Music has played a role and still plays a role in arousing patriotic feelings. From the earliest days of our existence until the present, music has played its patriotic way into our hearts.
“Yankee Doodle” is probably the first we come to know as youth. Built on an older tune of multitudinous cultural origins, the Americans turned a derogatory term (Yankee) into a matter of national pride. It gibes the Rococo fashions of its time, which are lost on us today. Additional verses have come into being as time has passed.
The hymn “Chester” popularized the independence-minded theology of the Revolutionary period. “Let tyrants shake their iron rods … New England’s God forever reigns.” Original verses challenge various British overlords to rile the people into the cause of freedom. Post-war use of the hymn has found other ways to use the melody with less incendiary words.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” was a poem which was eventually set to the song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a popular drinking song of the time. It was not until 1931 that this was set as our National Anthem. Prior to that, it shared that distinction with several other unofficial anthems. My favorite verse is not the one we hear often:
“O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blessed with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that has made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.
And this be our motto: In God is our trust.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
An unofficial anthem was stolen from the British. “God Save the King/Queen” became “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” with the tune simplified and renamed “America.” Again, this is a tune we learn relatively young in life to enable us to stir patriotic themes in our lives.
Another unofficial anthem was “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.” It rivals the English “Brittania, the Pride of the Ocean” as research has not agreed on which came first. Although I learned this song early in life, one rarely hears it today. Its most common use anymore might be the closing phrase used in Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” a play set in 1912 when the song would have been at the height of its glory.
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” stirs many a heart in patriotic fervor. I love that the Iowa All-State Choir and either the band or orchestra use Peter Wilhousky’s version to close their annual concert. This stirs my heart still; and how many of us who have sung it need no music once we’ve memorized it?
Speaking of All-State, the concert always starts with the next unofficial anthem, “America the Beautiful.” They alternate from year to year whether they do the Carmen Dragon or the Alice Jordan arrangement. Alice Jordan was an Iowan and a teacher to several musicians in our area who passed though Des Moines.
The song many people think should have become our national anthem was written during World War I and revised by the composer prior to World War II. Popularized by Kate Smith, “God Bless America” never fails to stir hearts into patriotic fervor. And how many of like to emulate Kate and go for that final note in the upper part of our registers?
The most modern patriotic song is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Written and recorded in 1984, it hit a resurgence in popularity after the 9/11 attacks on our nation.
I have tried to be as chronological as I could in presenting these. It is time for a new generation to give us their take on American pride. What song will emerge as a patriotic ensign for future generations to remember us by?
Richard Tiegs writes from the comfort of his easy chair in Coralville.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: A survey of American patriotic music | Music Column
Reporting by Richard Tiegs / Iowa City Press-Citizen
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