Works for Wind Ensemble by Composer-in-Residence John Gibson
“American Anthem” comes out of a crisis we faced as a nation. In the summer of 2001 I was commissioned to write a piece for the Texas Wind Symphony (the Fort Worth version of the Dallas Winds, with many of the same musicians). I began to work on it in September, the BAM! 9/11 happened. We were all in shock, but I was gratified to see the US pull together in remarkable ways, at least for a little bit.
Among the odd things that happened musically – and there was a lot happening musically – was the movement to adopt “God Bless America” as the national anthem, replacing “The Star Spangled Banner.” In fact, during that time the only time I ever heard the SSB was at a Dallas Winds concert a week after 9/11. When the group played it, as they do at every concert, and you could not hear the band for the volume of the audience singing. It was incredible.
As I began to work on the commission, that experience of the audience singing after such a horrible event began to haunt me. I could not get the motives of the SSB out of my head, and they were showing up in everything I was trying to write. Among other secrets composers keep, is the fact that there are “sacred cows” pieces which NO ONE wants to touch. The fear is, you just can’t make them better, and you are violating some commandment by even trying. Maybe the most sacred of all tunes in America is the Star Spangled Banner. I was in BIG trouble, because the SSB was blocking out everything else for me.
So… I just embraced it, thinking I could do a piece to purge the SSB, put it in a drawer and start over on the commission. But, as I began to incorporate the motives, celebrate them, if you will, something really new began to happen. “American Anthem” is not an arrangement of the SSB, but it is a piece laced with the motives drawn from it.
As I completed work on “American Anthem,” Dana’s father died. He was great musician – a professional jazz saxophonist – and World War II veteran and loved his country. And, he was a wonderful mentor for me – a father figure I had not ever had. So the piece is dedicated to him in celebration of his life.