Story Behind the Song: 'America, the Beautiful'
The greatest musical experience of my life was with the song, "America the Beautiful."
Before I share that experience, however, let me tell you how the song was born.
The author, Katharine Lee Bates, was born in 1859. She was a young English teacher who was also a poet. She wrote "America, the Beautiful" at age 33. Two years following a sightseeing trip to Pike's Peak, Colorado, in 1893, she still remembered how awe-struck she was with that area of our country. She then wrote a poem that has been embraced by the people of America.
Her poem explores the lingering impact of the victories and joys experienced by all Americans. She includes a stirring exhortation that all Americans should recognize the "grace" of God extended to our people in the dramatic developments that shaped our country.
The musical setting, now used with Bates's poem, was written in 1882 by composer and organist Samuel Augustus Ward. He wrote the tune, in his head, while on a ferryboat trip from Coney Island back to his home in New York City.
Several bills have been brought up in the United States Congress that have suggested that this song replace our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." Many believe the song to be more expressive and less militaristic. Both songs are widely used today, the way most Americans want it.
Most everyone reading this column can remember singing "America, the Beautiful" at various times during his or her life. So can I. One of the greatest experiences of my musical career happened on Feb. 6, 2005, and the song, "America, the Beautiful" was at the center of it.
I was asked to train a 150 -voice choir - 75 deaf students and 75 blind students - from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind to sing and sign "America, the Beautiful" just before the kick-off of Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville. It was the National Football League's way of honoring the famous singer, Ray Charles, who had passed away just seven months earlier. Charles was a former student at the school.
Charles had presented his arrangement of "America, the Beautiful" to a wide range of audiences and in a myriad of places all through his career. It was only appropriate that we presented this song in his honor.
Rickey Minor, the former musical director of American Idol, was hired to assist me in the preparation for the event. Alicia Keys was our soloist.
On the evening of Super Bowl XXXIX, "America, the Beautiful" was presented as never before. The event was seen by television in some 200 countries. To see and hear the performance go to youtube.com and type in: Alicia Keys - America the Beautiful Live Super Bowl.
"O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties,
Above the fruited plain.
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea."
"Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord." -Psalm 33:12