Music by Samuel Augustus Ward, 1882.
Bates originally wrote the words as a poem, ‘Pikes Peak’, first published under the title ‘America’ in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895. [Bates revised her lyrics in 1904, a version published that year in The Boston Evening Transcript, and made some final additions to the poem in 1913.]
Bates made a lecture trip to Colorado in 1893 and there she wrote the words to "America the Beautiful." As she told it, "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 and 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."
https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000001/
For several years ‘America the Beautiful’ was sung to almost any popular air or folk tune with which the lyrics fit: ‘Auld Lang Syne’ was one of the most common. Today it is sung to a melody written in 1882 by Samuel Augustus Ward, a church organist and choirmaster from New Jersey.
Ward had originally composed the music (titled ‘Materna’) for the 16th century hymn ‘O Mother dear, Jerusalem’ in 1882, though it was not first published until 1892. [According to Mark Steyn's A Song for the Season, Samuel Ward wrote the music that would eventually accompany ‘America the Beautiful’ after a thrilling visit to Coney Island!]
Ward's music combined with the Bates poem was first published in 1917 (?) and titled ‘America the Beautiful’.
First recordings
- The Peerless Quartet, ‘O Mother Dear, Jerusalem’, 1 March 1911, New Jersey (unreleased).
- Henry Burr and Frank Croxton, ‘O Mother Dear, Jerusalem’, 25 October 1912, New York, Columbia Phonograph Company (matrix 38379). Released in February 1913 as issue no. A1254.
- The Victor (Military) Band, ‘America The Beautiful’ (instrumental), 2 October 1919 (matrix B-23186). Released in January 1920 on Victor 18627.
For other early recordings, please see:
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... ._composer
* * *
Original poem
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife,
When once or twice, for man's avail,
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain,
The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
* * *
Sources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful
https://davidneale.eu/elvis/originals/
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... _Jerusalem
And Google.
