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Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

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Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#41

Post by mtrower »

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #32
dylan604 wrote: post #14

Trevor Noah has a bit about how 'muricans are the only ones that sing the national anthem all the damn time. He adds how it's also the only anthem where it is sung differently each time depending on the performer. Personally, I have always felt very strange in the entire concept of having to sing this at various events or in school as well as the pledging of allegiance. It just feels very cultish or something you'd e…

The anthem uncoupled from what it stands for may seem strange, which is why it’s so important to remember the lives of the fathers, brothers, and sons sacrificed at Fort McHenry holding up the flag through the night, and all the lives lost since then holding up the foundations of freedom and our way of life. If you’re living in America enjoying the (ever shrinking) bounty of liberties we have, it’s good and healthy f…

That may be true, and it may be of personal value to pursue this for yourself. That's different from socially badgering others into it at group events.

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#42

Post by tzs »

fragmede wrote: post #24
overstay8930 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that hard to sing unless you want to sound ridiculous on purpose

it's got a wide vocal range, and a bunch of high notes. of course setting yourself up for failure and trying to sound rediculous makes it even harder, but as far as songs go, it's on the harder end

Here are some ways to check with other songs if you've got a range that can handle "The Star-Spangled Banner" (SSB).

• Starting from the note you would like to start SSB with, start singing "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor" (DS). That repeats the opening note though to the "drun" and then drops a fifth for the "ken". A fifth is also the lowest SSB goes below its starting note, so if you are OK with the first drop in DS you should be fine with the low parts of SSB.

Alternatively you can use the "Flintstones" (FS) theme. It drops a fifth from the "flint" to the "stones".

To check the high end, "Over The Rainbow" (ORB) works. The jump in the first word, "somewhere", from the "some" up an octave to the "where" is the same as the interval from the start of SSB to the highest note of SSB.

That actually fits in nicely with DS. After that drops down a fifth in the middle of singing "drunken" the next word, "sailor" goes back up in a couple thirds to get back to the starting not. So just keep going from there but switching to ORB.

• Instead of checking from the note you want to start with, you can check from the lowest note you can comfortably handle.

Starting from that low note, start singing "Scarborough Fair" (FAIR). This jump in "are you going" from "you" to "going" is a fifth. Then switch to ORB. So sing "are you going somewhere over the rainbow" starting with FAIR melody and switching to the ORB melody at "somewhere".

If you can reach the high note on "where" you've SSBs range covered.

Instead of FAIR you can use the opening two notes of the "Star Wars" them or of "Also Sprach Zarathustra".

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#43

Post by vunderba »

dctoedt wrote: post #4

Relevant Reddit thread: "Why can't singers perform the national anthem without changing the melody? It's not just what happened on Sunday night football, it's literally every time someone performs the (American) national anthem. They go off and add their own notes and change the anthem to make it their own personal showcase. Just sing the damn song the way we all learned it." https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/commen…

I mean... really? For the same reason that instrumentalists and vocalists have been constantly fiddling with the original printed note since the dawn of music by adding vibrato, playing in octaves, etc. Because they want to show off. I'm neither condoning nor condemning the practice of embellishment, but it should be obvious why people do it.

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#44

Post by rayiner »

dylan604 wrote: post #14

Trevor Noah has a bit about how 'muricans are the only ones that sing the national anthem all the damn time. He adds how it's also the only anthem where it is sung differently each time depending on the performer. Personally, I have always felt very strange in the entire concept of having to sing this at various events or in school as well as the pledging of allegiance. It just feels very cultish or something you'd e…

> Personally, I have always felt very strange in the entire concept of having to sing this at various events or in school as well as the pledging of allegiance.

We live in a society. The government takes 40-50% of your income every year so you can support the other people who are part of the same society. It allows you to survive and protects you from those that would harm you both internal and external. Saying a short affirmation of loyalty to that entity once in a while seems pretty mild in comparison.

Relevant: https://youtu.be/hopNAI8Pefg?si=6e0CPUfD15Mf30ol

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#47

Post by [deleted] »

mtrower wrote: post #41
cooper_ganglia wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The anthem uncoupled from what it stands for may seem strange, which is why it’s so important to remember the lives of the fathers, brothers, and sons sacrificed at Fort McHenry holding up the flag through the night, and all the lives lost since then holding up the foundations of freedom and our way of life. If you’re living in America enjoying the (ever shrinking) bounty of liberties we have, it’s good and healthy f…

That may be true, and it may be of personal value to pursue this for yourself. That's different from socially badgering others into it at group events.

[deleted]

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#48

Post by mp05 »

vunderba wrote: post #40
dylan604 wrote: post #14

Trevor Noah has a bit about how 'muricans are the only ones that sing the national anthem all the damn time. He adds how it's also the only anthem where it is sung differently each time depending on the performer. Personally, I have always felt very strange in the entire concept of having to sing this at various events or in school as well as the pledging of allegiance. It just feels very cultish or something you'd e…

The really crazy thing is that the original pledge of allegiance made no reference to god at all . It was added as late as 1954, when Congress passed a law which added the words “under God” after “one nation.” A year later Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, was brutally murdered in Mississippi after allegedly flirting with a white woman. His killers were acquitted by an all-white jury. But ya know, at l…

> But ya know, at least we shoehorned religion into our pledge.

"that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Look I find it way overplayed to the point of losing any meaning, and a lot of people (civilians) assign some deeper meaning to the ceremony than is likely warranted, and probably partisan.

But like it or not, America's middle finger to England asserts that some higher power endows us with rights that may not be infringed. It's the basic premise of the whole damn thing. I'm not here to argue whether this is good or bad, but insinuating that it was "shoehorned" doesn't seem fair to history.

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#49

Post by kweingar »

Zelphyr wrote: post #46

The vocal gymnastics of these people who perform The Star Spangled Banner have, in my opinion, made it intolerable to hear anymore. I really wish for once someone would sing it without adding all the notes in the scale to it.

Even the plain notes of The Star-Spangled Banner are ostentatious, occupying over an octave and a half. The song lends itself to soloists rather than collective singing.

I would go further and ask for changing the national anthem to a song that anyone can sing. God Save the King is a good example of what a country should go for.

Re: Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances

#50

Post by networkchad »

dylan604 wrote: post #33
cooper_ganglia wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The anthem uncoupled from what it stands for may seem strange, which is why it’s so important to remember the lives of the fathers, brothers, and sons sacrificed at Fort McHenry holding up the flag through the night, and all the lives lost since then holding up the foundations of freedom and our way of life. If you’re living in America enjoying the (ever shrinking) bounty of liberties we have, it’s good and healthy f…

yeah, no. not for me. just reading what you've written gives me flashbacks to all of those uncomfortable moments of having to perform some oath and pledge my allegiance to something i did not choose. nobody chooses where they are born. why would someone else expect they'd pledge their fealty to something they didn't choose to be apart of just because of their place of birth? to me, it's just weird that anyone would p…

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