America the Beautiful (“Materna”)

Samuel Augustus Ward (1848-1903), composer and organist at Grace Episcopal Church, Newark, New Jersey, composed his tune “Materna” to accompany the hymn text “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem” in 1882, and it was first published in 1892.

Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929), poet and teacher, wrote the poem “Pikes Peak” during a visit to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1893, and it was published under the title “America” in the church periodical, The Congregationalist, in 1893.

Bates’s poem, which she revised in 1904 and 1913, was first published with Ward’s music in 1910 under the title “America the Beautiful.” Samuel Ward never met Katherine Bates, having died in 1903; yet “America the Beautiful” has become one of the best-loved American patriotic songs.

Score, parts (Bb tpt. 1, Bb tpt. 2, F horn, tbn, tuba) — $12.99