America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)

"America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)" is an American patriotic song, the lyrics of which were written by Samuel Francis Smith.[2] The melody used is the same as that of the national anthem of the United Kingdom, "God Save the Queen". The song served as one of the de facto national anthems of the United States (along with songs like "Hail, Columbia") before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the official U.S. national anthem in 1931.[3]

Sheet music[1]

History

Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics to "America" in 1831[4] while a student at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts. The church-music composer Lowell Mason, a friend, had asked him to translate the lyrics in some German school songbooks into English, or to write new lyrics for the same tunes. The "God Save the Queen" melody in Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3 (also called "The Great National", written as a tribute to Clementi's adopted country) caught Smith's attention at the time; rather than translating lyrics from the German, he wrote his own American patriotic hymn to the melody, completing the lyrics in thirty minutes.

Smith gave Mason the lyrics he had written, and the song was first performed in public on July 4, 1831,[4] at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston. The first publication of "America" was in 1832.[4]

Lyrics

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From ev'ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King!

Additional verse to celebrate Washington's Centennial:[5]

Our joyful hearts today,
Their grateful tribute pay,
Happy and free,
After our toils and fears,
After our blood and tears,
Strong with our hundred years,
O God, to Thee!

Abolitionist version

An Abolitionist version was written, by A. G. Duncan, 1843.[6]

My country, 'tis of thee,
Stronghold of slavery, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Where men man's rights deride,
From every mountainside thy deeds shall ring.

My native country, thee,
Where all men are born free, if white's their skin;
I love thy hills and dales,
Thy mounts and pleasant vales;
But hate thy negro sales, as foulest sin.

Let wailing swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees the black man's wrong;
Let every tongue awake;
Let bond and free partake;
Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our father's God! to thee,
Author of Liberty, to thee we sing;
Soon may our land be bright,
With holy freedom's right,
Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King.

It comes, the joyful day,
When tyranny's proud sway, stern as the grave,
Shall to the ground be hurl'd,
And freedom's flag, unfurl'd,
Shall wave throughout the world, O'er every slave.

Trump of glad jubilee!
Echo o'er land and sea freedom for all.
Let the glad tidings fly,
And every tribe reply,
"Glory to God on high", at Slavery's fall!

Notable performances
Aretha Franklin at the first inauguration of Barack Obama

See also

Other anthems set to the same music:

Organ variations by Charles Ives:

References
  1. Free scores of "My country, 'tis of thee" #16830 in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki), PDF
  2. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee". The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Archived from the original on 2014-12-07. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  3. Snyder, Lois Leo (1990). Encyclopedia of Nationalism. Paragon House. p. 13. ISBN 1-55778-167-2.
  4. Garraty, John A. & Carnes, Mark C., eds. (1999). American National Biography. 20. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 281.
  5. Andrews, E. Benjamin (1912). History of the United States. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  6. Jarius Lincoln, [ed.] Antislavery Melodies: for The Friends of Freedom. Prepared for the Hingham Antislavery Society. Words by A. G. Duncan. (Hingham, [Mass.]: Elijah B. Gill, 1843), Hymn 17 6s & 4s (Tune – "America") pp. 28–29.
    Some of these verses can be heard in the recording of the Arizona State University Antislavery Ensemble. "My Country ‘Tis of Thee" (Vimeo). Arizona State University – Department of English. March 1, 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2019..
  7. Wise, Robert. "West Side Story (1961 film) Part 3 Summary and Analysis | GradeSaver". www.gradesaver.com. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  8. Hansen, Drew D. (2003). The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York: Harper Collins. p. 83.
  9. Keveney, Bill (September 19, 2001). "Audience identifies with low-key Leno". USA Today. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  10. "Was God Save the Queen played at John McCain's funeral?". BBC News. 1 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  11. Art For Freedom. "Art For Freedom". Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  12. Dan Berggren (2004). "From Every Mountainside". soundcloud.com.

Bibliography
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