SATB Mixed Choir with Piano
Text by Katherine Lee Bates
Music by Samuel Ward
Arranged by M Ryan Taylor

About the Arrangement:
As I was going through this hymn again, preparing to arrange it, I was deeply moved by how rich the text is. I never noticed this before, though Ive been singing it since I was a child. I think I got used to it before I had a chance to recognize how powerful it really is. I guess thats one of the dangers of being exposed to profound things at an early age (not that I would wish away my familiarity with it either).
I wrote this new arrangement of America the Beautiful for my brothers church choir. The setting is fairly simple for the singers, with a piano part that is intended to highlight the thoughtful nature of the text and the natural beauty of the hymns forward phrasing.

Read about the history of America the Beautiful at Wikipedia.

The Text:
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!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
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 every gain divine!

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!