Comrades: Robert T. Laudon, who has written a monograph on the history
of music in Minnesota (with emphasis on the Minnesota Music Teachers
Asociation) tells me that the idea of a "standard" harmonization for the
tune of the SSB was put forward by Elsie Shawe, supervisor for music in
the St. Paul school system from 1898 through the 1930s. Ms. Shawe, who
was an enthusiastic promulgator of the large public displays of national
pride that became popular in the 1890s (including "living flags"
composed of massed groups of children wearing red, white, or blue hats
and jackets and standing in formation) was concerned that people should
know how to perform the national song, and that some sort of uniformity
would be helpful. She communicated this idea in a letter to President
Theodore Roosevelt, who approved the idea. He told her that he would
refer the matter to the Librarian for Music at the LC, who was Oscar
Sonneck. The monograph on the "Star-Spangled Banner" by Sonneck was the
result of this presidential suggestion.
The correspondence between Ms. Shawe and TR is preserved in the
Minnesota Historical Society (where Professor Laudon's book is also available).
-- Vivian Ramalingam (a Fourth is an inverted fifth)
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