The millennium Olympic Games in Sidney gave us TV images of winners standing on the podium fingering their gold medals. Some were seen mouthing the words as their national anthems blared through the loud speakers.

No better example could illustrate the separation of words and music. Music itself is not political. Music gains meaning only through association.

So what association can be attached to The Stars Spangled Banner, God Save the Queen, and The Marine Corps Hymn?

How many of the moist-eyed winners seen mouthing the words "O, say can you see by the dawn's early light..." know that the tune of Francis Scott Key’s poem is welded to a rather slightly naughty song composed as a center piece for the meetings of a London gentleman’s club?

The Anacreontic Society met from about 1766 to about 1793 at various London taverns, the most famous of which was the Crown and Anchor Tavern. The first part of the evening was given over to a concert featuring the best musicians of London (Haydn was once a visitor in 1790). And serious music making it was. One report mentions two Haydn symphonies, a piano trio, a Violin concerto, a duet for horns, a duet for violin and cello, an "elegant little ballad of Primroses deck," and ending with a "remarkably grand symphony." The 18th c. gentleman was a tenacious fellow.

After the concert everyone hit the tables for food. Having dined, there then followed the third part of the evening when the members and guests returned to the concert room that had been re-arranged with a raised platform at one end from which the President of the club ruled. The club members joined hands and the Anacreonic Song was sung with convivial gusto. The first verse runs:

"To ANACREON in Heav’n, where he sat in full glee, A few Sons of Harmony sent a Petition That he their Inspirer and Patron would be When this Answer arriv’d from the JOLLY OLD GRECIAN Voice, Fiddle, and Flute, No longer be mute I’ll led you my name and inspire you to boot, And besides, I’ll instruct you like me, to intwine, The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS’S wine." Chorus: "And besides, I’ll instruct you like me, to intwine The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS’S wine."

There followed, "catches and glees in their proper stile, single songs from the first performers, imitations by gentlemen...salt-box solos, and miniature puppet-shows; in short, everything that mirth can suggest". When the meeting broke up around 10 pm, things might continue. A well-connected musician of the time, one John Samuel Stevens, wrote in his diary "the President having left the Chair, after that time, the proceedings were very disgraceful to the Society; as the greatest levity, and vulgar obscenity, generally prevailed. Improper Songs, and other vicious compositions were performed without any shame whatever. I never staid till the Society broke up, which was generally very late." He never "staid"? Then how did he know that there were shameful and vicious compositions and songs? Very suspicious, one would think.

The Society prospered until about 1791 when the Georgianna Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire, the leader of London Society, and her lady friends were permitted to view the proceedings from a lattice fronted gallery. The Duchess was not amused with what she saw and heard. She let her displeasure be heard far and wide. It is reported that "some of the comic songs not being exactly calculated for the entertainment of ladies, the singers were restrained; which displeased many of the members, they resigned one after another; and a general meeting being called, the society was dissolved." The Duchess had her nerve. She was no plaster saint. She had various affairs with prominent politicians, and at least one illegitimate child. (It can be noted here that Gorgianna was a direct blood relative of Princess Diana who figured up much of the last decade.)

The gentlemen members were offended that women were being admitted, even if they were only "Spies in their midst!" One of the reasons for the clubs, it has been felt, was that they were "a refuge to which they could escape from the ladies." Equality was not a salient fixture of the 18th century.

Back to the Anacreontic tune. Much has been written, mis-read and mis-quoted about it. The text is known to have been written by Ralph Tomlinson, the first president of the Society. It is fairly well established, at this point, that the tune was written by John Stafford Smith, a composer mainly of dignified church music. It has been guessed that he was not eager to have his name connected with such frivolous goings-on.

So what have the "Star Spangled Banner," "God Save the Queen" and "The Marine Corps Hymn" have in common?

They are parodies. A parody being a new set of words written to an existing tune.

Hundreds of parodies have been written to the Anacreontic Song over the years. Francis Scott Key himself wrote another parody to it a few years before he fashioned "The Star Spangled Banner".

The "Star Spangled Banner floated around until 1931 when it beat out "Hail Columbia" and "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," to be proclaimed, by Public Law 823, and President Herbert Hoover, "That the composition consisting of the words and music known as The Star-Spangled Banner is designated the national anthem of the United States of America."

The most convincing examination of this subject was made by William Lichtenwanger who wrote "The Music of The Star-Spangled Banner: Whence and Whiter?" College Music Symposium 18, no.2 (Fall 1978) 34-81. Much of the above was inspired by his work.