John Stafford Smith

John Stafford Smith (30 March 1750 – 21 September 1836) was a British composer, church organist, and early musicologist. He was one of the first serious collectors of manuscripts of works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Stafford Smith is best known for writing the music for "The Anacreontic Song", which became the tune for the American patriotic song The Star-Spangled Banner following the War of 1812, and in 1931 was adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America.

Read more about John Stafford Smith:  Life, American National Anthem, Luxembourg National Anthem

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