S.O.D. "America The Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates and Samuel A. Ward

2/18/2015   The lyrics were originally written as the poem "Pikes Peak" and the music written as "Materna" for the hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem".  Bates and Ward got together and had "America The Beautiful" published in 1910.  Bates, an English professor, was inspired by many different sites during her train ride to Colorado Springs to teach a summer school session at Colorado College in 1893. Some of these sites include the world's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the wheatfields of Kansas, and the majestic view of the Great Plains atop Zebulon's Pikes Peak.  The words of the poem started to come to her on the pinnacle of that mountain.  

     The inspiration for the music came to Ward on a ferry boat trip from Coney Island back to his home in New York City during a summer day in 1882.  Not wanting to lose the tune in his head he wrote the music on his fellow passenger and friend Harry Martin's shirt cuff.  Ward was a church organist and choirmaster.  Many attempts have been made to give "America The Beautiful" the status of a national anthem equal to or in place of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with no avail.  The lyrics were written in three different versions with the first one being in 1893, then 1904 and finally the version we sing today in 1913.  

     The song has been covered by many artists with Ray Charles producing the most successful one.  After the September 11 attacks its popularity increased and was sung in addition to the National Anthem at many sporting events. "From sea to shining sea" actually means from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa, a term that was used often in the charters of English Colonies in North America. The shade of the Rocky Mountains which Bates watched as she wrote the poem inspired the lyrics "Purple Mountain Majesties".