What so softly we hail...

On the SMT-List David Loberg Code comments on the different orchestration of the Star Spangled Banner being used at the Olympic games. He suggests that the soft strings and non-standard harmonization at "the bombs bursting in air" may be an attempt to portray a less aggressive or martial United States of America. He then asks what constitutes the official national anthem. Igor Stravinsky was arrested in Boston for desecrating a national treasure with icky modernist harmonies. Perhaps the Boston police will arrest the IOC next.