The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-07-13
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4 IT &n11Hii %OHG N'A-li1LED ''AMEh1CA.p
TO the Editor Of the Press:
Your remarks ON this tune and the hymn
that Is sung to- it remind me that very few
famous songs or hymns have been set TO mus
ic. Music has been accommodated to them.
Our 4Star Spangled Banner,r-a song as locel
in its occasion as My Country, tits of Thee,7
is sung 10 tune that was old when the song
was written. The e Missionary III shn's Is susu-
ally sung to a-tume hastily selected for it by a
parish minister while the bells were ringing
fOrsthe service during which It was to be sung.
Mr.. Heber, not then bishop, had written it
almost mpromptu for the missionary meeting
then to be held; and, ON discovering tkat no
tune had been selected, the minister humming
to himself the familiar tune of an old song
Twas when the winds were roaring, n-decid-
ed to have itsqng to that tune land so to that
tune the world has sung it ever since. / once
heard it sung to the tune called "Romeyn,"-
more brilliant and majestic tune, and have
heard of its being sung to it sometimes; but
Hymn Tune"
2 sfMy Country, It's of Thee goes better in
the tune called @Dolt,n and even the tune
callsd NORMAN" suits twell; but powerful as
are the reasons against taking an English air.
and giving 1t a name of our own, It will be
hard to makea change. II ~ -
yankee Doodle" is not as you intimate,
thoroughly nati64fal' II is an old English air.
50. says that high authority, Richard Grant
white. The air Of Mrs. HoWe's grand sfBattle
lynn was familiar to Methodist meetings
long before the war, and It wfll be hard to
prove it an American air. saf3q
America" tune shares the fate of MANY
good airs in being diverted from its original
purpose. / have heard HYMNS in fashionable
churches to the air of sDrink to me only with
thine eyes, anAair often sung with the song
by Walter Scott-.O County Guy,"-and quite
lately l heard a hymn sung to '.The bright
rosy morning" Once I was just ready to
gently demonstrate with young organist for
introducing robin Adairs into the melan1e
that she called a church voluntary: but
young friend said that the organist had never
heard of sRobin Adairp The tune was SING
with the words "Our Father and our Friend
Inee We adore Z and she thought it piece of
sacred music.o ss'i9
Pursuing this endless track of thought, we
snaA come at last to this conclusions: that the
pIope wl use what they please and as they
Thatpeople will sing what they like is un-
questionably true; and certainly we should be
the last to offer any objection to the enjoyment
oflthat liberty. We only ask that those who
sing publicly win call things by their right
names, to the end that they may save them
selves and their eoqntrymen from Injurious
misconception. 1t is quite true that many
tunes have been diverted from their original
use and meaning; but this has Usually hap-
pened in the case of those which had attained
no widely known and distinctive 81 repre esseT
tative character. The fact Of remote origin
does not especially affect the matter, The
ar ot Yankee Doodle, originated. nobody
knows where or when, but it has been taken
out OF its obscurity by America, 1t is identified
win her history, it is wrapped about with
told on fold of her nationality. If is as conn.,
pie'ely hers as the Stars and Stripes are hers;
and IT any Frenchman, for instance. should at
tempt by putting new words to ii. and giving
it another name to turn it into Anat;onal
air. for La belle France, we should la,,ob n
him for bis pains So with sGod save the
King" 1t is not of English birth. but it has
been adopted by the English people, it has a
recognized characteras International bynn of
Great Britain To attempt to make it serve
the same purpose for any other nation, seems
to us both undignified and unfair. iAi'A-s
,s,ssts,S go u ssi0ttaS
The San Jose (Cal.) Mercury of June 9th
says: On Sunday night last, q deep, rushing
sound sound followed by a heavy explosion, was
~ as II coming fron Penitencia canon.
d;st;ot1 sn - miles from this city Itwas heard
as '.es ~ San Jose; and by those living in
the vicinity OF the canon. the a ,.6,nrtoa
as truly startling. As there is M I'M On.
ing on IN that region, we were ~, ~
the cause Of this hhbbub, but learn 1tS - A..D"
caused by an immense. meteor Which, I - "as
near the earth, and exploded in that
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