>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
[ Silence ]
>> Nicholas Brown: My name is Nicholas Brown
and I am a concert producer and the lead producer for today's events,
and we really appreciate your being here and also for the concert today.
A few things to mention about today's program,
it is a special presentation put on by Concerts from the Library
of Congress in conjunction
with a library wide initiative named Songs of America.
And this is an incredibly large, massive, multiple yearlong project
which is looking at presenting American history through song
for educational purposes and also for the general public.
The Civil War in America is an exhibit run
by the Interpretive Programs office and done in collaboration with all
of the divisions of the library.
Just want to thank my colleagues from IPO,
Cheryl Regan [assumed spelling] and Susan Morden [assumed spelling]
and then also Michelle Crowell [assumed spelling] who is here
with us and she is one of the lead curators of the exhibit
and it's truly an amazing glimpse into history in a way
that the Library of Congress can only provide.
And also this panel and concert are being presented in conjunction
with the White House Historical Association,
obviously a relevant organization to anything having to do
with the White House and especially the Civil War era.
And we're very pleased to have Elise Kirk who is Director Emeritus
from the White House Historical Association here with us,
and also thank Maria Downs, who is in the leadership
at White House Historical, for making this possible.
And last but not least,
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band has been a vital
component in the planning stages of this project and also
in everything you're going to see and hear today.
I'd like to thank Master Gunnery Sergeant Mike Ressler
and Colonel Michael Colburn for helping make this possible,
and you will hear certainly more from both of them today.
Just a bit of housekeeping,
there will be a book signing immediately following the panel
in this room.
Christian McWhirter and Elise Kirk will sign copies of their books
up here for a few minutes.
The books are available for sale in the back if you are interested,
and some of those books are out of print
so I would recommend getting them now if you want those specific ones.
And then just to introduce a bit about our wonderful panelists.
As a musicologist and performer I'm so excited to be able
to introduce these people to you.
This is a blockbuster lineup of American music scholars particular
to the Civil War and you are in for a huge treat today.
First up will be Christian McWhirter, he is an Assistant Editor
of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln and a specialist
in 19th century social and cultural history.
He received his doctorate from the University of Alabama in 2009.
He has contributed to the New York Times Disunion Blog,
Civil War Monitor and The Blackwell's Companion Series.
His first book, "Battle Hymns the Power and Popularity of Music
in the Civil War" examines the role of music in Civil War America
and is a selection of the History Book Club.
Christian will be giving a broad overview of music in the Civil War
to give us some context for the more close readings that we're going
to get from our other panelists.
Master Gunnery Sergeant Michael Ressler is a native of Pennsylvania.
He joined "The President's Own" United States Marine Band in 1974
and he is the most senior active duty enlisted marine
in the entire United States Marine Corp. He is a trombone player
as well as a euphonium player and a graduate
of West Chester State University of Pennsylvania.
He became chief librarian of "The President's Own" in 1988
and his current role is as Historian
of "The President's Own" United States Marine Band.
In that role he is responsible for researching the band's long
and storied history and managing the historic archives
with The Marine Band.
Elise Kirk is an award winning author, lecturer and musicologist.
Her written works have appeared in "Opera News", "White House History",
"The Cambridge Companion to 20th Century Opera",
"American Music", and other publications.
Her books include "American Opera", "Musical Highlights
from the White House" and "Music
at the White House A History of the American Spirit."
That last selection won the Deems Taylor ASCAP Award.
As a Presidential Appointee, Dr. Kirk served
on the National Advisory Board of the Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts and was a primary consultant
for the documentary, "The White House, In Tune With History"
which continues to air on PBS.
As a member of the Advisory Board of the New Grove Dictionary
of American Music, Dr. Kirk has a similar role in terms
of the Scholarship of American Music and dissemination of that as well.
And as mentioned previously, she is a Director Emeritus
of the White House Historical Association.
And Loras John Schissel is a Senior Music Specialist here at the Library
of Congress, in addition to being a conductor regularly
with the Cleveland Orchestra.
And during that time he has produced and conducted concerts
of American music at Severance Hall and the orchestra's summer home
at the Blossom Music Center.
Loras is also the founder and music directory
of the Virginia Grand Military Band which I'm sure some
of you are familiar with.
Loras has a catalog of over 400 published works, 400,
and he's recorded over 200 compact disc recordings, which includes,
I'm sure, digital formats as well.
His scores as a composer have been heard regularly on PBS
and he scored two films for the FDR Presidential Library
in Hyde Park New York.
It is such a thrill for us to have Loras on staff in the music division
and one of the things that our scholars
and curators do here is we're all active parts
in the scholarly community, and Loras recently co-authored a book
with John Phillip Sousa the fourth entitled
"John Philip Sousa's America the Patriots Life in Images and Words".
And without further ado I will turn this over to Christian McWhirter.
Thank you.   [ Applause ]

>> Christian McWhirter: Thank you Nick for that introduction
and thank you all for coming and thanks to the Library
of Congress for hosting us.   This is a real treat for me.

I only moved to D.C. a couple of years ago and I write
about the Marine Band, obviously, in my book and so it's going
to be-I've never actually heard the Marine Band except on TV
so it'll be a treat for me to actually see them
in person performing and not only
but performing the kinds of stuff I wrote about.
When I first started writing the book my impression was
that music was everywhere during the Civil War, and I got this impression
from Hollywood more than from history books.
Historians have mentioned Civil War music in the past but they've been,
it's more prevalent in popular presentations of the war,
the Ken Burn series and movies like "Gettysburg", movies like "Lincoln",
and once I started looking into it, I realized that this was true.
From looking at letters and diaries and memoires,
almost every letter collection and any of these sources
at least have one mention of music.
Not like anyone went through the Civil War without mentioning music
at least once in the things that they wrote.
It was performed in all aspects of life.
It was performed in parlor, pianos at the home, it was performed
by regimental bands in the Armies, at political rallies,
and of course it was also sung by slaves and runaways and freedmen.
But what's astounding about these songs is how the emotional resonance
they have, in some cases, for us today.
It's difficult to find other wars in the American experience
with as many songs that still have resonance.
Everyone here, if I was to play "Dixie" for you or the "Battle Hymn
of the Republic" or "Battle Cry of Freedom",
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home", you would recognize all these songs.
You would probably know a little historical context for each of them.
That's rare and in some cases too it's rare
because we remember them the way they remembered them.
For instance, "Dixie" was not originally written
to be the confederate anthem but we all think of it
as the confederate anthem
because the confederates made it their anthem.
We don't think of it as a minstrel tune
that was written before the war even broke out.
And so it's interesting the way these songs have such resonance
for us today and it's because they had such deep resonance
for Americans during the Civil War.
Songs were one of the most valuable ways for Americans
to communicate ideas and one of the ways
that they used to understand the war.
One of the key reasons about, for this is because music
in the Civil War was less of a personal.
Now we listen to music individually or sometimes at a concert,
but usually individually, and we usually don't participate
with the performance at all either.
We might sing along in our car but we don't sing as a group
when a song is performed, but during the 19th century
that wasn't the case.
Music was often performed in groups, everyone was expected to join in
and so it made music a very valuable way to communicate ideas.
And literacy, of course, wasn't required.
You could transmit this orally.
You didn't have to know how to play an instrument, you didn't have
to know how to read music, you didn't have to know how
to read the English language.
According to a magazine out of Princeton in February 1864,
the author is discussing music comparing it to other art forms.
He said, "These other art forms have no power.
Exercise no influence over the lower classes
of mankind, the uneducated world.
They require a certain cultivation of the mind
which comparatively few possess.   Whereas with music how different.

All are influenced by it, the high, the low, the rich, the poor,
the educated and the uneducated, and I would add the black and the white.
A heart of stone is made to yield
and even inanimate objects seem to feel its power."
Similarly, like I said, you don't need
to have a lot of skill with music.
A member of the 51st Indiana Regiment,
William R. Heartpence [assumed spelling],
wrote down that soldiers enjoy the music of the military bands
but our voices we had with us all the time and when in camp
or on the march it was no uncommon thing for one to start a song
and then for the whole regiment to join in the chorus.
Each one was a master and the less melody
or melodious a voice possessed,
the greater reason it seemed for cultivating it.
So you can see, I mean, these people were enthusiastically talking
about the role of music in their society and they're all capable
of interacting with music.   Soldiers were accustomed to singing.

It wasn't like now, if I asked one of you to get up and sing,
you'd be reluctant to do so.
The 19th century you might not have been as reluctant to do so.
You might have gotten up and sang.
I also would have probably sang some of the songs I'm going to talk
about today, which I have no intention of doing.
Part of the reason for this is
because the American music industry had really developed
in the decades leading into the Civil War.
One of the primary reasons for this is the availability of pianos.
Since the American Revolution pianos had been steadily decreasing
in value in America, which is exceptional, this is not happening
in the rest of the world.
By the time the Civil War breaks out there's
about 110 piano manufacturers in the country.
The largest and most successful of them is Chickering and Sons.
By the middle of the Civil War in 1863 Chickering and Sons,
which is in Boston, was producing 42 pianos a week,
they employed 500 people, and they produced instruments
that some believe rivaled the best of the European piano manufacturers.
A quality piano of the Civil War was about $250, which adjusted
for inflation is about $4,400 today, so it's an expensive item
but it's not out of reach for a middle class family.
But cheaper models could be purchased for as low as $100,
which is about $1,750 today.
And of course if you didn't want to buy a piano, guitars and melodeons
and all kinds of other instruments were available.
And again, this is exceptional.
In Europe particularly pianos were primarily limited
to the upper classes, so the fact
that most Americans can afford a piano is a democratizing aspect
and is part of the reason why public singing is so common.
Similarly the sheet music industry thrives,
builds up around this selling cheap sheet music with lots
of eager people to write for it.
Lowell Mason starts selling hymn books in the 1830s and 40s,
and is the first to realize that you can make a profit off
of selling this kind of music
and the real success story is Stephen Foster,
who wrote songs like "Oh!
Susanna" and "Camptown Races", and for a time lived off
of songwriting alone, it was his career,
he was the first to effectively do so.
And so around this a parlor tradition develops
where middle class and upper class families would have a parlor
in their home with a piano or some other musical instrument in it,
which they would play at night, and they would gather around
and they would sing together and by this way, again, family singing
and public singing gets disseminated
and then there's these other public venues
like rallies and things like that.
So when the war arrives the-America is primed to want to interact
with the war in a musical way.
They want to deal with the issues of the war,
they want to express their own ideas about the war,
and a lot of them are going to look to music to do so.
One year into the war the Saturday Evening Post declares that a "flood
of new songs has greeted the war."
The publisher, the Chicago Song music publisher, Root and Cady,
one of the most successful song, war time song publishers reports
that they received between 50 to 70 new submissions a day.
Around nine and ten thousand different songs were published
during the Civil War.
A small number of that in the confederacy about six
or seven hundred because of the blockade,
but even in the confederacy with those small numbers,
music outstripped every other form of literature except for newspapers.
These are just different songs, I'm not talking about the actual pieces
of sheet music just different individual songs.
Furthermore, because these songs are being performed in groups
and because everyone is getting their own sheet music and being able
to sing it or they're learning it orally,
everyone gets to put their own spin on these songs.
We don't think of these songs, don't think of them
as static the way we would a song today.
If I were to name a prominent song to you like "Jailhouse Rock"
by Elvis Presley, you would all hear the exact same version
of "Jailhouse Rock" in your head that I just heard,
because you're heard it on the radio, you've heard Elvis sing it.
People then didn't have these kinds of ultimate versions of songs.
They would perform them themselves.
Most had never heard the song published by the songwriter.
In fact, some songwriters
like Foster rarely perform their own songs.
So everyone would have their own version, so these songs would go
through these transformations.   The most, the best example

of this during the war is the song "John Brown's Body".
"John Brown's Body" is written by soldiers,
members of the second Massachusetts battalion.
They based it on a revival hymn of unknown origin called
"Say Brothers Will You Meet Us on Canaan's Happy Shore",
they write it as an inside joke about a Sargent named John Brown
in their regiment and it becomes phenomenally popular.
It's not written by a professional songwriter,
it's written by soldiers, becomes I argue the most popular patriotic
song in the North, and of course gets converted
by Julia Ward Howe just down the street to the "Battle Hymn
of the Republic" at the end of 1862, which then becomes popular, I found,
at the end of the war and afterwards.
But this is all the same song,
this is all just people performing the same song
and putting their own spin on it.
Granted we eventually, we now this of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
as being kind of the ultimate form of that song, but the "Battle Hymn
of the Republic" is just one of many revisions,
some of which got written down, some of which didn't.
Part of what made "John Brown's Body" so popular among soldiers
and civilians is that they could put their own spin on it.
You could make up your own lyrics.   It's a very simple song.

So the fact these songs could then be,
they're so malleable people could use them in a variety of ways.
They could use them to express political opinions,
they could use them to resist authority,
confederate women used music to resist union occupation,
slaves used music to resist their masters and then
to express their freedom once they'd achieved it.
So, all of this combines to make the Civil War sort
of a war fought to music.
Going into the Civil War the most popular genre of music
in America were ballads, sentimental pieces,
these sort of romantic songs.
These tend to deal with subjects dealing with separation,
sweethearts separated, and so going
into the-death actually was big in them too.
Going into the Civil War these were a very popular genre.
The most popular song in America before,
during and after the Civil War was probably "Home Sweet Home"
which is a good example of this sort of song.
Similarly going into the Civil War
"The Girl I Left Behind Me" is popular during the war,
which is a pre-war song.   It has the same kind of,

it's a soldier remembering the girl he left at home.
The top selling sentimental song of the war was "Weeping,
Sad and Lonely" or "When This Cruel War is Over",
which has these same-it's a couple with the soldier saying he's going
to go enlist and telling his sweetheart that they will reunite
when this cruel war is over.
It was written by Charles Carroll Sawyer who is noteworthy
because he was the only song writer that I found
who actually put his name on sheet music when it sold
in the confederacy and the union.
I don't how he pulled this off but both sides,
they didn't recognize each other's copyrights,
so they were frequently publishing each other's songs
and claiming they were their own.
But Sawyer for some reason manages to get his name
on the sheet music on both sides.
He's a northerner, he's from New York.
He publishes his own music actually.
But it was very popular on both sides.
There's a confederate and a union version, they changed the color
of the uniforms in the lyrics, and by the end
of the 19th century it had sold about a million copies.
So this is a huge hit.
And again that's just sales, this doesn't account for the amount
of amateur amount of songwriting that's also going on.
However, although these sentimental songs are prominent going
into the war and although more sentimental songs are published
during the war than any other kind of music, from reading the diaries
and letters of soldiers during the war, newspaper reports,
things like that, it's clear to me that patriotic or marshal music was
by far the most popular type of music during the Civil War.
And that's because it fit the need of what people wanted more.
What people wanted from their music in the Civil War was a way
to interact with the issues of the war, the emotions of the war
and marshal and patriotic songs did that better
than sentimental songs did.
The other reason is because this is a war we're talking about
and in a war there are soldiers and not only are there solders
but there's mobile soldiers.
Soldiers are marching all over the country.
As a result the soldiers exerted an enormous influence
on popular taste during the Civil War.
The songs the soldiers liked were the songs everybody else eventually
ended up liking.
As these soldiers wind their way through he country, either as armies
or individual units, they're coming in contact with civilians,
they're camping near urban centers and they're singing songs,
and the people surrounding these camps are learning these songs.
As the abolitionist, the women's right advocate
and author Lydia Maria Child wrote, "Nothing on earth has such effect
on popular heart as songs which the solders would take
up with enthusiasm and which would thereby become the fashion
to whistle and sing on street corners."
And she was absolutely right.
It's the songs, the patriotic songs the solders adapt,
the marching tunes the solders adapt have the greatest influence
and are performed more often, I found, than any other form of music.
Eventually each side adopts two major anthems,
two major war anthems.
The union, and of course the union already has-the
"Star Spangled Banned" isn't the official national anthem during the
Civil War, there's about five contenders
to be the national anthem during the Civil War,
so these are more war anthems as opposed to their national anthems,
but two main war anthems emerge in the North and those are
"John Brown's Body" and "The Battle Cry of Freedom".
In the confederacy where they have to find a national anthem,
two contenders emerge and that's "Dixie" and "The Bonnie Blue Flag",
neither of which the confederates are happy, are entirely happy with,
but that will have to stay on the shelf for now.
And so these songs become enormously popular and in a lot
of ways characterize the music of the war and there's all kinds
of other examples that I could cite.
Just to, I'm running low on time, so just to close off
and to bring it back to the Marine Band where the rest
of the discussion is going to go, the Marine Band
as a prominent military musical band,
its experiences during the war exemplify many
of the things I just talked about.
The, Mary Lincoln at one point cancels their free weekly concerts
and the members of the Marine, members of the public protest
because they want this music, they want ways to listen
to the marshal music that they're used to,
but the Marine Band didn't play as much marshal music.
There was also a conflict that goes on over the kinds
of music the Marine Band will play.
There's a conflict in the 19th century between this higher,
more cultured music and the low popular music
which is the kind I'm talking about.
And there's a real argument that takes place
over whether the Maine Band should play more of these popular airs,
because the public demands it.
But the Marine Band wants to play more kind of cultured,
what we would today call classical music, and the members of the public
that go to these free concerts, they want to hear more of the kinds
of songs that they're used to, being "John Brown's Body"
or "The Battle Cry of Freedom" or the anthems like "Yankee Doodle"
and the "Star Spangled Banner".
So all these illustrate, again, this demand for popular music
and this demand for marshal music and the way music became central
to the way many Americans experienced
and interacted with the Civil War.   Thank you.

[ Applause ]
>> Michael Ressler: Well good afternoon everyone,
thank you for coming.
I too want to thank the Library of Congress
for involving the Marine Band in this observation
of the Civil War in America.
I would like to begin by asking you to think back to the year 1868.
That may be a little difficult.   You have to use your imagination.

But if in 1868 a thirteen year old prodigy hadn't threatened
to run away from home to join a circus band, and if the leader
of the Marine Band at that time hadn't accepted him
into the apprentice music program,
and if this young man hadn't later become the director the United
States Marine Band and then went on to have a very successful career
as a conductor and a composer,
then we might know the name Francis Maria Scala a whole lot better
than we do today.
That young man that I was talking about was John Philip Sousa
and the leader of the Marine Band who accepted him
as a music apprentice was Francis Scala.
Scala was without question one of the most important
and influential directors of the Marine Band and he made a lasting
and significant-he made lasting and significant changes to the band
but his accomplishments were dwarfed by Sousa.
Scala was a visionary leader, seeing possibilities for the development
of the Marine Band which his predecessors hadn't seen.
He was a talented and serious musician and unsatisfied
with the state of the band, labored to implement changes
which would change the course of the band, putting it on a trajectory


Scala was a giant but he stands today in Sousa's shadow.
We can only wonder if the blazing light of fame would have shone
so brightly on Sousa if Scala hadn't done his work first.
Who was Scala and what did he find when he joined the Marine Band?
Well he was born in Naples Italy around 1820.
He received formal training at what he called the Musical College
in Naples, but it was the Naples Conservatory.
Scala probably studied there in the mid to late 1830s,
and I'm just estimating that,
but certainly he received a world class conservatory education there.
If he graduated about 1840, and again I'm just guessing,
he was exposed to a lot of great Italian opera before he
departed Italy.
All of the operas of Rossini and Bellini would have been written
and premiered and most of the operas of Donizetti.
About 1841 when Scala was 20 or 21 years old,
he boarded the U.S. Naval Frigate Brandywine while it was anchored
at Naples and he enlisted into the U.S. Navy as a third class musician.
In a newspaper interview published in 1896 he explained
that he spoke no English at all but the executive officer
of the Brandywine spoke fluent Italian
and he enticed him to join the ship's band.
Within one month he had been placed in charge of that band.
Months later the ship headed across the Atlantic for Norfolk.
Scala experienced severe sea sickness on the trip and shortly
after arriving in Norfolk he secured his discharge from the Navy.

[Laughing] He made his way to Washington D.C. which seemed
to be away from most water and he enlisted
in the Marine Corp. This was on August 11th 1842 for duty
with the United States Marine Band.
In the 1896 newspaper interview, Scala described the band of 1842.
"It wasn't much of an organization then.
Congress had made no provision for the band so that the 10
or 12 members were enlisted as fifers or drummers,
there being two leaders, a fife major and a drum major."
Now Scala was correct in saying that there was no money authorized
by Congress to fund the band.
This had been true since the band's founding.
The Commandant of the Marine Corp collected ten dollars from each
of his officers to create a music fund enabling the enlistment
of the earliest musicians.   Creative funding must have been used

to support the band and procure instruments.
Returning to Scala's 1896 interview,
he described the band as "A small reed affair.
We had one flute, one clarinet, one French horn, two trombones,
one bugle, one bass drum, one small drum and one cymbal player.
The nations represented in the band's makeup were America, England,
Germany, Spain, Italy and Austria.
Why the bass drummer couldn't read music and while I led the band
with my clarinet I directed the drummer by stamping my feet.
We don't have to do that anymore."
Scala's memory may be called into question somewhat.
He claimed to have become the leader of the band in 1842 or 1843,
while John Tyler was President.
He may have been given some leadership responsibilities
or he may have been named the fife major of the band as early as 1843.
The band had just begun giving regular public concerts
at the U.S. Capitol and concerts
at the White House grounds began no later than the summer of 1841.
A very brief review dated July 28,
1841 in the Jeffersonian Republic stated "The music of the Marine Band
in the grounds of the President's house last evening was very fine."
So the quality of the band's performances may have been just a
bit better than we are led to believe by Scala's comments
which were made more than 50 years later.
Although there may be some question as to Scala's official status
in the early years, we know
that he became the leader of the band in 1855.
Less than two years after being named leader,
he and the Marine Band participated in the inaugural
of President James Buchanan.
Buchanan was a bachelor and he called upon his niece, Harriet Lane,
who he raised from childhood,
to serve as his official White House hostess.
Buchanan was described as possessing engaging social qualities
and it's no surprise that the social calendar
at the White House was quite full.
Scala remembered "During the Buchanan administration Miss Harriet
Lane took a lively interest in the musical end
of her uncle's administration as part of the social feature.
The march played at Buchanan's inauguration I dedicated
to Miss Lane and it had already made a heavy sale.
I, of course, saw all of the famous men who took part in the making
of history just previous to the outbreak of the rebellion."
It was Harriet Lane who was extremely helpful to Scala
in expanding the size of the band.   Scala explained her involvement.

"Miss Lane was the lady of the White House in this administration
and she was fond of social life.   The band had plenty to do.

It was at the White House several times a week.
I asked Miss Lane to have something done to have the band enlarged,
and so she appealed to the President with success.
This was the beginning of the Marine Band as it is today.
It was doubled in strength and all kinds
of instruments were added to it."
The instrumentation of the band was steadily growing.
A document from 1840 listed the band's instruments as flutes,
E flat clarinet, B flat clarinets, bugle, trumpet with valves,
French horns, trombone, ophicleide, bass horn,
Turkish bells and cymbals.
An arrangement made by Scala's predecessor in the Marine Band,
Rafael Triay in 1848, of the music of Verdi's 1842 opera
"Nabucco" showed strong influences of the Italian musical culture.
The instruments used by Triay included E flat ottavinos,
ottavines, E flat clarinet, B flat clarinets, bugle, E flat trumpet,
ippo [phonetic] corno, E flat corni, cornopian in A flat, trombones,
ophicleide, bass, percussion, terzino and clavichord.
Ten years later, 1858, the Marine Band's instrumentation included a
piccolo, flutes, E flat clarinet, B flat clarinets, E flat coronet,
E flat trumpet, cornopians, ippo corni, an early kind of cornet,
French horns, baritones, trombones, tubas and percussion.
Very close to our instrumentation today.
I should point out that he didn't go the way of most bands
of the Civil War era, eliminating most or all of the woodwinds.
He maintained a full section of woodwind instruments.
A major event occurred in 1860
and the Marine Band was prominently involved.
The Prince of Wales visited the United States.
Scala described it in an interview.   "The big social event

of the Buchanan administration was the visit here
of the Prince of Wales.
He was a guest at the White House during his stay in the Capitol.
I had to report every morning at the White House to Miss Lane
and receive directions as to the various music for the day."
President Buchanan took the Prince to visit the tomb
of George Washington at Mount Vernon
and Scala created a special arrangement of the "Miserere"
from Verdi's Il Trovatore for the occasion.
He commented "As the distinguished visitor stood at the grave
of the father of his country the band played a funeral dirge
which I had arranged for the occasion.
As the music swelled forth the Prince of Wales,
standing at the side of the President of the United States,
raised his hat and every head was soon uncovered.
As I played I turned and saw tears running
down the cheeks of Buchanan."
This was a significant moment in Scala's life.
The increase in personnel authorized
by President Buchanan was made permanent on July 25,
1861 when President Lincoln signed an act
of Congress reorganizing the Marine Corp
and officially establishing the Marine Band by law.
The bill authorized one principal musician,
one drum major and 30 musicians.
This tripled the size of the band which Scala had joined in 1842.
Now the band was firmly established by law and in the musical
and social life of Washington as well
as in its role providing music for the President.
The band was a regular part of receptions, levies and dinners
at the White House and the relationship
between the band and Lincoln was close.
They travelled with Lincoln to Gettysburg in November of 1863
for the dedication of the national cemetery and they were witnesses
of Lincoln's presentation of the Gettysburg Address.
Discussions of Scala's contributions
to the Marine Band must include mention of his development
of the band's repertoire.
In the late 1830s the repertoire was comprised primarily of reworking's
of the old fife tunes from the band's earliest days,
sentimental ballads and some newer, popular and patriotic music.
Scala expanded on this with his own original compositions
and arrangements from orchestral repertoire and popular operas.
The Scala music collection is filled with music by familiar names
such as Obert [assumed spelling], Bellini, Donizetti, Floto, Gounod,
Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Strauss and Verdi.
All the leading composers are represented.
His own original compositions included titles such as
"President Lincoln's Inaugural March" also known
as "The Union March", "The Ladies Polka" and an arrangement
of "The Soldier's Duet" from Gounod's opera [inaudible]
which is the musical source of the "Marine's Hymn".
A number of these titles are on display in the room behind me.
I hope you'll take time to look at those.
On February 4th 1862 President Lincoln summoned Scala
to the White House to meet Mrs. Lincoln to discuss the music
which was to be performed the following night at a gala ball.
The first event of its kind ever held at the White House
with over 500 invited guests.
I don't have a complete list of the music that was used that evening,
but a partial list includes two of Scala's original compositions
and selections from [inaudible], Umbala [phonetic] and Mascaras,
the Chi at the Lammermoor, El Trovatore, La Traviata
and Desprie Sicliani [phonetic].
Scala received criticism for the repertoire of the band.
The most stinging criticism came from none other
than Gideon Welles the Secretary of the Navy.
On July 11, 1863 he wrote in his personal diary
"I directed Colonel Harris, he was the Commandant,
a few days since to instruct the Marine Band when performing
on public days to give us more marshal and national music."
In the ensuing public discussion, John Nicolay,
the President's Secretary, objected saying he wanted
"more finished music to cultivate and refine the popular taste.
German and Italian, etc."
Welles continued writing in his diary.
"This music was unsuited to most of our fighting men,
inspired no hearty zeal or rugged purpose.
Marshal music, not operatic airs, are best adapted to all."
Well President Lincoln, fortunately, came to Scala's aid.
Even though his personal tastes may have been more rugged than refined,
Lincoln appreciated Scala's efforts to improve the band
and he attended concerts whenever he could.
Of the Presidents that Scala served, he was probably closest to Lincoln
and he claimed to have many personal souvenirs of him.
The President's death must have been a terrible,
personal loss suddenly ending a friendship
and a close working relationship.
Scala left the Marine Band in 1871 and retired to his home
on South Carolina Avenue in southeast Washington.
He lived there for the rest of his life
and died on December 13th, 1903.
At the funeral the Marine Band performed the arrangement
of the Miserere which Scala had conducted
at Washington's tomb over 40 years earlier.
Following the funeral service he was buried in Congressional Cemetery.
For the funeral procession,
the Marine Band performed Bernard's Funeral March dedicated
to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
Scala expanded the band, tripling its size,
he modernized its instrumentation, broadened its repertoire,
established the band as a fixture at diplomatic and social events
at the White House and developed a concert ensemble
that received great critical acclaim, including reviews
from the pen of a government clerk and poet named Walt Whitman.
When he retired in 1871 he left an organization
that was tremendously different from the one he had joined in 1842,
one that was poised to go to much greater heights.
Greater than even this visionary could imagine.
Even though his contributions have been eclipsed,
Scala was one of the most important and influential directors
of the United States Marine Band
and he deserves his day in the spotlight.
Thank you very much.   [ Applause ]

[ Background Sounds ]   >> Elise Kirk: Good afternoon.

It's such a pleasure being here, just so wonderful.
I have such marvelous memories of researching for many,
many years in the Library of Congress and have only praise
for the wonderful, magnificent really, staff and resources
in working on my book, which is a history of music in the White House,
mainly the performers who entertain for the Presidents
from George Washington right through to modern times.
So thank you to the Library.
"As you reign in peace pure goddess spread peace across the earth."
When Meda Blanchard sang these words from Bellini's Norma
for President Lincoln in the White House, the first gun had been fired
against Fort Sumter only three months earlier.
The performance so thrilled Lincoln
that he sent the young American singer a bouquet of flowers.
Excited and humbled Meda Blanchard could never have realized
that she was inaugurating a long, ongoing tradition,
opera in the White House.
For since her performance for Lincoln,
hundreds of singers have entertained at important White House functions
for virtually every President.
Music binds together young and old, great and humble,
but it also humanizes the Presidency.
It allows us to reach into the souls of hardened leaders and come
to know them in a way unlike any other.
In the days before radio, movies
and TV Americans depended upon live theater for their entertainment
and opera was the supreme spectacle of the day.
We might say Giuseppe Verdi was the Stephen Sondheim
of the mid-19th century.
But even more captivating were the singers.
Audiences knew their favorite stars as we admire our pop icons today.
President Millard Fillmore enjoyed the glittering Swedish nightingale
Jenny Lind when she sang in Washington
and Rutherford Hayes invited to the White House the young,
black singer Marie Selika.
She stunned his guests with her amazing interpretation
of Verdi's Ernani [inaudible].
For Abraham Lincoln opera was both a diversion and a joy.
Lincoln, in fact, was one of America's most unmusical Presidents.
He could neither read music, play an instrument nor carry a tune
yet few Presidents in history have been as responsive
to music's lyrical powers.
War time songs and sentimental ballads touched Lincoln deeply
and [inaudible] recalled that certain tunes would "mist his eyes
with tears and throw him into a fit of deep melancholy".
Opera too could have an emotional effect
on Lincoln especially the Marine Band's spirited arrangements
from the most popular composers of the day.
Bellini, [inaudible], Donizetti, Vaber [phonetic], Meyer,
[inaudible], Rossini, Verdi.
All composers whose operas Lincoln saw in the theaters of Washington.
Lincoln's enthusiasm for opera was so pronounced in fact
that the New York Herald suggested he visit Manhattan
"where Mrs. Lincoln can shop
and the President can have his fill of opera."
[Laughing] But the President did not have to go to New York to see opera.
Touring companies such as New York's Academy of Music founded in 1854,
had their regular seasons in the nation's capital.
I was amazed to discover that Lincoln saw
at least 30 fully staged productions
of opera during his 4 year tenure in the White House.
Sometimes he even saw the same performance several times.
When he was criticized for his frequent attendance
at the theater during the ravages of the war, he replied simply,
"I must have a change or I will die."
And how many of us have felt this way and turned
to music as a kind of therapy?   We know it can work wonders.


It was in New York, however, that Lincoln saw his first opera.
On February 20th 1851, two weeks before his inauguration,
he attended Verdi's [inaudible] a masked ball.
This was during the American premiere run.
It was conducted by Emanuele Muzio, Verdi's former pupil
and lifelong friend, and had received its world premiere
in Rome only two years earlier.
To honor the President Elect Muzio asked the cast and orchestra
to perform the "Star Spangled Banner"
as Lincoln was entering the theater.
But because the singers were European only two young Americans
knew the words.
The enterprising Adelaide Phillips, you see here,
and she later formed her own opera company, and also Isabella Hinckley
who appeared in the opera in the role of the page.
For Abraham Lincoln, however, Verdi's dramatic opera
about the assassination
of a national leader became a chilling prophecy.
Four years later, as we know,
Lincoln's own assassination was enacted with tragic realism
in another theater, this time in the nation's capital.
The operas that Lincoln saw in Washington
as President were elaborately staged with scenery, costumes,
famous singers and full orchestra.
Some were produced at Ford's Theater but most
at Grover's National Theater with its larger stage, 2000 seat capacity
and elegantly frescoed interior.
I just have to add that is today's National Theater
but it had been renovated and changed many times.
At Grover's Lincoln always occupied his colorfully festooned
Presidential box either with Mrs. Lincoln and some of their friends
or alone as on the night he saw Beethoven's Fidelio featuring the
great German soprano Berta Johansen as Leonora.
And I should add she appears here in her portrait gown,
that's not her costume from the opera.
The President's opera nights, of course, always made news
when he attended scenes from Verdi's Il Trovatore
and Bellini's I Puritani on January 22nd 1862, the press noted that
"The theater was crowded to its utmost capacity and the President
on being observed in one of the boxes, received a hardy
and prolonged applause from the audience."

President Lincoln received the same attention when he appeared
at other productions also such as Bellini's Norma on April 22nd 1863
and later that year Rossini's Barber of Seville
with the highly praised tenor Pasquale Brignoli that you see here.
He played Count Almaviva.   Oh the critics loved him.

They adored Brignoli.   This is what one said.

"He stands before the foot" excuse me.
"He stands before the footlights
with the greatest indifference to pose.
But when he opens his voice to sing all this is forgotten."
Only two weeks earlier the President and Mrs. Lincoln were honored
at a performance of Von Weber's Der Freischutz
in which Theodor Habelmann sang the role of Max.
The popular tenor would make history two years later as Walter
in Washington premier of Wagner's Tannhauser.
But Habelmann was also respected for the many benefit concerts he gave
for sick and wounded soldiers during the war.
What I found particularly fascinating, we don't think of this
about our city, I think realize this about our city,
most all of the operas Lincoln attended were Washington premiers.
So the audiences at that time were treated to the newest shows in town.
Ironically one of the most important of these, Tannhauser,
America's first Wager opera, Lincoln did not see.
He was ill the day of the performance, March 14,
1865 and he had to meet his Cabinet in his bedroom.

Nothing could stop the President from going
to the opera the next night though.
This was for Mozart's [inaudible] Magic Flute.
He would not miss his favorite basso, Joseph Haremonds [phonetic]
as Sarastro, and especially the brilliant, young,
Hungarian soprano Joanna Ropter [phonetic] as Queen of the night.
But perhaps the most moving performance
that Lincoln saw was Donizetti's lively Daughter of the Regiment.
Staged on May 28th 1862,
the production shows how powerfully opera and audience could interact
when tormented by devastation and war, and I kind of think
about Dr. McWhirter's comments about the way music relates,
brings people together and this is one interesting example,
and also the way performers improvised.
So this production was featured,
featured in this production was the young American soprano Clara Louise
Kellogg, this is her picture.
She sang the role of Marie and she relates
in her memoirs how the cast added American national tunes
and drum roles to the score to turn the opera's original French setting
into an American pageant.   "The audience cheered and cried."

she writes.
"They let themselves go in the manner of people brought
up by great national excitements.
Even on the stage we caught the feeling.
I sang [inaudible] better than I had ever sung anything yet
and I found myself wondering as I sang how many of my cadet friends
of a few months earlier were already on the front."
Clara Louise Kellogg was only 19 when Lincoln heard her
and she had made her operatic debut as [inaudible] in Rigoletto
at New York's Academy of Music just a few months earlier.
While Kellogg was from South Carolina, most of the singing stars
in those days were from overseas.
The famous contralto, [inaudible] for example,
was from what is today Poland.
[Inaudible] the Magnificent as she was affectionately called,
was not only a superior actress but an early champion
for the rights of gays and lesbians.
In opera she was famous especially for her trouser roles.
Notably Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti E I Montecchi and Orsini
in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia.
The popular [inaudible] so captivated President
and Mrs. Lincoln in fact that in early 1864 they attended four
of her performances in less than two weeks.

But the biggest news in opera came in the spring of, springs of 1864
and 1865 when the so-called German Troupe came to Washington.
The celebrated team was directed by Carl Anschutz,
teacher of the American Conductor Theater Thomas,
who I have to add was the founder of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Although today they are mere history, these singers were the best
and experienced in America and according
to the press they were extremely popular.
"There is no greater ensemble than this troop
of [inaudible]" wrote the National Intelligencer,
"and there are no more perfect artists."
Lincoln apparently agreed because he saw Marie Fredericchi [phonetic]
and Franz Himer [phonetic] in Gounod's Faust at least twice.
We see them here as Lincoln probably did in their costumes
for Marguerite and Faust.
Now Faust, of course, was sensationally popular in America
after its New York premiere in 1863.
Only six months later it came to Washington
and became the newest rage in town.
"We have had Faust with its greatest representation now on any stage."
boasted the Washington Press.
Although the spirited Soldier's Chorus annoyed the reviewer,
apparently it was played as an encore,
but this march was President Lincoln's favorite operatic piece,


Faust, of course, retains its popularity today and the role
of Mephistopheles is still one of the most famous in all opera.
We recognize here the great modern Mephistopheles, Sam Ramey.
Lincoln, though, enjoyed the extraordinary performance
of Joseph Haremonds from Her Majesty's Theater in London.
According to one account, the great basso
as Mephistopheles totally astounded American audiences.
With his glittering icy eyes, the gliding shuffling gate,
the riving mockery of everything pure and good,
he was the incarnation of evil.
Apparently one of Haremonds intensely dramatic effects was
to use a sustained and perfect trill just before gliding
into his fiendish laugh.   After seeing Haremonds

in this electrifying role President Lincoln promptly invited the popular
basso to the White House.
I'd like to know more details about that.
I wonder if he sang.
[Laughing] The opera season had scarcely ended at Grover's
in mid-March 1865 were not to be outdone,
Ford's theater announced several weeks of its own productions.
But although he had secured boxes at Ford's
for several upcoming events Lincoln would never see them.
His last opera was Boieldieu's romantic La Dame Blanche,
the White Lady.   This was on March 21st 1865.

"We went to the Opera on Saturday eve" Mrs. Lincoln wrote
to her New York friend, "Mr. Lincoln when he throws off his heavy manner
as he often does, can make himself very, very agreeable.
Last evening he again joined our little coterie
and tomorrow eve we go again to hear Robin Adair sung
in La Dame Blanche by Habelmann.   Three weeks later Lincoln was dead.

What must Washington have been like during the horrors of the Civil War?
It had to have been a city of coffins and sick beds
because its 21 hospitals were filled with more than 50,000 soldiers,
but it was also a city without modern diversions.
The theater was a panacea, a way to forget if only for a moment.
But for Abraham Lincoln it was much more.
"Listening to melody" he once said "every man becomes his own poet
and measures the depth of his own nature though he is apt
to lose the line as the sound dies away."
And Lincoln continues, "As a student in a rugged school I have been
through life obliged to strip ideas of their ornaments
and make them facts before I conquered them.
Still a few soft heart searching notes will often remind me
of a want, convincing me that like other hard workers I may have gained
in precision and concentration at the cost maybe
of the silent pleasure an eye educated
to beauty can always drink in at a glance."
It's a wonderful, wonderful quote.
It tells us so much about Lincoln but it also tells us much
about ourselves, about early America and about today,
for music will always be a vital part of the American adventure
of discovery, reinforcing our heritage
and as Lincoln reminds us, glorifying our dreams.
Thank you very much.   [ Applause ]

>> Loras Schissel: Well I'm Loras Schissel from the Music division
and I want to keep my remarks brief so that you folks can have a chance
to ask questions or make comments to our wonderful panel we have up here.
But I basically tossed out my prepared comments
when Nick made the introduction for this group,
and I'm reminded it's probably-I've been here at the Library
for over 22 years now and one of my duties is to take care
of the Francis Scala archive,
which I hope before the concert starts you'll have a few moments
to see.
My colleague, Mr. Ray Whites, wonderful display of Scala
and Lincoln and Copeland and other sorts
of things that are out on display.
These are all the original things you see out there.
But I was reminded of one of my favorite stories about being here
at the Library of Congress and it sort of fits with this crowd.
And above us here in the historic Jefferson Building, one floor up,
is the ceremonial office of the Library of Congress.
A very ornate and beautiful office that now
that we have the Madison building across the street has become sort
of the place where awards are given or dignitaries are received
and it was during Dan Boorstin's time as Librarian of Congress
that he would come over here and give an award or meet a head
of state in the office there,
and it always caught his attention there was a large walk-in safe
in the ceremonial office.
And each time he saw that he would ask one
of his assistants, "What's in there?"
And the assistants always said, "Nothing.
We haven't used that safe in decades.
There's nothing in there."
A few weeks later Dan would come back and give an award
or meet another head of state and he'd say,
"Are you sure there's nothing in there?"

And after the third request about making sure there wasn't anything
in that safe, he said, "Why don't you call the locksmith
and have that opened up.
I just want to make sure there's nothing in there."
And so the locksmith was promptly acquired,
brought here to the library, the door was swung open,
one of these tall sort of bank vault doors, hadn't been opened
in 60 years, opens up like this.
Inside there's just one box on a shelf tied up with string.
Little label, you know the old fashioned kind
that the little string that you can attach, and in an old script it said
on this box, "Contents
of my father's pockets the night he was assassinated in Ford's theater."
So when you get a chance to come back to the library I can only hope
that you go upstairs and see our wonderful Civil War exhibit
which has the contents
of Mr. Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated
in Ford's theater.
And I always like to point out to people that in his wallet
that he took with him to Ford's theater that night,
the only money he had on him
that night was a five dollar confederate bill.

[Laughing] But I think there's this wonderful sort of confluence
of Lincoln and the Marine Band and the period of the Civil War.
The building that we're in right now,
us in the Supreme Court next door, actually in years past were the,
were apartments basically that you could rent out,
and as a young Congressman from Illinois,


And I'm often reminded of the charge we have for the great treasures
that we have in the collections here at the Library of Congress.
The Scala collection being one of them and I hope you'll,
when you're looking at the display see
that beautiful little Abraham Lincoln card, but it's very easy
to bring out a manuscript of Johann Sebastian Bach or Johannes Brahms
or Giuseppe Verdi or John Philip Sousa,
but in the 22 years I've been here there's never quite the same
reaction as when you hand a young person or an older person
that little box with that card that says, "Will the leader
of the Marine Band see Mrs. L today."
That's really one of those magical, sort of wow,
moments that you never get tired of.
And we take care of those things, those objects,
those pieces of paper, those sounds recordings, those little black spots
on the sheet of paper that makes music come alive.
And you're going to hear a wonderful concert in the auditorium next
to us, a historic auditorium, and you're going
to hear those little black spots come alive in that room.
And as you're listening to the music of Francis Scala,
some of it that Mr. Lincoln heard himself, there's one sort of object
that I can't store in our vault
down in the music division across the street.
I can't store the Marine Band down there,
and of all the treasures we have here in Washington,
of all the treasures we have here in the United States,
we have one of the great musical treasures just down the street,
down at 8th and I down there,
and that great treasure is called the United States Marine Band.
So I hope this afternoon you will enjoy hearing Mr. Scala's music come
alive and performed by the nation's oldest continuous musical
organization and one of the great treasures of this nation
and the great treasures of the Library of Congress,
the United States Marine Band.   [ Applause ]

And if you have questions
or comments just-they have the microphones sort
of floating around but feel free.
We have a very smart cast up here, so.

>> Okay, oh yeah, you can hear?
Okay. Thanks to all of you, wonderful talks.
Really looking forward to the concert.
I have a comment and a question.
I [inaudible] seen the film Lincoln and one thing that struck me is
that there is a scene where he and Mary are at the theater,
and if you didn't stay around for the credits you may not know,
that is actually apparently a scene
from Gounod's Faust that they're watching.
I don't know if it was historically accurate
because the film period was January 1865, but it was kind of nice
for me knowing that they got the spirit of that right.
My question is, and I hope the Master Gunnery Sargent will forgive
this because it's about another military branch.
Do any of you know-I remember reading this once
in Kenneth Bernard's book on Lincoln and the music of the Civil War,
did Charles Ives's father,
George Ives who was a U.S. Army Band Master, ever conduct a band concert
on the lawn of the White House?
I seem to remember reading something to that effect.
I wondered if any of you knew.
>> Not off the top of my head, no, sorry.
>> Loras Schissel: I'm not aware.
There were so many bands that came through
and you know things were a lot looser in Washington.
We didn't have metal detectors and stuff and bands would just set up,
literally set up, on a corner and just play a concert
and there were impromptu parades all the time, so I wouldn't doubt it
but I haven't seen any proof that that happened.
>> Christian McWhirter: I'll make a comment on your first part
of your question about the movie,
because I think the movie did a pretty good job
with the music it included.
As far as the popular music goes which is more my field,
the inclusion of "We're Coming Father Abraham" which the band plays
at the flag raising ceremony in that scene, that was dead on.
That kind of became Lincoln's theme song throughout the war,
kind of losing its original connotations as a recruitment song.
And the "Battle Cry of Freedom" scene
which is probably the most emotional musical scene in the movie
after they pass the 13th amendment, is great in that that song,
as I said, was one of the two major anthems of the union
but there's no evidence that they actually sang it at that time,
but that's okay, I can forgive the film.
If any of you have read any of the things I've written about the film,
that's my line on it that I can forgive the film
for some poetic licenses as long as it's well done.
I thought that was one of the best scenes in the movie using
"Battle Cry of Freedom" at that moment
to show how exultant they were and what a big moment that was
for the history of freedom in America, so.

>> My question is, sorry about that.
You mentioned something about this composer that wrote both
for the North, I mean his songs were sung by both North,
could you just tell me his name, I didn't get it.
>> Christian McWhirter: Charles Carol Sawyer.
>> Thank you.
>> Christian McWhirter: His most famous piece is,
is I'm drawing a blank, "When This Cruel War is Over"
and he wrote a famous song that the name has escaped me too,
about Mothers that was also very popular.
>> Good afternoon.
I was wondering if any of you were aware in the beginning we were told
about the origin of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic".
According to Sargent Floyd Worley who was the former Chief [inaudible]
of the Air Force Band, the composer of that revival song said
"Brother Will You Join Us on Canaan Happy Shore" was one William Steffe.
Is that a fictitious?
Is that a [inaudible] story or is there any evidence to support that?
>> Christian McWhirter: That is one of about ten stories
about who wrote that song.   So, it is a possibility.

Confederate memorialists in particular like that story
because I believe Steffe was from, I can never tell because [inaudible]
if it's Stef or Steffe, was from South Carolina,
I know he was a southerner.
But there's all kinds of evidence too
that the song may have originated with, among African Americans
at revivals, I believe the Mormons also claim the song.
It's been claimed by numerous different people
at numerous different times.
So my, as a historian looking for burden of proof, my reaction was
to throw my hands up and say basically there's too many claims
to this song for us to reliably say it belongs to anyone, so.
>> I just wanted to make a small comment.
At Smithsonian's American Art Museum, there is a small painting,
it may not be up this moment, but it is of the Prince of Wales
at Mount Vernon and an array of ladies in lovely dresses
and now I will be able to add this other little bit
of that the band was there and that they raised their hats.
>> Loras Schissel: If you look at that painting,
if you look way back behind the trees there, you'll see Mr. Scala
and the Marine Band in the corner back there.
>> Thank you, thank you.
>> Loras Schissel: They're back there
with their pretty, red uniforms.
>> Great. It was a long time before another Prince


>> You've all spoken about the importance of music during this time
in our nation's history, but I wondered if you could say a word
about the role, the importance,
of poetry at that time during the Civil War.


>> Loras Schissel: Only because of the period, you're looking
at a period in time, and we see this also with music and poetry,
is that people sat down and wrote poems just
because they felt like doing it.
And certainly songs were the same way.
You had a populous, especially with music particularly with the girls,
that most families if you were upwardly mobile,
you bought that piano and you sent your girls off for piano lessons,
but you find in looking through the memoires of people of that period
that the writing of poetry was something that was very common
at that time and both men and women would do that.
You know all of the memorial odes to Lincoln when he died, you know,
must number into the thousands.
Look at any newspaper and magazines of the period people wrote,
wrote poems and sent them into Graham's Magazine to be published
and that was certainly an almost equal way
of expression almost to music in that sense.
>> Christian McWhirter: Well and I'll add that the dividing line
between songs and poems in the 19th century was not as fine.
One of the problems I ran into researching the topic,
if you're going to look at amateur stuff,
as what was mentioned there these things are getting published
in newspapers.
Again, something that doesn't happen a lot today but people would send
in poems and songs to newspapers and newspapers to show this,
not this fine line, newspapers are publishing them interchangeably.
A newspaper publishing a song and a poem are essentially the same thing
and they don't make any effort to delineate between the two.
So one of the more difficult problems I had was having to come
up with a systematic way of delineating in my own research
between a song and a poem so I didn't mistakenly talk
about the lyrics of a poem
that nobody ever actually sang as compared to a song.
Usually you can tell because they'll always indicate the melody it's
supposed to be sung to.
You know we'll say the first "Battle Hymn
of the Republic" is the most obvious example.
The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in Atlantic Monthly
to the tune of "John Brown's Body" I think it said to the
"John Brown Song" but that's the song.
So again there's a much blurrier distinction
in the 19th century I would say to that.
>> Elise Kirk: Could I just add too that this is so very true
and in the operas very often, and this was true in Europe too,
you read about the operas of Verdi and Donizetti and that period,
the singers would improvise
and they'd add their own lyrics sometimes,
and you know the quote I read
about Mrs. Lincoln hearing Robin Adair's sung in La Dame Blanche,
well that's not, that's a folk song.
And a lot of times the singers would interpolate a folk piece
and then they would change the lyrics a little bit.
I think one thing that always was interesting to me is how many
of our popular songs were from theater works, from operas,
for instance, "Home Sweet Home" from Clari or the Maid of Milan,
which was an opera or theater piece.
And I always think of "Hail to the Chief".
We know that that was sung originally and was from The Lady
of the Lake which was a very popular show in New York in 1812.
But so that's-poetry I think could be very improvisational
to Americans at that time.
>> There's been quite a bit of reference
to tradition among the members of the panel.
Here's a question about tradition.
Dr. McWhirter, McWhirter pointed out that over 100 years ago
when there was very little among the middle and middle, lower classes,
very little sophistication in terms of being able to read music
and know exactly the form of the original composition.
So a lot of improvisation around the family
and people were not criticized for doing injustice to a melody
that might have originally been written in Europe.
There's a paradox because now there's a lot of sophistication,
music is available, a lot of people read music and the extent
to which we're willing to pervert traditional melody in the interest
of God knows what, I'm speaking personally of course,
without any hope of being, of my views being shared by many people
in the audience, but when I listen to the singing
of the National Anthem at the next opening of the baseball season
or at halftime you know in the Super Bowl and God forbid
at a Presidential Inaugural.
I really have no expect-I have no way of knowing what liberties are
about to be taken in the traditional singing of our National Anthem
and it really offends me as a traditionalist in that sense
of having, of the injustice that is done with, I mean is there no limit
to the liberties-I direct this question to Sergeant Ressler
who as an instrumentalist and a historian may from time
to time be confronted with what's the Marine Band going to do
in the presence of a singer who is got yet one more idea
about what liberties she or he can take with something as sacred
to me as our National Anthem.
>> Michael Ressler: That's an interesting question.
I have developed a file in the Marine Band Library of articles
and things that have been written about soloistic interpretations
of the "Star Spangled Banner" and it is interesting.
There's a lot of very strongly held opinions one way or the other
about the way the anthem should be performed.
We do work with some great artists either at the White House
or at the request of the President of the United States and we work
with them as cooperatively as we can
and hopefully the results are pleasing to the general public.
Our role is to provide music for the President of the United States
and we do that to the best of our ability.
Certain things are out of our control
and certain things we maintain very careful control of,
but we don't always how shall I say, we do the best we can
when the President invites a soloist to help the soloist
and give the President what he was asking for.
>> Loras Schissel: And I'll add here just from a historic-I do the
"Star Spangled Banner"
and throughout the Civil War it was back and forth for the North.
Was it going to be "Hail Columbia"?
Was it going to be the "Star Spangled Banner"?
The "Star Spangled Banner" did not become our national anthem
until 1931 when Herbert Hoover signed into law.
And Congress and the President were very careful about how this law read
and there was no indication in there what key it was supposed to be in,
what speed it was supposed to be played,
how it was supposed to be sung.
They knew what sort of treacherous waters they were getting
into so the law reads very easily and very simply.
"Let it be known heretofore that a piece of music known
as the Star Spangled Banner shall be the National Anthem
of the United States", and they let it go at that.
[Laughing] But it is interesting just the idea of tradition,
Yankee Doodle, you know this song "My country tis of thee,
God save our glorious King" America was a new nation
and we didn't have a lot of our own things
and when we needed something we borrowed it or we took it.
The "Star Spangled Banner" the tune we were talking
about poems being published for the first time.
The first published appearance of "The Battle of Fort McHenry",
the "Star Spangled Banner", appeared in a Baltimore newspaper
and below it, it said to the tune "An Anacreon in Heaven",
which is an English song.   It is not a drinking song.

If you leave today with anything, it is not a drinking song.
[Laughing] But it was a tune that was popular at the time
and Key wrote the poem with that rhythm in his head.
So when you do get into American national airs and who wrote what
and when and stuff like that, it really does become almost impossible
to find the links to these because there was no one running the show.
You know, it was, it was people doing these things,
singing these songs in their homes, singing,
soldiers singing these songs on the march,
and it grew organically that way.
That's how we got our National Anthem.
That's how the Marines got their Marine's Hymn.
It's from an Offenbach opera.
You'll see the tune out there in the case.
So it's always interesting and it always makes for lively discussions.
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.