Between Gottschalk and South City Voices, I prefer the South City Voices version. Gottschalk takes his time to even introduce the melody of The Star-Spangled Banner in his piece, then continues after it ends. His version makes me feel as if the original song he was paying homage to was not important as his own composition. Meanwhile, the South City Voices version had creativity while keeping the melody almost entirely the same as the original song.
Moving on to Stravinsky’s version, it is clear within the first few notes that his composition changes the original melody considerably. The changes aren’t significant -he adds flats that weren’t originally in the piece- but the fact that Stravinsky’s composition opens with the same notes as The Star-Spangled Banner means the listener can think they are about to listen to the original song; when these changes are heard, it can’t be jarring and take them out of enjoying the piece.
I personally believe neither Stravinsky’s version nor Hendrix’s versions of The Star-Spangled Banner are offensive. While they are very different from the original composition, the skill with which these versions are played are impressive enough to make the changes okay. When they were originally played, however, it is understandable why people would be offended -people don’t always react well to change, especially when it involves something “sacred,” like a national anthem. While they may find fault with a guitar solo in the national anthem, I remain impressed that people can look at a piece of music and add their own personal touch to it.
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