The Star Spangled Banner

German-born Theodore Moses Tobani was a composer arranger and violinist mostly in Philadelphia. He is said to have composed more than 550 pieces and made over 4500 arrangements. At times he used various pseudonyms such as Florence Reed, Andrew Herman and Theodore Moses under which many of his works were published. This version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was the encore piece of a work he called "Grand American Fantasia" a medley of American songs that was first published in 1906 (when The Banner was still referred to as the unofficial American hymn.) In his arrangement Moses-Tobani wrote (what I call) flying woodwinds--the flutes and clarinets are racing through the skies while the rest of the band plays their boring parts. The words to The Banner are from the poem Defense of Ft. McHenry by Francis Scott Key; the music is derived from "To Anacreon in Heaven" a popular British and American pub song by John Stafford Smith.