But as the project began to unfold, I realized that I also wanted - and needed - to transform the words as well. As I began, I felt that I wanted to give the old words a new melody, even though I am quite fond of the original melody by Samuel A. This re-imagined America the Beautiful began as a work for TTBB choir that eventually outgrew itself and morphed into a full SATB anthem. Peace Pilgrim’s Prayer (PEACE Collection).Oh how lovely is the evening (PEACE Collection).Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes (PEACE Collection).All Through the Night (PEACE Collection).SONGS OF ASCENT: 9a “I will lift up mine eyes” & 9b “They that sow in tears”. SONGS OF ASCENT: 7 “Many a time have they afflicted me”.SONGS OF ASCENT: 6 “In my distress I cried unto the Lord”.SONGS OF ASCENT: 5 “If it had not been the Lord”.SONGS OF ASCENT: 4a “Except the Lord” 4b “Blessed is everyone”.SONGS OF ASCENT: 3 “Lord, my heart is not haughty”.SONGS OF ASCENT: 10a “Behold, how good” & 10b “Behold, bless ye the Lord”.SONGS OF ASCENT: 1 “Lord, remember David”.Piping Down the Valleys Wild (Songs of Innocence).On Another’s Sorrow (Songs of Innocence).INSCAPES: IV ‘As kingfishers catch fire’.BEHOLD NEW JOY: Ancient Carols of Christmas.Psalm 139 (O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me).Peace Pilgrim’s Prayer (“Peace, be still”).My Feet Are Tired, But My Soul is Resting.Lord, Don’t Move the Mountain (available soon).Here’s the earliest first verse:Īnd here are the lyrics as we know them today:Ĭroon your way to the patriotic top with these forgotten verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner.Compositions » SATB Folk/Americana » America the Beautiful The original poem published in 1895 was a little different than the one we’re familiar with today. The lines “O beautiful for pilgrim feet / Whose stern, impassioned stress” recall the history of Europeans landing in Massachusetts, while the stanza beginning “O beautiful for heroes proved / In liberating strife” references the country’s soldiers “Who more than self their country loved.” Which lyrics have changed over time? The line “thine alabaster cities gleam” is a reference to the buildings she witnessed at the World’s Columbian Exposition (alabaster is a type of white rock often used for ornamental carvings).įrequent references to God show Bates’s strong religious beliefs. The man-made aspects of the country inspired Bates as well. The “amber fields of grain” in the Midwest, for example, and the “purple mountain majesties” that she viewed from her perch on Pikes Peak. What inspired the lyrics to “America the Beautiful”?īates drew from what she saw in Massachusetts, Colorado, and everything in between to write her poem. The accompaniment stuck, and that version is the one Americans know and love today. Ward’s 1882 hymn “Materna” (also known as “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem”). She self edited once again in 1910, and changed the title to “America the Beautiful.” Bates tweaked the lyrics a bit to add the lines “And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea” in 1904, and the poem was republished in the Boston Evening Transcript. The poem wasn’t yet set to music, but by some accounts, as many as 75 song versions existed by 1900. Two years later, in 1895, a religious Boston weekly newspaper called The Congregationalist published the poem under the title “America.” Fittingly, it was published on July 4. The views were, and are, expansive-you can see Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Kansas from the mountain top on a clear day.īates later wrote in her diary that the view showed “the sea-like expanse of fertile country,” and that “all the wonder of America seemed displayed there.” Her experiences inspired her to write a poem called “Pikes Peak” before she left Colorado. Toward the end of her class, Bates took a wagon more than 14,000 feet up to the top of nearby Pikes Peak on the front range of the Rocky Mountains. The exploration didn’t stop once she arrived in Colorado. Her cross-country travels took her through much of the heartland in the Midwest, as well as the World’s Columbian Exposition happening in Chicago that year. In 1893, Bates, a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, went to Colorado Springs to teach a summer class on Chaucer. The song promotes the idea of a bountiful country with spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains majesty, and a fruited plain.īut do you know which scenic lands inspired author Katharine Lee Bates to write the immediately popular lyrics? Or, for that matter, what Bates meant by “ alabaster cities”? The origin of “America the Beautiful” “America the Beautiful” isn’t the United States’s national anthem (that honor goes to “The Star-Spangled Banner”), but it’s arguably just as well loved.
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