[Dixielandjazz] Our National Anthem

[Don Kirkman]

On Thu, 24 Oct 2002 16:05:09 EDT, JimDBB@aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 10/24/02 2:33:37 PM Central Daylight Time, 
>paul.edgerton@eds.com writes:

>> The original name of the tune was "The World Turned Upside Down." 
>> Other than that, I agree with your sentiments.

>I believe that General Burgoyne had his band play "the World Upside down" 
>when he surrendered to George Washington.  It seems to me that I heard the 
>music to this tune a while back and I don't recall that it sounded anything 
>like "the Star-Spangled Banner."

You're right.  The SSB is set to the melody "To Anacreon in Heaven," the
theme of London's English Anacreontic Society ca. 1780.  
http://www.contemplator.com/america/anacreon.html [w/MIDI]

"Legend has it that as Cornwallis' troops surrendered their arms at
Yorktown in 1781, they played a march popularly known as The World
Turned Upside Down. The tune was first published in 1643 in the British
Isles as When the King Enjoys His Own Again -- a favorite among
anti-Cromwell Royalists who were the revolutionaries of their time. The
melody soon crossed the Atlantic under several titles, including Derry
Down, The Old Women Taught Wisdom and The World Turned Upside Down.
Though scholars and historians continue to debate among themselves, no
one can now confirm or refute the time-honored reports of the redcoats
actually playing the tune at the battlefield ceremony. In any event, to
the once-proud army of the mightiest empire in Europe, it certainly must
have seemed as if The World Turned Upside Down."
http://www.stoneyend.com/graphics/110l.html

Are they two-beat or four-beat?

[...]
-- 
Don
donkirk@covad.net