Then Sings My Soul Saturday - Patriotic

My heart is always stirred by the music associated with 4th of July celebrations. One of my favorites has always been America the Beautiful. It is such a wonderful expression of the beauty of our country and the sacrifices made by our founding fathers and those who have battled for its freedoms.

But this national hymn does more than inspire us to praise our great nation. It also encourages us to pray for it. Each stanza is completed with an earnest plea for God's grace, God's healing, and His refining until we as a people achieve true brotherhood, law-abiding control, and nobility.

The author felt deeply about the message of her patriotic hymn:

We must match the greatness of our country with the goodness of personal godly living. If only we could couple the daring of the Pilgrims with the moral teachings of Moses, we would have something in this country that no one could ever take away from us.

Katherine Lee Bates, who was a teacher and head of the English department at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, wrote the original lines of this text in 1893, while teaching summer school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains and Pike's Peak had especially impressed her.

Source:Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth Osbeck, 2002

Although it quickly became popular with all who heard it, it would be several years before the poem found its musical match:

The Congregationalist opted to publish her "America, the Beautiful," in its July 4, 1895 edition. Most magazines at that time published poetry, but few of those poems have made any lasting impact. This poem generated hundreds of letters of response from readers. One man sent the Congregationalist a melody he had written to go with the poem.

Other magazines and newspapers from all over the United States reprinted the poem, inspiring more musicians to write melodies. By 1900 there were at least 75 different tunes for the poem, but none had any staying power. It seemed the poem was more powerful read than sung.

However, in 1904 a Baptist preacher, Clarence A. Barbour determined that words so spiritual and inspired needed a tune that was also inspired, not simply written. He turned to his library of Christian songbooks to find a melody that would fit. He found Samuel Ward’s hymn tune MATERNA and realized he had found it. It was as though they had been written at the same time and inspired by the same vision.

Miss Bates lived long enough to see her poem become the best-loved patriotic hymn. Few people know, however, that she did not make a single claim for song royalties, nor did Samuel Ward’s family, for the use of his tune. They each felt the song was inspired by God and therefore a gift from God to America.

Source: SongsandHymns.org

Yesterday I posted the Gaither Vocal Band singing this song. I also love Larnelle Harris' version here. I love his comments before he sings.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, T
hy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

Words: Katherine Lee Bates, 1913 (final revision)
Music: Samuel Ward, 1882

Be sure to visit Amy's blog for more wonderful songs!