America the Beautiful is
a wonderful patriotic song. Here are all four of its verses based on a
poem by Katharine Lee Bates in 1895.
Verse 1
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Verse 2
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
Verse 3
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.
Verse 4
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
America the Beautiful:
verses 1 and 4:
Summer Reading: America the Beautiful is an important part of The
Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This Newberry Award winning book
is a great mystery to read over the summer. (Click
here to learn more.)
More
Patriotic Music
My Country Tis of Thee - on
piano
A Medley of Patriotic Songs - Can you identify them?
Fourth of July and Summer Musical Fun
1. Go to a parade and watch a marching band. Can you identify the
instruments?
2. Watch a fireworks display. Listen to the music that
accompanies it.
3. Watch an outdoor concert at a park.
4. Learn some patriotic or summer songs and play a
concert for friends and family. This pianist is playing five
patriotic songs: 1. This is My Country, 2. America the Beautiful, 3. My
Country Tis of Thee, 4. The Star Spangled Banner, 5. Battle Hymn of the
Republic
Composer of the
Month: Aaron Copland Born 1900 - Died 1990
Copland was an important American composer,
conductor, pianist and teacher. Listen to some of his famous works.
"Hoe-Down from Rodeo:
Here is "Hoe-Down" used in a famous
commercial for beef:
Down a Country Lane is a piece he
wrote for piano students.
End of the Year Quiz
See how much you learned this year. If
you get stuck look back at your old issues of Piano Explorer.
Many students keep them in a 3-ring binder each year so they have a
handy reference.
July 4 - Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (1900-1971) American jazz trumpeter
6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy (b. 1937) Russian-born pianist and conductor
7 - Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Austrian late-Romantic composer and
conductor
7 - Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) Italian-American opera composer and
librettist
8 - Percy Grainger (1882-1961) Australian pianist and composer
12 - Van Cliburn (b. 1934) American concert pianist, the first American
to win the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958
17 - Peter Schickele (b. 1935) American composer and arranger, the
inventor of P.D.Q. Bach who writes funny music compositions.
26 - Alexis Weissenberg (b. 1929) Bulgarian pianist
August 22 - Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French composer, regarded as the
creator of musical impressionism
25 - Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) American composer, pianist, and
conductor
31 - Itzhak Perlman (b. 1945) Israeli-American violinist
We'd
love to hear from you! Do you have any ideas or thoughts about any other practice tip we have
published this year? Let us know how they worked for you.
Were you able to solve a problem spot or learn a tricky
passage?
Perhaps you have your own practice tips that you'd like to
share with other readers. Write to us and we'll include the
best ones in the magazine or on the website.
We also accept original artwork, music, poems, jokes and
stories. Submissions that don't appear in the magazine might
make it into the Kids Corner.
email: [email protected] or send a letter to Piano
Explorer, 200 Northfield Road, Northfield, Illinois 60093
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