AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Independence Day means different things to each of us. And on this 249th birthday for America, we're going to spend some time looking at different definitions of America by revisiting NPR's American Anthem series, which had the simple goal of telling 50 stories about 50 songs that have become galvanizing forces in American culture. We start with a song that many of you will probably remember from childhood.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing) This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. This little...
CHANG: Critic Eric Deggans looked at how the beloved children's song "This Little Light Of Mine" became a civil rights anthem.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) This little light of mine...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) I'm going to let it shine.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) I'm going to let it shine.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Sometimes, experts say, songs like "This Little Light Of Mine" start off as children's folk songs, which become spirituals sung everywhere from churches to prison work camps.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing) Everywhere I go, I'm going to let it shine.
DEGGANS: As the civil rights movement grew in the 1950s and '60s, singers changed the lyrics to reference their struggles. These new versions were known as freedom songs.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Singing) I've got the light of freedom. I'm going to let it shine.
DEGGANS: It might seem odd to call such an innocent-sounding song defiant, but that's exactly how blues singer Bettie Mae Fikes felt when she created her classic version of "This Little Light Of Mine" in 1963. She improvised the lyrics after a protest in which several of her friends had been attacked.
BETTIE MAE FIKES: And I'm thinking, you know, how is the light shine when they're trying to put our lights out? So everybody was taking verses. And in order to come in, I just went into the slave call. (Singing) Whoa.
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FIKES: (Singing) Whoa, tell Jim Clark that...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing) I'm going to let it shine.
FIKES: And all of a sudden, I just started adding our oppressors in the song - tell Jim Clark I'm going to let it shine.
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FIKES: (Singing) Tell Jim Clark...
And as I added my oppressors, here other people in the audience began to shout out, tell the KKK, tell our president. It was like being free.
DEGGANS: Still, one question persists. Why has "This Little Light Of Mine" survived for so long? Robert Darden, a professor at Baylor University, who's written about the song in at least two books, has a theory.
ROBERT DARDEN: If you've asked some of the survivors of the civil rights movement, as I did - survivors who sang these songs for protection and for courage - why "This Little Light Of Mine" survives and is still sung, they would look at me straight in the eye and say, because those songs are anointed. And as an academic, I have no way to refute that, nor do I want to.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Singing) This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
CHANG: That was Robert Darden talking to NPR's Eric Deggans about "This Little Light Of Mine."
The word anthem connotes something big - right? - something that unites listeners but also maybe something that challenges them. Aaron Copland's "Fanfare For The Common Man" was composed in 1942, and since then, it has been heard everywhere. NPR's Mandalit del Barco looked into why this song continues to command so much attention.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Aaron Copland began his fanfare with dramatic percussion.
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MANDALIT DEL BARCO: It heralds something big, exciting, heroic. Then simple trumpet notes ascend.
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TERENCE BLANCHARD: It's a piece that feels like it was written by God and not by a human.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Jazz trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard.
BLANCHARD: Whenever I hear it, it stops me in my tracks, and it makes me reflect on the goodness of man, really. And I know that sounds corny for some, but it really makes me think about, at the end of the day, you know, most people in this country are good, God-fearing people. Honestly, that could have been our national anthem (laughter). It has that type of spirit to it.
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MANDALIT DEL BARCO: By 1942, the U.S. had entered World War II, and composer Aaron Copland was inspired by a speech Vice President Henry A. Wallace gave to rally Americans.
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HENRY A WALLACE: Some have spoken of the American century. I say that the century on which we are entering, the century which will come into being after this war, can be and must be the century of the common man.
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MANDALIT DEL BARCO: And the common man deserved a fanfare, Copland once said, remarking, it was the common man, after all, who was doing all the dirty work in the war and the Army. NPR asked listeners to reflect on Aaron Copland's fanfare.
LYNN GILBERT: My name is Lynn Gilbert, and I live in Bristol, Maine. My career was in IT for a utility company. And in spite of the current political landscape, I guess I still believe that there is an American dream of peace and prosperity for everyone. And music that soars and inspires like this piece does brings hope for the future. It's powerful, it's direct, and it's really just American. I love it. Thank you, Aaron Copland.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: All of that in a piece that's under four minutes long.
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MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF AARON COPLAND'S "FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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