The Star Spangled Banner
John Stafford Smith
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Browse piano sheets by John Stafford Smith on Zen Virtual Piano. Gloucester's Pitt Street was where John Stafford Smith was born on March 30, 1750; he was baptised in the Cathedral, and his father was the organist Martin Smith. As a boy-singer he attended the Gloucester Cathedral School, became a chorister at the Chapel Royal in London in 1761, and studied under the composer and organist William Boyce. A father at the cathedral organ and a chorister's place in London show a life tied closely to church music. Election into the Anacreontic Society probably followed from his reputation for unique and innovative tunes, since by the 1770s, thanks to his time at the Chapel Royal, he was an acknowledged composer and organist. The Anacreontic Song, composed in 1773, is what he is best known for; it was published with words only in 1778 and with music around 1780, the words coming from the society's president, Ralph Tomlinson. Francis Scott Key, whose poem Defence of Fort McHenry marked an event in the War of 1812, was among the other composers and writers who took up its catchy tune. In The Star-Spangled Banner, adopted as the US national anthem in 1931, Key's words and Smith's tune eventually came together. A tune written for a London society later joined to a poem about a battle across the Atlantic shows how far a melody can travel from its first purpose. As Song of America puts it, he is best known as a glee composer, though many of his songs and madrigals are innovative and unique; Sweet Poet of the Woods, for one, employs quarter-tones. A Collection of English Song, which he published in 1779, was perhaps the first such scholarly edition in the country; he was also one of the first dedicated collectors of Johann Sebastian Bach's manuscripts and a close friend of Bach's son Johann Christian. His Musica Antiqua (1812) is a valuable reference on the history of music from the 12th century to his own time and is widely considered his magnum opus. A glee composer who also gathered thousands of manuscripts and wrote a history of music appears here as a collector and a scholar as well as a writer of songs. He died in London on September 21, 1836, aged 86, and was buried at St Luke's, Chelsea, and a memorial plaque in the north aisle of Gloucester Cathedral, incorporating both the US and UK flags, remembers him as composer of the tune. A plaque in his home cathedral with two flags on it suggests a memory shared between two countries, and the tune's long reach seems to be part of what it recalls.
Browse piano sheets by John Stafford Smith on Zen Virtual Piano.
Gloucester's Pitt Street was where John Stafford Smith was born on March 30, 1750; he was baptised in the Cathedral, and his father was the organist Martin Smith. As a boy-singer he attended the Gloucester Cathedral School, became a chorister at the Chapel Royal in London in 1761, and studied under the composer and organist William Boyce. A father at the cathedral organ and a chorister's place in London show a life tied closely to church music.
Election into the Anacreontic Society probably followed from his reputation for unique and innovative tunes, since by the 1770s, thanks to his time at the Chapel Royal, he was an acknowledged composer and organist. The Anacreontic Song, composed in 1773, is what he is best known for; it was published with words only in 1778 and with music around 1780, the words coming from the society's president, Ralph Tomlinson. Francis Scott Key, whose poem Defence of Fort McHenry marked an event in the War of 1812, was among the other composers and writers who took up its catchy tune. In The Star-Spangled Banner, adopted as the US national anthem in 1931, Key's words and Smith's tune eventually came together. A tune written for a London society later joined to a poem about a battle across the Atlantic shows how far a melody can travel from its first purpose.
As Song of America puts it, he is best known as a glee composer, though many of his songs and madrigals are innovative and unique; Sweet Poet of the Woods, for one, employs quarter-tones. A Collection of English Song, which he published in 1779, was perhaps the first such scholarly edition in the country; he was also one of the first dedicated collectors of Johann Sebastian Bach's manuscripts and a close friend of Bach's son Johann Christian. His Musica Antiqua (1812) is a valuable reference on the history of music from the 12th century to his own time and is widely considered his magnum opus. A glee composer who also gathered thousands of manuscripts and wrote a history of music appears here as a collector and a scholar as well as a writer of songs.
He died in London on September 21, 1836, aged 86, and was buried at St Luke's, Chelsea, and a memorial plaque in the north aisle of Gloucester Cathedral, incorporating both the US and UK flags, remembers him as composer of the tune. A plaque in his home cathedral with two flags on it suggests a memory shared between two countries, and the tune's long reach seems to be part of what it recalls.
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John Stafford Smith
Common questions
John Stafford Smith was born in Gloucester on March 30, 1750, the son of the cathedral organist Martin Smith, and became a composer, organist and music historian.
It is a song Smith composed in 1773, with words by Ralph Tomlinson, whose tune was later joined with Francis Scott Key's words to form The Star-Spangled Banner.
It is Smith's 1812 history of music from the 12th century to his own day and is widely considered his magnum opus.
A memorial plaque in the north aisle of Gloucester Cathedral, incorporating both the US and UK flags, remembers him.