On America’s 249th birthday, we take a look at the completely different definitions of America by revisiting NPR’s American Anthem sequence.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Independence Day means various things to every of us. And on this 249th birthday for America, we’ll spend a while taking a look at completely different definitions of America by revisiting NPR’s American Anthem sequence, which had the straightforward purpose of telling 50 tales about 50 songs which have change into galvanizing forces in American tradition. We begin with a music that a lot of you’ll in all probability bear in mind from childhood.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing) This little gentle of mine, I’ll let it shine. This little…
CHANG: Critic Eric Deggans checked out how the beloved youngsters’s music “This Little Mild Of Mine” turned a civil rights anthem.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) This little gentle of mine…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) I’ll let it shine.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) I’ll let it shine.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Typically, consultants say, songs like “This Little Mild Of Mine” begin off as youngsters’s people songs, which change into spirituals sung all over the place from church buildings to jail work camps.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing) In all places I am going, I’ll let it shine.
DEGGANS: Because the civil rights motion grew within the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s, singers modified the lyrics to reference their struggles. These new variations had been often called freedom songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Singing) I’ve acquired the sunshine of freedom. I’ll let it shine.
DEGGANS: It might sound odd to name such an innocent-sounding music defiant, however that is precisely how blues singer Bettie Mae Fikes felt when she created her traditional model of “This Little Mild Of Mine” in 1963. She improvised the lyrics after a protest through which a number of of her mates had been attacked.
BETTIE MAE FIKES: And I am pondering, you recognize, how is the sunshine shine once they’re making an attempt to place our lights out? So everyone was taking verses. And so as to are available, I simply went into the slave name. (Singing) Whoa.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE”)
FIKES: (Singing) Whoa, inform Jim Clark that…
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing) I’ll let it shine.
FIKES: And swiftly, I simply began including our oppressors within the music – inform Jim Clark I’ll let it shine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE”)
FIKES: (Singing) Inform Jim Clark…
And as I added my oppressors, right here different folks within the viewers started to shout out, inform the KKK, inform our president. It was like being free.
DEGGANS: Nonetheless, one query persists. Why has “This Little Mild Of Mine” survived for thus lengthy? Robert Darden, a professor at Baylor College, who’s written in regards to the music in at the least two books, has a concept.
ROBERT DARDEN: In the event you’ve requested a number of the survivors of the civil rights motion, as I did – survivors who sang these songs for cover and for braveness – why “This Little Mild Of Mine” survives and remains to be sung, they might take a look at me straight within the eye and say, as a result of these songs are anointed. And as an educational, I’ve no technique to refute that, nor do I need to.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Singing) This little gentle of mine, I’ll let it shine.
CHANG: That was Robert Darden speaking to NPR’s Eric Deggans about “This Little Mild Of Mine.”
The phrase anthem connotes one thing large – proper? – one thing that unites listeners but additionally possibly one thing that challenges them. Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare For The Widespread Man” was composed in 1942, and since then, it has been heard all over the place. NPR’s Mandalit del Barco regarded into why this music continues to command a lot consideration.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Aaron Copland started his fanfare with dramatic percussion.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF AARON COPLAND’S “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: It heralds one thing large, thrilling, heroic. Then easy trumpet notes ascend.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF AARON COPLAND’S “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)
TERENCE BLANCHARD: It is a piece that feels prefer it was written by God and never by a human.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Jazz trumpet participant and composer Terence Blanchard.
BLANCHARD: Every time I hear it, it stops me in my tracks, and it makes me replicate on the goodness of man, actually. And I do know that sounds corny for some, nevertheless it actually makes me take into consideration, on the finish of the day, you recognize, most individuals on this nation are good, God-fearing folks. Actually, that might have been our nationwide anthem (laughter). It has that kind of spirit to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF AARON COPLAND’S “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: By 1942, the U.S. had entered World Conflict II, and composer Aaron Copland was impressed by a speech Vice President Henry A. Wallace gave to rally Individuals.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HENRY A WALLACE: Some have spoken of the American century. I say that the century on which we’re getting into, the century which is able to come into being after this warfare, might be and should be the century of the widespread man.
(APPLAUSE)
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: And the widespread man deserved a fanfare, Copland as soon as stated, remarking, it was the widespread man, in spite of everything, who was doing all of the soiled work within the warfare and the Military. NPR requested listeners to replicate on Aaron Copland’s fanfare.
LYNN GILBERT: My identify is Lynn Gilbert, and I reside in Bristol, Maine. My profession was in IT for a utility firm. And in spite of the present political panorama, I assume I nonetheless imagine that there’s an American dream of peace and prosperity for everybody. And music that soars and conjures up like this piece does brings hope for the longer term. It is highly effective, it is direct, and it is actually simply American. I like it. Thanks, Aaron Copland.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: All of that in a bit that is underneath 4 minutes lengthy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF AARON COPLAND’S “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF AARON COPLAND’S “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts could fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
