TAKE FIVE: ‘STAR SPANGLED SPECTACULAR’

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

What: "Star Spangled Spectacular" with the Las Vegas Philharmonic

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Hills Park in Summerlin, Hillpointe and Rampart roads

Admission: $20 for ages 6-12, $25 for ages 13 and older, $100 for VIP tickets, $5 added for tickets purchased at the gate; 895-2787

Nineteenth-century America saw plenty of change and growth on the heels of our independence from Britain. Americans laid railroad, built scholarly institutions, struggled with race relations, discovered gold and silver, fought in a civil war and struggled for women's right to vote. The century delivered some of the most impassioned and popular love songs about America's bravery, burdens and struggles. The Las Vegas Philharmonic, under the new leadership of David Itkin, will celebrate the symphonic patriotism Wednesday in its annual "Star Spangled Spectacular," complete with fireworks by Zambelli.

We look at the patriotic gems:

1. Mine eyes have seen the glory

Writer, suffragist, education reformer, peace advocate and poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" while visiting a Union camp during the Civil War. The first version, which ran in the Atlantic Monthly, proved to be less poetic than her revised effort , with surging stanzas we know today. Good thing the self-taught heiress went against her father's wishes and pursued her intellectual ambitions.

2. Spiritual

"When the Saints Go Marching In" is a celebrated gospel hymn and a New Orleans funeral procession staple. But origins of this traditional American spiritual remain unknown, except that its roots go back to black America in the 1890s.

3. National march

After his failed attempt to run away with a circus band at age 13, John Philip Sousa was enlisted in the Marines by his father. Musically, it was a perfect fit. A musician since childhood, Sousa wrote his first composition before age 20 and led the Marine band. He was a civilian band leader vacationing in Europe when he learned that his promoter had died. His response to the news was to write "Stars and Stripes Forever" on Christmas Day 1896.

4. Oh, say can you see?

Author, poet and lawyer Francis Scott Key scribbled notes after watching the British attack Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. He turned the notes into a poem titled , "The Defense of Fort McHenry," which was set to the music of "To Anacreon in Heaven" and renamed " The Star - Spangled Banner." Key watched the attack with American Prisoner Exchange agent John Skinner and a hostage they just rescued. Miraculously, the flag survived the attack.

5. Great White Way

What could be more American than Broadway? The orchestra launches into a selection that includes Frank Loesser's "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from "Guys and Dolls," John Kander's "A Bit of Earth" from "The Secret Garden," Lerner and Lowe's "I Could Have Danced All Night" from "My Fair Lady , " and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "If I Loved You" from "Carousel" and "People Say We're in Love" from "Oklahoma." The show tunes will sung by tenor Ted Keegan and soprano Elizabeth Loyacano.