VI
A type of folk-song that is as often appropriated as it is indigenous is the patriotic song. It can be called a folk-song only in the sense that the people sing it, though in a measure it must reflect the character of the people—in a measure only, for one nation is very much like the other when fired by patriotism. Almost invariably, however, such songs are created at times of national stress, when feelings run high and poetic outbursts come from unexpected quarters. Such are the circumstances under which nearly all patriotic songs were created, 'Yankee Doodle,' 'Hail Columbia,' 'The Star Spangled Banner,' 'John Brown,' and 'Marching Through Georgia' included. Some, like 'Dixie,' became patriotic unintentionally, so to speak, and some, like 'America,' were simply applications of foreign tunes to native words.
The earliest American patriotic song, dating from colonial days, was a 'Liberty Song,' the words of which were written by Mrs. Mercy Warren, the wife of Mr. James Warren, of Plymouth. The verses were as amateurish as the music is angular and bombastic. It was advertised in the 'Boston Chronicle' in 1768. Both the advertisement and the song are reproduced in Elson's 'History of American Music' (pp. 140 ff.). The patriotism reflected in the song is that of the Colonial:
'This bumper I crown for our sovereign's health:
And this for Britannia's glory and wealth.
That wealth and that glory immortal may be
If she is but just and we are but free.'
But after 1770 a new version appeared:
'Come swallow your bumpers, ye Tories and roar,
That the sons of fair freedom are hampered once more,
But know that no cut-throats our spirits can tame,
Nor a host of oppressors shall smother the flame.'
After the storm thus foreboded broke loose, the 'Liberty Song' hardly sufficed to express people's feelings, but there was nothing to take its place. To be sure, in William Billings' 'Singing Master's Assistant' there were printed two war songs that became very popular, especially the one for which Billings himself composed the words and set them to his favorite tune, 'Chester':
'Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And slavery clank her galling chains,
We'll fear them not, we'll trust in God;
New England's God forever reigns,' etc., etc.
'The enthusiasm with which Billings sang and taught these songs communicated itself to the people, even to those who in the prejudice of their time had strenuously opposed singing in the churches, but no one could doubt the composer's sincere patriotism.'[81] Then there were some stanzas, set to an old Scotch tune and sung by the Pennsylvania regiments during the Revolution, and a convivial soldiers' song, 'The Volunteer Boys,' that was composed by Henry Archer, an Englishman, in 1778, and widely sung. But the one revolutionary tune that has survived was, strange enough, originally a song of derision aimed at the American troops by the British. That tune is 'Yankee Doodle.' 'Yankee,' the term still applied to Americans in general by Europeans, but by Americans to New Englanders in particular, has a doubtful etymology. There is an Indian word 'yankoos,' which means invincible, and a Cherokee word, 'eankke,' signifying coward or slave; 'kanokie,' or silent man, was the name applied to Connecticut settlers by the natives—according to 'Diedrich Knickerbocker'—and, finally, there is 'yengeese,' an Indian corruption of 'English'—all possible roots of the word. There are other plausible derivations, including one from the Norwegian and others from the Scotch. The word 'doodle,' too, has a Scotch meaning—'dudeln,' to play music. For the origin of the combination 'Yankee Doodle,' there are, as Mr. Sonneck puts it, 'whole genealogies of theories.' Probably the words were not used before 1700. The first known mention of the song so entitled is in a letter of April 26, 1776, in which it is called 'a song composed in derision of New Englanders, scornfully called Yankees.'
Many theories there are also regarding the origin of the tune. Most of them, including the well-known story of a British officer having composed it during the Revolution, are impossible, while the claim of Dr. Richard Schuchburgh[82] as its composer (at Albany in 1755) is very doubtful. It is said to have been played by a fife-major of the Grenadier Guards in 1750 as a march, and a tune at least similar to it is supposed to have been familiar to the English peasantry previous to the time of Charles I. Whatever its origin, it was played by the Americans at Burgoyne's surrender (Saratoga, 1777) and again at the surrender of Yorktown, at the instance of Lafayette, who probably intended it as a taunt. It was recognized officially as an American national song at the signing of the treaty of Ghent (1814), when the Flemish burghers serenaded the American ambassadors with the tune, having learned it from Henry Clay's servant!
'America,' sung to the same tune as 'God Save the King'—a tune that has been variously appropriated by other nations—had its American origin in the Park Street Church, Boston, the words being written for a children's celebration held on July 4, 1832, by the Rev. Samuel F. Smith, a young theological student. Before this, however, the tune had done service at different times for 'God Save America,' 'God Save George Washington,' and what not. The origin of the melody, like that of many other good tunes, is shrouded in mystery. It is generally attributed to Dr. John Bull (b. 1563), who is supposed to have written it for a banquet given to James I in 1607. But Mr. Sonneck remarks that 'with such arguments [as Mr. Elson's comparisons] the main theme of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony would become very close to being inspired by 'Yankee Doodle.'[83] After citing many theories Mr. Elson remarks that 'there seems, however, scarcely a doubt that Henry Carey, the composer of "Sally in Our Alley," the unfortunate genius who commited suicide after a blameless life of eighty years, with a single half-penny in his pocket [in the year 1740], was the author and composer of the great anthem.'
Joseph Hopkinson (1770-1842), in a letter of August 24, 1840, throws light on the origin of 'Hail Columbia,' another popular American patriotic song. It was, according to him, originally a political song rather than a national one. The tune is that of the old 'President's March,' a leading work in the early American répertoire, composed, some say, by Johannes Roth, a German musician of Philadelphia, popularly known as 'Old Roth,' in 1689, but more probably by a certain Pheil, to whom it is attributed in a copy of the year 1793, in the possession of the Library of Congress.[84] In 1798 Hopkinson wrote new words for it, which were a glorification of President Adams and Federalism. Sung by Hopkinson's friend, Gilbert Fox, an actor, at a benefit performance, it roused great enthusiasm and the audience joined in the chorus. But the 'Aurora' of April 27,1798, called it 'a most ridiculous bombast and the vilest adulation of the Anglo-monarchical party.' Since its use as a Federal song 'Hail Columbia' has undergone a considerable process of polishing, but its erstwhile popularity has not by any means worn off.
'The Star Spangled Banner,' because of its exclusive use and its inherent musical strength universally recognized as the 'National Anthem' of America, is, like its brothers, an imported article. The tune is that of an old English drinking song, 'To Anacreon in Heaven,' written by the president of the Anacreontic Society in London about 1770-75. The music is, in all likelihood, by John Stafford Smith (1750-1836), also a member of the society and author of the Musica Antiqua (1832). Its American use dates from 1798, when Robert Treat Paine, whose real name was Thomas Paine, but who objected to being confused with the 'atheist' Paine, adopted it to words of his own, under the title of 'Adams and Liberty, the Boston Patriotic Song.' Other versions, such as 'Jefferson and Liberty,' appeared for various occasions, one even to celebrate the Russian victory over Napoleon! But the real version, the one we know to-day, was born during the War of 1812 under conditions which fire the patriot's imagination.
The story is well known. Francis Scott Key, the author of the words, was sent to the British Fleet in Chesapeake Bay as the envoy of President Madison to request the release of a non-combatant citizen held as prisoner. As the bombardment of Fort Henry was to take place that day, the British commander retained Key till there was no fear of divulging the British plans. On the morning of Sept 14th, after a night of bombardment, the anxious envoy looked toward the fort and there saw the flag of his country still flying proudly over the battlements. Inspired by the sight, he wrote the first stanza on the back of an old letter:
'O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof, through the night, that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?'
On the return to Baltimore he wrote the remaining stanzas and the poem appeared in the Baltimore 'American' of September 21, 1814, as a 'broadside.' The stirring measures of the song have never lost their hold on the American people, and the piece has taken its place among the great national anthems of the world.
The next national song, in chronological order, is the popular 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean' ('The Red, White and Blue'). Its history is not so romantic. Thomas à Becket, an English actor in 1843, playing at that time in Philadelphia, wrote both the verses and the music, after rejecting a set of verses written by David T. Shaw, a singer then appearing at the 'Museum,' also in Philadelphia. It first appeared, however, as the work of Shaw—until à Becket convinced the publisher of his authorship—after which it was so published, with the inscription 'Sung by D. T. Shaw.' When the author of the song visited England in 1847 he found the song already 'naturalized' as 'Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean,' and it has since become a favorite of the British army and navy.
The national song répertoire received no further notable accessions till the Civil War, a period terrible and wonderful, that called forth expressions of exalted feeling on both sides of the struggle, North and South. 'The Star Spangled Banner' was at first claimed by both sides. But all attempts to adapt the song by the addition of new verses seem to have failed. The South found an early substitute in such songs as 'Maryland, My Maryland,' which James Ryder Randall wrote to suit the melody of the old German folk-tune O Tannenbaum. The occasion for this effusion was the attack on the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment while marching through Baltimore.
Of all the other Southern war songs only one has survived, and that was of Northern origin. 'Dixie's Land' was, we have already seen, originally a 'walk-around' dance, written for Bryant's Minstrels by one of their number, Dan Emmett. There has been so much discussion of the circumstances of its birth that it may be well to quote an eye-witness, so to speak, namely, Charley White, the minstrel, whose diary has already furnished us with some facts:
'One Saturday night in 1859, when Dan Emmett was a member of Bryant's Minstrels at Mechanics' Hall, New York, Dan [Bryant] said to Emmett: "Can't you get us up a walk-around dance? I want something new and lively for next Monday night." At that date, and for a long time after, minstrel shows used to finish up the evening performance with a walk-around dance, in which the whole company would participate. The demand for this especial material was constant, and Dan Emmett was the principal composer of all, especially for the Bryant Minstrels. Emmett, of course, went to work, and, as he had done so much in that line of composition, he was not long in finding something suitable. At last he hit upon the first two bars, and any composer can tell you how good a start that is in the manufacture of a melody. The next day, Sunday, he had the words commencing "I wish I was in Dixie." This colloquial expression is not, as most people suppose, a Southern phrase, but first appeared among the circus men in the North. In early fall, when nipping frost would overtake the tented wanderers, the boys would think of the genial warmth of the section they were heading for and the common expression would be, "Well, I wish I was in Dixie." This gave the title or catch line; the rest of the song was original. On Monday morning the song was rehearsed and highly recommended, and at night, as usual, the house was crowded and many of the auditors went home singing "Dixie." The song soon became the rage and several other minstrel organizations ... applied to Emmett for copy and privilege of using it.... Not only was Emmett robbed of the copyright, but the authorship of it was disputed as well.'
In secession days the song was branded in the North as a Rebel song, and a Maine editor attacked Emmett as a Secessionist. It next bobbed up in New Orleans in 1861 as a 'Zouave march' in 'Pocahontas,' appropriated for the occasion by Carlo Patti, the brother of the prima donna, who acted as conductor. When the war broke out, the Washington Artillery had it arranged as a quick-step and soon 'saloons, parlors, and the streets rang with the Dixie air.' The contagious nature of the tune easily accounts for its rapid spread and ultimate universal popularity. It is undoubtedly the most original of all American national songs.
Turning to the North, the first tune we meet is the famous 'John Brown's Body,' one of the most stirring marching songs ever written, a favorite among soldiers the world over. Its origin is humble—a camp-meeting song among many, sung by the negroes in the South years before the War, to religious words. It may be, indeed, a negro folk-song, though its authorship is claimed for William Steffe, a composer of Sunday-school music. It was started on its patriotic career by the 'Tigers,' a battalion in the 12th Massachusetts Regiment. The words 'Say, brothers, will you meet us?' were taken from the lips of recruits by Captain Hallgreen, the author of the poem. John Brown, the hero of the song, was not the John Brown of Harper's Ferry, but a good-natured Scotchman, who was the subject of a current joke among the men. The words were prophetic, for John Brown of the 'Tigers' lost his life during a retreat of the Union forces. All attempts of the superior officers to substitute a name with more dignity and fame miscarried, and John Brown was made immortal by his fellows. The 'Twelfth' sang the song from city to city and the swing of it set people wild. Later, when heard in camp, the tune appealed so strongly to James Freeman Clarke, that he induced Julia Ward Howe to dignify it with more serious words. 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' was the result.
A composer whose Civil War songs achieved almost the rank of national songs is George F. Root (1820-1895). His 'Battle Cry of Freedom,' 'Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching,' and 'Just Before the Battle, Mother' became favorites during the war and have enjoyed an afterglow of popularity since. Dr. Root was an exponent of the Lowell Mason system,[85] and was a convention leader who had followed Mason in his method of diffusing music among the masses. He was a pupil of George J. Webb and also pursued the study of his art in Paris.
As a final word we must recall Henry Clay Work's 'Marching through Georgia,' which is perhaps the best of the tunes written expressly as war songs. It is a stirring melody with all the qualities of a national anthem, though unfortunately its partisan inspiration and associations will not allow it to be such. There is nothing to record in the way of patriotic songs since the stormy days of the Civil War. Peaceful times have turned composers' attention elsewhere, and progress in the higher forms of art music has gone on apace. Accordingly, it now becomes our duty to record the achievements of American musicians in the field of conscious creative endeavor.
C. S.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] 'Nationalism in Music,' in 'The International,' Dec., 1913.
[61] H. E. Krehbiel, 'Afro-American Folksongs,' 1914.
[62] H. E. Krehbiel, op. cit.
[63] Richard Wallaschek: 'Primitive Music,' London, 1893.
[64] 'Slave Songs of the United States,' New York, 1867.
[65] 'Ten Years in South Africa.'
[66] H. E. Krehbiel, op. cit.
[67] In the collection entitled 'Jubilee and Plantation Songs' (Oliver Ditson, 1887) the melody only is given. Mr. Krehbiel gives two harmonizations, but it is a question whether they are satisfactory reproductions of the 'native' spirit of the song. Mr. Henry F. Gilbert has used it in his 'Negro Rhapsody' with most telling effect.
[68] For an example of a pentatonic melody we refer the reader to 'Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen'; for the major seventh in a minor key (the use of the augmented second) to the 'Baptizing Hymn' ('Freely Go') and 'Father Abraham' ('Tell It'). This peculiar oriental effect may be, as Mr. Krehbiel thinks, due to a feeling that was natural to the Moors, the Mohammedan negroes who made up a small part of the American colored stock. A specimen of a song in the whole-tone scale is 'O Rock Me, Julie,' in which the refrain is each time a fifth lower than the verse.
[69] 'Slave Songs in the United States.'
[70] James Augustus Grant in 'A Walk Across Africa' says that his people when cleaning rice were always followed by singers who accompanied the workers with clapping of hands and stamping of feet. 'Whenever companies of negroes were working together in the cotton fields and tobacco factories, on the levees and steamboats or sugar plantations and chiefly in the fervor of religious gatherings, these melodies sprang into life.' (Booker T. Washington, in preface to Coleridge-Taylor's 'Twenty-four Negro Melodies.')
[71] Remnants of voodooism have survived in Louisiana to our day. The language of the creole negro is a French patois. In his songs this patois is sometimes intermingled with strange words of African origin. Some still have an African refrain, though the negroes no longer understand its meaning. Lafcadio Hearn, upon asking the meaning of the words of one of these songs of a negro woman in Louisiana, received the answer: Mais c'est Voudoo, ça; je n'en sais rien! With the help of philological references Hearn actually traced the words to Africa and made sense out of them in connection with their context.
[72] 'Century Magazine,' Aug., 1899.
[73] Mr. Allen says that the shout is not found in North Carolina and Virginia, though Mr. Krehbiel knows of an example from Kentucky. Mr. Allen says, however, that the term 'shouting' is used in Virginia in reference to a peculiar motion of the body wholly unlike the Carolina shouting.
[74] La Musique ches les peuples indigènes de l'Amérique du Nord.
[75] Musik, Tanz und Dichtung bei den Kreolen Amerikas.
[76] George W. Cable in 'Century Magazine.'
[77] White had a long and successful career as a minstrel and manager. Extracts from his diary were printed in the New York Sun, April 20, 1902, shortly after his death.
[78] 'Zip Coon,' or 'Turkey in the Straw,' one of the liveliest of American popular tunes, has also been attributed to George Washington Dixon, who appeared on the stage as early as 1830 and sang to the accompaniment of a banjo.
[79] 'Dixie' was a minstrel 'walk-around,' but it has become a patriotic song and we shall speak of it as such later on.
[80] César Saerchinger: 'Stephen Foster and the American Folksong' (The International, Feb., 1914).
[81] 'American History and Encyclopedia of Music.'
[82] Dr. Schuchburgh was a surgeon in the British army. He probably wrote the satirical words of the song and adapted them to a familiar tune.
[83] Oscar G. Sonneck: 'Reports on "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle," etc.,' Library of Congress.
[84] Cf. Sonneck, op. cit., pp. 68-69.
[85] Cf. Chapter X, pp. 240 ff.
CHAPTER XII
THE CLASSIC PERIOD OF AMERICAN COMPOSITION
Pioneers in American composition: Fry, Emery, Gottschalk—The Boston group of 'classicists': Paine, Chadwick, Foote, Parker, etc.—Other exponents of the 'classical': William Mason, Dudley Buck, Arthur Whiting, and others—The lyricists; Ethelbert Nevin; American song writers—Composers of church music.