Katharine Lee Bates, 1859-1929
A beautiful poem expressing genuine love for America and faith in human brotherhood. The historical accuracy of the second and third stanzas may be questioned. To one familiar with New England theocracy, it is clear that the Pilgrims were not, as the poet suggests, the champions of freedom of thought and religion. On the contrary, they were intolerant of any form of opposition, whether religious or political.
The hymn is less limited to the New England landscape than “My country, ’tis of thee,” and probably for that reason has overshadowed the latter as a popular national hymn.
Katharine Lee Bates, born in Falmouth, Mass., was educated at Wellesley College where she later became Professor of English. She is the author of many books.
A folder published by the author, giving the exact title and words of the hymn, also contains interesting data concerning its origin and history:
America the Beautiful was written in its original form, more literary and ornate than the present version, in the summer of 1893. I was making my first trip west. After visiting at Chicago the World’s Fair, where I was naturally impressed by the symbolic beauty of the White City, I went on to Colorado Springs. Here I spent three weeks or so under the purple range of the Rockies, which looked down with surprise on a summer school. This had called to its faculty several instructors from the east, Dr. Rolfe coming from Cambridge to teach Shakespeare, Professor Todd from Amherst for lectures on Astronomy, Professor Katharine Coman from Wellesley for a course in Economics. My own subject, which seemed incongruous enough under that new and glowing sky, was English Religious Drama.
We strangers celebrated the close of the session by a merry expedition to the top of Pike’s Peak, making the ascent by the only method then available for people not vigorous enough to achieve the climb on foot nor adventurous enough for burro-riding. Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned with the traditional slogan, “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” were pulled by horses up to the half-way house, where the horses were relieved by mules. We were hoping for half an hour on the summit, but two of our party became so faint in the rarified air that we were bundled into the wagons again and started on our downward plunge so speedily that our sojourn on the peak remains in memory hardly more than one ecstatic gaze. It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind. When we left Colorado Springs the four stanzas were pencilled in my note-book, together with other memoranda, in verse and prose, of the trip. The Wellesley work soon absorbed time and attention again, the note-book was laid aside, and I do not remember paying heed to these verses until the second summer following, when I copied them out and sent them to The Congregationalist, where they first appeared in print July 4, 1895. The hymn attracted an unexpected amount of attention. It was almost at once set to music by that eminent composer, Silas G. Pratt, and re-published with his setting, in Famous Songs, issued in 1895 by the Baker and Taylor Company. Other tunes were written for the words and so many requests came to me, with still increasing frequency, to permit its use in various publications and for special services that, in 1904, I re-wrote it, trying to make the phraseology more simple and direct.
The new form first appeared in the Evening Transcript of Boston, November 19, 1904. After the lapse of a few years, during which the hymn had run the gauntlet of criticism, I changed the wording of the opening quatrain of the third stanza. The hymn as printed above is the final version, of which I retain the copyright, not as a matter of money-making, for I have given hundreds, perhaps thousands, of free permissions for its use, but in order to protect it from misprints and conscious alterations.
But here comes a difficulty. Over sixty original settings, some of them by distinguished musicians, have been written for the hymn, which thus suffers from an embarrassment of riches. It is associated with no one tune. The original setting which has, thus far, won widest acceptance is that of the former Municipal Organist of Portland, Will C. MacFarlane (sold by Cressey and Allen, 534 Congress Street, Portland, Maine). His tune, which is played on the city chimes of Springfield, Mass., he has made the theme of a spirited march, America the Beautiful, arranged for band music. In an octavo published by Oliver Ditson Company are included four settings, one by Clarence G. Hamilton, professor of music at Wellesley College, and another by W. W. Sleeper, formerly pastor of the Wellesley Congregational Church. Both these settings have found favor with choruses and made their way into various hymnals. This octavo carries, also, settings by William Arms Fisher, musical editor of the Boston house of Ditson. Other tunes that have a strong following are those of the celebrated composer, Horatio W. Parker (in the Methodist Sunday School Hymnal), Charles S. Brown (in Junior Carols, Society of Christian Endeavor), John Stainer (in the Pilgrim Hymnal), J. A. Demuth, professor of music at Oberlin (in Oberlin’s Favorite Hymns, published by Arthur P. Schmidt), and Herbert G. Peabody of Fitchburg, Mass., (published by H. W. Gray Company of New York). Other attractive settings, published, privately printed or yet in manuscript, have their special circles, and the words have been fitted to various old tunes, as those of Auld Lang Syne, The Harp that Once through Tara’s Halls, The Son of God goes forth to War and O Mother Dear Jerusalem. To this last, Materna, by S. A. Ward, in many hymnals and well known throughout the country, America the Beautiful is at present most often sung.
That the hymn has gained, in these twenty odd years, such a hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.
Katharine Lee Bates
(Quoted by permission.)
MUSIC. MATERNA (Mother) was composed for “O mother dear, Jerusalem.” The composer, Samuel Ward, 1847-1903, resided at Newark, N. J., where he operated a successful music business and was for 14 years the director of the Orpheus Club. The tune has by popular preference become inseparably associated with the words.
344. My country, ’tis of thee
Samuel F. Smith, 1808-95
The best loved of our patriotic hymns, widely used, and deeply imbedded in the American soul.