THS Freshmen Band students participate in National Anthem Project

On Flag Day, June 14, 2007, the Talladega High School Band’s newest members participated in the National Anthem Project, a two-year initiative designed to reconnect American citizens with our country’s theme song. The Music Educators National Conference, The History Channel, Jeep and other corporate sponsors, subsidizes this two-year national event.

During the THS Band’s Freshmen Band Week, June 11-14, 2007, incoming freshmen band members and their section leaders rehearsed the “Star-Spangled Banner”. Then, on Thursday, June 14, the THS freshmen band members performed our National Anthem at 10:00 a.m. CST to coincide with one of the Grand Finale Concerts taking place at the Washington Monument at that same time.

Inspiration for “The Star-Spangled Banner”: Washington attorney Francis Scott Key penned the song of our nation at a dramatic moment during the War of 1812. On the night of September 13, 1814, Key watched as our country was attacked by the British navy at Fort McHenry. After watching the rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air throughout the night, dawn broke. Key was expecting to find Baltimore firmly under British control, but was stunned to see a battered but still flying American flag waving in the sunrise. So inspired was Key that he wrote the poem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Set to a tune attributed to John Stafford Smith, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” it became America's national anthem in 1931.