Book Board Chat

I had a grammar school principal who insisted that when people sang "The Star Spangled Banner they did it incorrectly. He believed that when it came to the word "banner" they would sing "ban-" and "-ner' on the same note but "-ner" was written as a higher note than "ban-". (Two notes higher actually.) I don't know where he got that idea. When I hear it sung, people always, as far as I can tell, sing it correctly, higher on "-ner". He would stand in front of the class and when it came to "-ner" he would rise up on his toes and thrust his right hand fingers into the air to get the singers to raise the note higher. It worked. The students would scream "-ner" several notes higher than written and louder than it should be causing listeners to look at each other wondering what was that all about. They named a school after him.