Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten - straight up, no styling. ... Francis Scott Key does not need any help."
FSK didn't write the music. Just the words. He wrote a fine poem.
Musically, it's a wretched song. I wish we could replace it. I hate hearing it, especially when full of embellishments. And I always hated performing it. Like a lot of revered hynms of that period, you take some decent lyrics/poems and cram them into a drinking/bar tune (or a tune in the style of a tavern song), and today we act like St Peter himself penned some beautiful musical masterpiece........
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacreontic_Society
"While the society's membership, one observer noted, was dedicated to "wit, harmony, and the god of wine," their primary goal (beyond companionship and talk) was to promote an interest in music.... It soon became a popular drinking song on both sides of the Atlantic. But the melody, if not the original lyrics, would acquire even greater fame after Francis Scott Key, an attorney, wrote "Defence of Fort M'Henry""
-rvb
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