Stravinsky’s “Illegal” Arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1944)

[Hardbopjazz]

I find this hard to believe, but it is true.

 

In 1939, Igor Stravinsky emigrated to the United States, first arriving in New York City, before settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard during the 1939-40 academic year. While living in Boston, the composer conducted the Boston Symphony and, on one famous occasion, he decided to conduct his own arrangement of the “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which he made out a “desire to do my bit in these grievous times toward fostering and preserving the spirit of patriotism in this country.” The date was January, 1944. And he was, of course, referring to America’s role in World War II.

As you might expect, Stravinsky’s version on “The Star-Spangled Banner” wasn’t entirely conventional, seeing that it added a dominant seventh chord to the arrangement. And the Boston police, not exactly an organization with avant-garde sensibilities, issued Stravinsky a warning, claiming there was a law against tampering with the national anthem. (They were misreading the statute.) Grudgingly, Stravinsky pulled it from the bill.

http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/stravinskys-illegal-arrangement-of-the-star-spangled-banner-1944.html

 

[MomsMobley]

And it was "true" before some dopey internet site garbled the story-- no personal offense Hardbop but for your own sake and everyone's, don't believe something so poorly written as above without checking it out a little more.

Robert Craft & Stravinsky (not that everything they say is "true" but as a baseline)--

https://books.google.com/books?id=p-sw0hqRhgwC&lpg=PA99&dq=stravinsky boston star spangled&pg=PA99#v=onepage&q=stravinsky boston star spangled&f=false

Stravinsky, The Composer and his Works by Eric Walter White--

https://books.google.com/books?id=BfbGqVIru9oC&lpg=PA547&dq=stravinsky boston star spangled&pg=PA547#v=onepage&q=stravinsky boston star spangled&f=false

the awesome Nicholas Slonimsky, Slonimsky's Book of Musical Anecdotes--

https://books.google.com/books?id=EhMiAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA182&dq=stravinsky boston star spangled&pg=PA182#v=onepage&q=stravinsky boston star spangled&f=false

 

[JSngry]

Good thing Glenn Gould was Canadian, it's against the law to arrest a Canadian while they're playing piano.

[Stefan Wood]

Gould as Johnny Rotten.