I have always felt that my intended destiny was to be a composer of classical music. But in the Depression it was easy to see who was out of work and I abandoned any consideration of music as a career. I first wanted to be an aeronautical engineer, but after flying 94 missions of straffing and divebombing in WWII that did not intrigue me as much as it had and I became a chemist.
      I had always despised the terrible arrangement one heard of the Star Spangl'd Banner. I believe at the time, it was illegal to make an arrangment of it other than the "official" one. As a matter of fact I remember hearing that Cab Calloway was actually put in jail for doing it in the middle thirties. But I went ahead and arranged it for 7 part chorus.

      I never heard it sung for 60 years.

      In the year 2000, I was going through some old papers when I encountered the arrangement. So I worked up a set of parts and contacted the Music Director at the San Luis High School, Mr. Gary Lamprecht. I have unbounded respect for him as a choral director. I even joined his "professional" chorus, the Vocal Arts Ensemble, until I realised I no longer had the vocal endurance that would be required and I resigned, with great regret.
      My daughter had been very active in high school as a member of the band as a flutist (and piccolo, of course). She was in the choir and in the smaller and favored group, the Stage Choir! So he knew me. I approached him with the arrangement and gave him an abbreviated form of this explanation. I then offered a $100 donation to his choir fund if he would have the chorus rehearse the arrangement and when he felt it was somewhat presentable to make an audio tape of it for me. He agreed.
      Later, in the spring, he invited me to the Parents' night function they have every spring for awards etc. I came and sat in the front row. As the program opened, the 100 voice choir filed out on the stage and after a small introduction, they sang it. It was quite an emotional thing for me. I had not heard it in the sixty years since I made the arrangement.
      They did quite a good job of it and he gave me a tape. But the large chorus had a number of less experienced choral singers and some of the internal moving parts were not as clear as I might have liked them to be. But I want to emphasize what a wonderful gift this was for me.

      Several years later, I struck up a conversation with another fellow traveler in the terminal at San Francisco, waiting for my ride to San Luis Obispo. Lo and Behold! He was the choral director at Cuesta College, a junior college in San Luis Obispo. So, yes, I had to bring this arrangement up. He seemed quite proud of his chorus. It was quite small, perhaps 25 and he could be a lot more selective in choosing the members. So it is no surprise that it was closer to being a professional choir than the maximum participation choir of the high school. I say again, I will always have great appreciation for what Mr. Lamprecht did for me.       Mr. Knutson did it and invited me out to several rehearsals. He finally recorded it, then took it into his editing room and massaged it into the form you will hear here. And then he gave me a CD.
      They did a beautiful job and I play it every so often, much to the dismay of my wife, I suspect. After my quintuple bypass last December I had to do a certain amount of walking every day. Due to the inclement weather, I had to do the walking inside my home. As an encouragement to me, as I was pacing back and forth from the TV room to the bedroom and back, I would hit the button on my boombox as I passed. It took about four renditions to complete my appointed rounds. My wife was glad to see me doing my thing and she tolerated the patriotic obligato.
      I present it here and hope you enjoy it.

Star Spangl'd Banner