Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 139, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1917 — Origin of Our Old Patriotic Songs. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Origin of Our Old Patriotic Songs.

“Star Spangled Banner” once an old English club song, according to re* search of Music Division chief in Library of Con-gress-The “New Federal Song”and the“Presidenf s March”--The tune of “America” is Germanic

T A T no time so much as upon Independence day tire the patriotic songs of this country sung, and upon the coining Fourth of July, T|n |-M which finds the United 'll J States at war. the words and the tunes of the national songs will mean more to every American than ever before. Realizing that as time goes on, history, which may be probed for truth i»ow, in another generation would be too far removed from the links of living memory to certify accuracy, many men are giving time and effort to extracting the real historic facts from the maze of fiction surrounding the origin of many of this country’s naitlonal songs, which have become an important part of her integraLlife. No man has given more time and .more effort, nor sifted facts more thoroughly to get at the true history of our national songs, than has Mr. O. G, T. 'Sonneck, chief of the division of music iof the library of congress, an<X he has embodied these facts in reports published by the government in book form, which save them for all time. Unless he has traced a matter to the bedrock of Certainty, a report with Mr. Sonneck is never complete, and a call at his office in the music division of the library found him with his latest (Published reports on the national songs on the bookcase at his side, and all heavily interleaved with penned and penciled annotations which bring evlidence down to the very minute. Mr.

Sonneck permitted a recent caller to glean from these documental data regarding this country’s national songs and supplemented them with some additional verbal information. Almost everyone knows how the stirring words rushed from- the heart and hand of Francis Scott Key on the early morning of September 14. 1814, when the English were bombarding Fort McHenry. Fewer, perhaps, know that he jotted down the first rough draft of the song on the back of a letter as he sailed up the Fatapsco on one of the enemy’s vessels that early morning, when he saw “through the dawn’s earfly light that our flag was still there.” He completed this draft upon the American boat which brought him to ■Baltimore that evening, and later that night, in his /hotel in Baltimore, he made a clean copy of those jottings, and this first fair copy of the words Is still in existence and may yet be seen at the Walters gallery in Baltimore. On the morning after his arrival In Baltimore Key took his. poem to his friend and relative, Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, for his critical opinion upon It. This was evidently favorable, for it was immediately printed and Its [first appearance in public was in the •form of a sheet, or broadside, which whs distributed through the streets on the day after it was written. Its first dated appearance was in the Baltimore Patriot of September 20, 1814. Next day it appeared in exactly the tsame form in the Baltimore American, land then, in single sheets and In newspapers, It spread from Baltimore to

other cities, until It hnd become a popular patriotic song throughout the country. * In its original printed form if bore the title, “Defense of t ? ort McHenry,” with the following introductory remarks, written by Judge Nicholson: The annexed gong was composed under the following circumstances: A gentleman had left Baltimore in a flag of truce for the purpose of getting released from the -British fleet a friend of his who had been captured at Marlborough. He went as far as the mouth of the Patuxent and was-not permitted to return lest the intended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed. He was therefore brought up the bay to th? mouth of the Patapsco, wherethe flag vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate, and he was compelled, to witness the bombardment of Fort McHenry, which the, admiral had boasted that he could carry in a few hours and that the city must fall. He watched- the flag of the fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can better be felt than described, until the night prevented him from seeing it. In the night he watched the bomb shells and at early dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country. The tune is that of “Anacreon of Heaven,” originally an English club song, popular among the younger set of Baltimore at the time Key wrote the stanzas. ■ - : * » ♦ “Hail Columbia” is a pure product of American soil in regard to both words anti music, and was written In 1798 by Joseph Hopkins, a prominent jurist, who lived from 1770 to 1842. The poet himself explains the circumstances which led to the writing of the words as folio wiG “Hall Columbia” was written in the summer of 1798, when war w’ith France was thought to he inevitable. Congress was then In session in Philadelphia, debating upon that important subject, and acts o£ hostility had actually taken place. The contest between England and France was raging, and the people of the United States were divided into parties for one side or the other, some thipking that policy and duty required us to espouse the cause of republican France, as_ she was J called, while others were for connecting themselves with England. . . . The theater was then open in our cjtx__.A..3mung man belonging to it, whose talent was high as a singer, was about to take a benefit. I had known him when he was at school. On this acquaintance he called on me one Saturday afternoon, his benefit being announced for the following Monday. Hfs prospects were very disheartening, but he

said that if he could get a patriotic song adapted to “The President’s March" he did not doubt of a full house; that the poets of the theatrical corps had been trying to accomplish it, but had not succeeded. I told him that I would tpy what I could do for him. He came the next afternoon, and the song, such as it is. was ready for him. Such is the history of the song, which has endured Infinitely beyond the expectation of the author. The song met with immediate success and was repeated again ami again, being named “New Federal Song,” and no entertainment of the day was considered complete without it. To run down the history of the music of “Hail Columbia,” written originally as the “President’s March,” Mr. Sonneck found a much more task titan giving the plain narrative of the applied words. Wading through an immense amount of historical data and some controversy upon the subject, he has brought out facts which he would only put forth after the most careful process of sifting ami deduction. “Until recently.” he said, “the musical origin of ‘Hail Columbia’ was as obscure as its literary history was dear.” But, weighing till the evidence In the ease, lie carefully sets down the•"fact~Thnt-1 he “President's MarcltT’which supplied the music for “Hail Columbia," was composed by Philip Plule. a resident of Philadelphia, of perhaps German or Swiss origin. and musician and instructor of note. (His name is usually spelled incorrectly; the above is the correct spelling.) * • • “America,” the national hymn, contains no mysterious history. It was

written by Rev. Samuel F.'Snflth, who lived until 1895, and has himself written luminously upon the subject. From Boston 'he wrote to Admiral Preble September 12, 1872: The origin of my hymn, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee,” Is briefly told, In the_yeat 1831 Mr. William Woodbridge returned from Europe, bringing a quantity of German music books, which he passed over to Txtwell Mason. Mr. Mason, with whom I was on terms of friendship, one day turned them over to me, knowing that I was in the habit of reading German works, saying, “Here, I can't read these, but they contain good music, which I should be glad to use. Turn Over the leaves and if you find anything particularly good, give me a translation or Imitation of it. or write a wholly original song— anything, so I can use It." Accordingly, one leisure afternoon, I was looking over the books Ami fell in with the tune of "God Save the King.” and at once took up my pen and wrote the piece in question. It was struck out at a sitting without the slightest idea that itwould ever attain the popularity It has since enjoyed. The first time it was publicly sung was at a children’s celebration of American Independence at the Park Street church. Boston. I think. July 4, 1832. If I had anticipated the future of it. doubtless I would have taken more pains with it. Such as it is, I am glad to have contributed this mite to the. cause of American freedom.—-t-t— ——— Mr. Sonneck hnd this to say regarding the nsn of an English tune to the words of “America “The main objection raised against ‘America’ has been the union of the words with that foreign air of cosmopolitan usage. ‘God Save the King? there is this difference, which should never be overlooked: If the Danes or the Prussians use ‘God Save the King' they have deliberately borrowed it from the British. Not so with us. ‘God Save the King’ was. before 1776, as much our national anthem as that of the motherland. Being a British air. it belonged to the British colonists just as much as it did to the Britons at home. ~~ : * * * •- '— : “ ‘Yankee Doodle’ is sometimes called a national song—incorrectly so, because, with a practically now obsolete text, or texts, it is hardly ever sung, but merely played as an instrumental

piece. Though no longer a national song, it is still a national air and second only to ‘Dixie’ in patriotic, popularity. Fpr 150 years ‘Yankee Doodle' has appealed to our people, and the tune shows* no sign of passing into oblivion. Many words have been spent in discussing the origin of the title of this song, and at least sixteen separate apd distinct derivations of the words have been seriously set before the public. r The earliest dated reference to the tune appears in the first American ballad opera, “The Disappointment,” Philadelphia, 1767. It was played in America as early as 1768, for in the Journal of Transactions in BostonrSeptembei‘2B.l7T®,we read: “The fleet was brought to anchor near Castle William; that evening there was throwing of skyrockets, and those passing in boats observed great 'rejoicing and that the Yankee Doodle song was the capital piece in the band of music.” . The earliest appearance in print of “Yankee Doodle” in Europe has been traced to James Aird’s “A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs.” published in Glasgow about 1780. Mr. Sonneck asserts that “Yankee Doodle" did not appear in print in America untn Benjamin Carr s “Federal Overture,” a medley of patriotic sotigs. Including “Yankee Doodle, and composed in 1704, was published, “Adapted for the pianoforte,” by B. Carr, New York, in January, 1795. Since then some interesting and now rare renderings of the piece have been Issued.