. Taffanel had a fabulous career as a flute soloist and orchestral player, as a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire from 1893 on, and as a conductor. He also composed and arranged music. He died in Paris in 1908.

Taffanel's playing style was particularly noted for the pure tone with limited vibrato. We flute players are indebted to Paul Taffanel, and many of us can trace our heritage -- our teacher's teachers -- back to Taffanel.

If you're interested in learning more, there's a book, Taffanel: Genius of the Flute, by Edward Blakeman (published by Oxford University Press, 2005). You can find it at the Polley Music Library.

September is National Piano Month

Not only is September National Piano Month, but it is also Library Card Sign-Up Month. To celebrate both, I'd like to suggest that you explore the music database, Classical Music Library. It, along with Smithsonian Global Sounds and African American Song provide a wealth of music to listen to, as well as information about that music. The links are on the Polley Music Library home page. To access these databases from outside the library, you'll need your Lincoln City Libraries' card.

Another possibility for using your library card for National Piano Month would be to check out some of the music in the Polley Music Library. Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and many other composers await in our section of piano scores. We also have lots of "easy piano" music to play. How about checking out a book about a pianist or the history of the piano? If we don't have what you need, you can use your library card to borrow scores on inter-library loan.

Happy National Piano Month! Happy Library Card Sigh-Up Month!

Funiculi Funicula

On this day in history (August 24, AD 79), Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying several Roman cities, including Pompeii.

Mount Vesuvius towers over the landscape near the Italian city of Naples. Vesuvius is still an active volcano, but the mountain has long drawn people for relaxation and recreation. In 1880, a funicular railway was opened on Mount Vesuvius. To commemorate that opening, Italian composer Luigi Denza wrote a song -- Funiculi Funicula -- with words by Peppino Turco. The song proved to be so popular that Richard Strauss used it in his symphony, Aus Italien, thinking that it was an Italian folk song; needless to say, a lawsuit ensued, and a royalties were awarded to Denza.

Just as Pompeii was destroyed in an eruption of Vesuvius, the funicular railway was destroyed in a 1944 eruption of the volcano. Still the song remains a favorite.

Woodstock

The Woodstock Art and Music Fair was held over three days in August 1969 -- the 15th, 16th and 17th -- so this is the 40th anniversary of that seminal event in pop music. Woodstock didn't take place in Woodstock, New York because of community opposition; rather, it took place at dary farm in Bethel, New York, about 40 miles away.

The line-up of performers was a true who's who of the era (excluding the Beatles and the Rolling Stones). Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana, the Band, Johnny Winter, Blood Sweat and Tears, Sha Na Na, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and many others performed for the 300,000 spectators at any one time.

In spite of only 600 porta-potties, inadequate water supplies, mud, and choked roads, the festival showed that young people could gather for a musical celebration in a peaceful way. With Joni Mitchell's song as well as a film about the festival and records from the festival, Woodstock became more than it was at the time. (Joni Mitchell was not present at the festival, even though she memorialized it with her song).

The era of peaceful rock festivals lasted only a few months. "Woodstock West" was held in December 1969 as the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in northern California. Marred by death and violence, Altamont sealed the uniqueness of Woodstock.

And the Flag was Still There

Happy 230th birthday, Francis Scott Key! The man who authored the words that became the national anthem of the United States of America was born on August 1, 1779, in Frederick County, Maryland. He grew up writing verses as a hobby, taking after one of his ancestors who was an English poet laureate. After attending St. John's College, Key became a successful lawyer. He married and had 11 children with his wife Mary.

In 1814, Key headed a truce commission negotiating for the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had beed captured by the British and held on the British ship, Suprise, off Baltimore. Dr Beanes had looked after the American troops at Valley Forge during the revolution, so was something of an American hero. The negotiators, including Key, were not permitted to leave the British ship they were on (Minden) since the British were planning an attack on Fort McHenry. The British attacked the fort, the battle raged for a day and night, while Key watched through field glasses. The next morning, Key saw that the American flag was still flying over Fort McHenry, and quickly wrote down his verses on an envelope he had with him. After the battle, the negotiators were released. Back at the Indian Queen Hotel in Baltimore, Key wrote out a neat copy, and it was soon printed as The Defense of Fort McHenry. It became known as The Star Spangled Banner in 1815. The music was an English popular (and sometimes, drinking) song, To Anacreon in Heaven, composed by John Stafford Smith around 1775. It became the US national anthem in 1931.

Francis Scott Key was a very religious man. But, he was also a slave owner, torn between maintaining slavery and advocating for a solution to it; eventually, he freed his own slaves. He served as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1833 to 1841. He died January 11, 1843.

Fly Me to the Moon

On this, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the man's first step on the moon, we're all still a bit Moonstruck (1933, by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow). We've learned that the 1953 Academy Award nominee and best selling record, The Moon is Blue, was wrong, at least up there. And that because there are polar ice caps on the moon, the Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini song from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Moon River could in fact be true.

Even though Fly Me to the Moon was written by Bert Howard in the 1954, prior to Sputnik and the space race, it was a best selling record in the sixties for several major artists. That is, it became somewhat of an anthem for the Apollo space program. Apollo 8 actually did a lunar orbit and return to earth in 1968, as did Apollo 10 just a couple of months before Apollo 11's landing and that first Moonwalk. The Apollo program continued through Apollo 17 in 1972.

We've not yet made the Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer song from 1934, Moon Country (Is Home to Me) a reality, but space exploration continues. And just last week I heard talk of the possibility of moon flights to look at the possibility of settlement of the moon. Who knows what is in our futures as we look up at the moon in wonder.

Happy 90th birthday, Pete Seeger

American folk singer Pete Seeger turns 90 years old today. But he hasn't just sung the old folk songs, he's written songs that speak to the issues of the times -- like If I had a Hammer, and Where have all the Flowers Gone? and Turn! Turn! Turn! He was instrumental in the folk music revival of the 50's and 60's. In 1964, his version of Malvina Reynold's song, Little Boxes, made number one on the Billboard charts. Many of the songs he wrote were chart hits for other performers. Pete Seeger recognized that music is a powerful tool -- some might say, weapon -- and he used it in the fight for social justice. He normally performs with a banjo, helping to keep that traditional American instrument alive, too. Thanks, and Happy birthday, Pete.

To celebrate Pete's 90th birthday, watch Little Boxes or the many other video clips of Pete Seeger's performances made throughout his career.