What is the recent history of patriotic music?
“America the Beautiful” (lyrics and guitar tab)—often called the national hymn of the United States—was adapted from a poem by a Wellsely College English professor named Katharine Lee Bates, written in 1893. She wrote the poem on a long trip she took to Colorado, about the beauty of the country through which she traveled. As the story has it, she thought up the poem while visiting Pike’s Peak, and wrote it down as soon as she returned to her hotel. Now, there is a plaque atop the mountain commemorating Bates and her poem’s composition. The original version, which included only four verses (later, it was expanded to eight) was first published in The Congregationalist in 1895, to commemorate Independence Day. Later, she added more verses and revised the lyrics a bit, republishing in the Boston Evening Transcript in 1904. The music that became adapted to the poem was actually composed a decade earlier (1882) by New Jersey composer Samuel Ward. Ward’s music and Bates’ poem were first publi
World War I, the “War to end all wars”, produced patriotic American songs such as “Over There” by popular songwriter George M. Cohan. Cohan composed the song April 6, 1917, when he saw headlines announcing the U.S. had entered World War 1. A 1918 Berlin composition, “God Bless America”, is sometimes referred to as the unofficial national anthem of the United States. In 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in response to his dislike of “God Bless America”, calling it unrealistic and complacent. The World War II era produced a significant number of patriotic songs in the Big Band and Swing format. Popular patriotic songs of the time included “Remember Pearl Harbor” and “God Bless America”. Patriotic songs in latter half of the 20th century included “Ballad of the Green Berets” during the Vietnam War and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” during the years of the first Gulf War. Sources: http://en
