My Country, 'Tis of Thee"

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
This has always been one of my favorite patriotic songs. I remember singing it in grade school for music class.

"My Country, 'Tis of Thee" is also known as "America". Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics in 1831. The melody is "God Save the Queen". He was a student at Andover Theological Seminary at the time. He was working with his friend Lowell Mason. Smith gave the lyrics to Mason and it was first performed on July 4, 1831 at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston.

It was first published as 'America" in 1832. The song served as one of the de facto national anthems of the United States before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1931.

Original Lyrics:

"My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim's pride,
From ev'ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong."

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country_'Tis_of_Thee
 
Albeit easier to sing than "To Anacreon in Heaven." Although "The Star-Spangled Banner" is time-honored, for practical reasons I wouldn't be too upset if the official anthem was changed to "America, the Beautiful."
I can't imagine Ray Charles singing My Country Tis of Thee.
 
Albeit easier to sing than "To Anacreon in Heaven." Although "The Star-Spangled Banner" is time-honored, for practical reasons I wouldn't be too upset if the official anthem was changed to "America, the Beautiful."

That would be my choice too.
 
I posted this on "shares", but will post here also. I love this rendition over the original. The young artist wrote the version in 7 minutes!

17-year old contemporary country singer/songwriter and native Texan, Abby Anderson singing her own version of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,’” which she has called “Let Freedom Ring.” All proceeds from the sale of this song go to charity.

 
It's too bad that so many school kids today are not being taught the patriotic songs that earlier generations were taught in school. Of all the teen foster kids whom we've had in our home, not one of them knew any patriotic songs besides The Star Spangled Banner when they came to us. Nor did they know what you're supposed to do when the National Anthem is played.

Given the condition of our schools, if parents want their kids to learn the patriotic songs, they're going to have to teach them to them. Many school teachers find some of those songs "objectionable" because, heaven forbid, they mention God.
 
America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
Melody by Samuel Ward

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

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
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

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 pilgrims feet,
Whose stem 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 and 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!
 
I got really confused when I heard the first few bars on NPR one day.
(Though, 'Jerusalem' is a far better anthem for England - can't stand the dirge we have!)
Does England actually have an anthem? Wales and Scotland do. God Save the Queen is the anthem of GB I thought.
I do agree the melody is a dirge.
 
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