The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-06
NEW AIR,NEW WORDS
america" TO BE SUNG TO DIFF
FERENT TUNE, NEEDS NEW VERSE.
THE TUNE TO BE SUPPLIED.
SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI OFFERS
PRIZE FOR ITS COMPOSITION.

! Mr.. Walter G. Charlton Thinks If
| he IA Good Time to Add "A Verse
That Gives Praise to Somebody
Else Besides the Pilgrim Fathers.
other Founders of the Country
Entitled to Their Need of Glory.
Some Patriotic Airs That Need New
Words Instead of New Tunes.
Dixie" and the Drivel That Passes
Under Its Name.
The Rhode. Island Society of the Gin
cinnati has recently been engaged in
an effort to have written a new air
for the words of America, and to this
end has inaugurated a contest and
offered a medal valued at $500 to the
successful aspirant.
The fact that what is known as this
country's national hymn has so long
| been sung to the tune of God Save the
King" has been a matter of patriotic
indignation for many years. To those
who have given the matter a thought
it has seemed singularly inappropriate
| that this should be the case, and the
Rhode Island Society is engaged In a
labor of patriotic love when it endeav-
| ors to remedy the defect.
1t is said the response to the general
| invitation to compete for the medal has
| been spontaneous, and that from all
over the country have come the compo-
sitions of ambitious musicians, anxious
to become known in history as the COM
OoSer n the new national air
The Cincinnati Prizes.
When Mr.. w. G. Charlton went
North to confer with the members of
the Rhode Island Society of the Gin
cinnau as to the refinement of the
[ remains of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, he
was told by Col. Asa Bird Gardiner,
president of the society, that the COM
positions offered in competition. for the
medal were not only very numerous,
but of high order of musical merit
in many cases, so that it had become
matter of deciding between several
excellent productions already offered.
| The decision is to be made by a COM
mittee of musical experts, headed by
Mr.. Dudley Buck.
So that it will probably not be long
before the people of the country are
| singing America" to quite another
air than that to which they have been
accustomed-one that is as entirely ma
tive to this country as the words of
the hymn themselves. Which suggests
another change that might also be
made with advantage.
May Add "A New Verse.
when they get the new air." said
Mr.. Charlton, II want them also to
add a new verse. I'm tired of having
| a re of he ri cir oil
of this country ascribed, POLITICALLY or
otherwise. to the Pilgrim Fathers.
| Some of the others who landed on
these coasts ought to be allowed a share
of the praise as they doubtless felt a
! share of the pride"
The talk of a new air and some new
words for America" led to the dis
eussion of some other of the familiar,
patriotic songs that are also very poor
| ly supplied in one way or the other 1t
was suggested to Mr.. Charlton that
| in the matter of words Dixie" was
essentially one of these.
New Words for Dixie.
| well, I should think So" said he.
| They ought either to pass a law max
! ing 1t criminal offense to sing the
| song or else some talented young
Southerner should write new set of
verses.
|
| alton of which men have rushed up to
the very muzzles of the guns and into
! the very jaws of death and which even
! now will cause a burst of wild APP
| plause whenever a Southern audience
| hears it played, saddled with a collec-
! ton of words such as that which bears
| its name. How the enthusiasm oozes
out when, after the first stirring bars
| of the old war song, somebody pipes
| up:
"'Old Missus married Will de Weaber,
| Willum was a gay deceaber,
When he put his arm around her.
| He smiled as fierce as forty
| FOUNDER
"Did anybody ever listen to more ar
rant drivel than that! They ought to
look up the first man who attempts
| to sing it to the air of Dixie"
Possibly there are some other pa
triotic songs that need revision from
one end of the line or the other, but
| the two mentioned certainly manage to
| bear of the palm in their respective
| fields.
america" Dropping Out.
So far as the question of national
| air is concerned. America" is rapidly
being discarded for the Star Spangled
Banner" which is played at parade
every day at every army post and
/ camp in the world, where there is a
| band stationed. 1t answers every re-
/ quirement of words and air and the
! circumstances of romance, danger and
national peril under which it was com
| posed have all served to endear it to
| the heart of the average American.
1t will probably continue popularity to
be regarded as the national air.
/ No a NxrI &c 70