Last month on July 4th, we celebrated our nation’s birthday with annual festivities including parades, family and friends’ get-togethers, barbeques, fireworks, and especially patriotic music. Similar celebrations occur on Memorial Day in May and Veterans Day each November. What could be more appropriate than honoring the men and women of the five military services—the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard—than by playing patriotic music?
Most people in America know these patriotic songs and many even know the words. These songs have been with us and are part of our heritage our entire lives. We often take them for granted, but how many know the origins of the songs? Not many I would venture to say.
United States Marine Corps: The oldest of the service songs belongs to the Marine Corps. Both the words and the music date from the 19th century. Some of the words were taken from corps mottos. “To the shores of Tripoli” were from a service flag after the battle of Derna, Libya in 1805. Some words have been attributed to Colonel Henry C. Davis who was in Mexico during the Spanish American War (1846-1848). “The Halls of Montezuma,” came from that conflict. Later, lyrics in the song came around the turn of the 20th century. A Marine magazine called The Leatherneck first published the Marine Corps song in 1919, and ten years later in 1929, it was officially adopted as the official song of the Corps.
Since the aviation branch of the corps was added, a revision of the words was changed to reflect the presence of the air-corps and pilots in 1942. The change was from “On the land as on the sea” to “In the air on land and sea.”
From 1880 to1892 the famous and revered director of the Marine Band was the indomitable John Philip Sousa. Some of his most famous marches were composed while he was the director of the band.
The melody of the Marines Hymn most likely came from the French operetta by Jacques Offenbach called Genevieve de Brabant, of Can-Can fame. The Marines Hymn is not the only piece of music attributed to the Marine Corps. The march, Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) was written by Sousa in 1888. This march was honored by becoming the official march of the Marine Corps. Sousa himself said it was one of his finest.
United States Navy: The official song of the U.S. Navy is Anchors Aweigh. It was originally conceived and composed as a fight song for the football team at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. It was the custom of the academy band director Charles A. Zimmermann, to write a march for each graduating class.
Alfred H. Miles was a midshipman who was a junior. He collaborated with director Zimmermann to write a piece for his class of 1907—one that would be both inspiring and would live forever.
Zimmermann agreed to Miles request and set out to compose the piece. Miles took Zimmermann’s music and wrote two stanzas of words that were to be used at the annual Army-Navy Football game. Navy had not won the rivalry since 1900. The crowd was downcast in anticipation of losing another game. Lo and behold, the band played Anchors Aweigh and suddenly Navy scored. The band played the song again and Navy scored another touchdown. The game ended in a Navy shutout. Army did not score. The crowd went wild. Many thought the win was due to the academy band playing Anchors Aweigh.
The song was not made the official song immediately, but as time went on, it was officially adopted by the Navy. Some of the lyrics were changed in 1997 from an emphasis on the Naval Academy to become more representative of all the members of the Navy.
United States Army: Historically, the Army is the oldest branch of the armed forces. In its long and revered history it has several songs, marches and other pieces of music. They were first played by bugles and fife and drum corps. However, it was many decades before the army adopted an official song. The origin of The Army Goes Rolling Along dates back before WWI. The story goes that in 1908 Lieutenant Edmund L. Gruber, of a field artillery unit, was watching his men move the caissons (carts to carry ammunition) when he heard a command “Come on, keep ‘um rolling.” Upon hearing this, Gruber wrote several stanzas and with fellow officers came up with a tune for his words. He called the song The Caissons Go Rolling Along.
The song really caught on with the soldiers and the army; so, in 1917, they sought out J.P. Sousa and commissioned him to orchestrate it into a march. In 1918 the U.S. Field Artillery March was published for the first time. This march was still not considered the official song of the army until many years later. Ironically by the end of WWII, every branch of the service but the army had an official song. A contest was held with over 700 pieces submitted. The chosen song, The Army’s Always There was written by a civilian, Sam Stept. It was played at President Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953 but it proved to be unpopular.
Officials voted to ask the army’s major commanders to decide and they voted for the song that had been sung for decades, The Caissons Go Rolling Along. To bring it up to today’s army the lyrics were changed by Harold W. Arberg, a musical officer stationed at the Pentagon. On Veterans Day, 1956, The Army Goes Rolling Along became the official song of the U.S. Army.
United States Air Force: The U.S. Air Force did not exist as its own branch of the service until 1947, two years after the end of WWII. In earlier times they were the aviation branch of the U.S. Army Air Corps. In the 1930s the song about the “wild blue yonder” was composed. U.S. Brigadier General Henry Arnold thought the Air Force needed a fight song. He had the idea to hold a national songwriting contest to select an appropriate song. In 1938 Liberty Magazine sponsored the contest. They received hundreds of submissions. The one selected came from Robert MacArthur Crawford, who was also an amateur pilot. The song was called The Army Air Corps March. The first time it was performed was in 1939. After the Air Force became a separate branch it was re-named The U.S. Air Force Song. It became the official song at the time the Air Force was established.
United States Coast Guard: During WWI President Woodrow Wilson created the Coast Guard in 1915. That was 41 years before the U.S. Air Force came into existence. Many may think the Coast Guard was the last service established, but that is not the case. A contest was held to adopt a song for the new service in 1927. Captain Francis F. Van Boskerck entered the contest with a song he had earlier composed. He was inspired by the Coast Guards motto, Semper Paratus, which translates to “Always Ready.” At the time he was writing the song, he was the commander of the Bering Sea Forces in the Aleutian Islands.
He composed the song on an old borrowed piano that apparently was the only one for miles around. The captain’s song, Semper Paratus, won the contest in 1928. It was then adopted as the official song of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Millions of Americans have most likely heard these service songs, some many times over. They are an important part of our heritage, our national pride and our sense of patriotism. What person does not have a special feeling when a military band marches down the street playing their service song?
I, for one, swell with a sense of great pride to be an American and I get an emotional rush when I hear one of the great service songs being played or sung. Long live the great songs of the five military branches of our armed forces.
The
idea for this article came from Linda Aguirre, talented oboe and English horn
player in the Danville Community Band. She not only recommended the title but
also provided the research material, entitled How the Services Got Their Songs,
by Linda Mcmaken.
Please submit your questions and comments to banddirector01@comcast.net
Visit our website at www.danvilleband.org for up-to-date information about the Danville Community Band.
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