The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-05-27
FOUR AMERICAN SONGS.
TWO WERE WRITTEN IN eATTLe
AND TWO DURING PEACE.

Writers-Strange Fact About the Music
of America How Key Composed
His Lyric.
The four great lyrics of our country
are Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,
Hail Columbia" 1.-THE Star Spangled
Banner and America"
The first named was written by Tim
othy Dwight, ancestor of Timothy
Dwight. the present president of Yale
college. He wrote other patriotic an
thems, but Columbia" is the only one
/ by which he became famous. Dwight
was native of Massachusetts and
| graduate of Yale.
He studied law, intending to adopt it
as profession. but there being a dearth
of chaplains in the Revolutionary army
he became one in Parsons brigade of the
Connecticut line and served some time
there. 1t was during this service that
he composed the immortal song ssColum-
bia, which at once attracted general at
tention. and from the first became fa-
/ nous.
1t was composed without much
thought. the times being full of patriotic
feelings, which inspired the poet, and he
| is said to have expected no more than
passing fame for his production. It was
caught up. however, by the patriots, and
soon became known throughout the
struggling colonies. After the war
Dwight went back to the pursuits inter
rupted by his entering the army, and
eventually became president of Yale
college, a position which he held until
his death in 1917.
The author of .tColumbia" was a vol
luminous writer, turning out many ex-
tended poems and books, but all seem
to have been forgotten but the great
lyric which he gave to his country dur
ing the struggle for freedom. It will
ever remain his monument
| ,. m A SONG THAT TOLD
The words and music of Hail Colum-
bla" were composed under the American
flag. Its author Joseph Hopkinson, was
a native of Philadelphia and the son of
signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence. Like the composer Of ''Colum-
bia," he was the author of many other
things in prose and verse, but nothing
has come down to our day with any
fame but his national song.
T.. Hail Columbia" was written in the
summer of 179S, when we were having
complications with France which threat
ened to end in war. Hopkinson had an
actor friend named Fox, who was to
have a benefit at theater, and it was
for him that the song was composed
4 The music which accompanied the
song, and to which it is sung today, was
originally the Presidents March
which was written ten years before, on
the occasion of Washington's visit to
New York, by German orchestra lead
er named Fyles- Hail Columbia
sprang into sudden popularity, and it is
said to have averted the threatened war,
as it sincited national pride and reused
the whole country. si5.sta
Joseph Hopkinson lived until 1912, fill
ing various important offices and loved
by all for the great song he had given to
his nation. He helped to revise the con
stitution of Pennsylvania, was a warm
friend of Joseph Bonaparte's during the
ex-hng's sojourn in this country, and at
the time of his death was holding the
Office of United States; judge for the
eastern district of his native state
INSPIRED BY BATTLE SMOKE.
OF the many national song writers
none have enjoyed more enduring fame
than the author OF, ''The Star Spangled
Banner" It is perhaps the greatest and
most popular of all our songs and lyrics
1t was composed amid the roar of can
non and the bursting of bombs, and
seems to have sprung without effort from
the mind of its author.
Francis Scott Key, the author, was
! prisoner in the hands of the British when
the song was composed He had gone
down the bay at Baltimore, then being
attacked by the British feet, for the pur-
pose of securing the release of friend
who was held by the enemy. He carried
message from President Madison ask
| ing for the prisoners release. The Brit
ish commander, agreed to the request,
but told Key that he must be detained
during the attack. Key and his friends
were therefore held back, and it was
while they watched the terrific bonn bard,
ment of Fort McHenry, now and then
losing sight of the flag that waved over
its ramparts, that he wrote THE Star
Spangled Banner" This took place in
1914.
| When he was released Key took his
poem back to the city, where it was
speedily printed to the music of an old
English song, "Anacreon in Heaven"
and in short time was being sung all
over the country.
DR.. Smiths beautiful ode America"
WAS aiso ssQapbeu 10 an EnSuSh air, that
of .'God Save the Queen" Strange to
relate. this same melody answers for the
national song of the German empire,
Great Britain and Ireland, Bavaria,
Switzerland, Brunswick, Hanover, Nor
way, Prussia, Saxony, and docs service
in the United States as "My Country,
'Tis of Thee" .a,.-
...'America' has no stirring history sur
rounding its composition. 1t was COM
posed in 1882, and was first sung at a
children's celebration at the Park Street
| church Boston On the Ennrth of I,1lu