Columbia (Alexander Johnson)

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  • (Posted 2017-03-15)  CPDL #43562:      MusicXML
Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2017-03-15).   Score information: Unknown, 1 page, 74 kB   Copyright: Public Domain
Edition notes: Note heads in four-shape format, as originally published. Transcribed from Southern Harmony, 1845. Words by Timothy Dwight.
  • (Posted 2017-03-15)  CPDL #43560:       
Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2017-03-15).   Score information: Letter, 1 page, 75 kB   Copyright: Public Domain
Edition notes: Note heads converted to oval shapes. As arranged by James P. Carrell, 1821, entitled Melody, in C Major. Words by an anonymous author, before 1818. MusicXML source file(s) in compressed .mxl format.
  • (Posted 2017-03-15)  CPDL #43559:   
Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2017-03-15).   Score information: 7 x 10 inches (landscape), 1 page, 76 kB   Copyright: Public Domain
Edition notes: Note heads in four-shape format. As arranged by James P. Carrell, 1821, entitled Melody, in C Major. Words by an anonymous author, before 1818.

General Information

Title: Columbia
First Line: As down a lone valley with cedars o'erspread
First Line: O how I have longed for the coming of God
Composer: Alexander Johnson
Lyricists: Timothy Dwight and Anonymous

Number of voices: 3vv   Voicing: STB

Genre: Secular
Genre: Sacred   Meter: 11 11. 11 11

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

{{Published}} is obsolete (code commented out), replaced with {{Pub}} for works and {{PubDatePlace}} for publications.

Description: First published in The Tennessee Harmony, 1818, in D minor, for three voices (Treble-Tenor-Bass); reprinted in William Walker's Southern Harmony, 1835. Arranged by James P. Carrell in 1821, in C Major, re-titled Melody. Possibly this is a folk hymn, source for both Johnson and Carrell – see Southern Harmony (1845), 154 Columbia.

Original words by Timothy Dwight, poem entitled "Columbia", in six stanzas. Johnson used the sixth stanza of Dwight's poem in his composition.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English.png English text

Timothy Dwight, Columbia, 1789

1. Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies!
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time,
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name,
Be freedom, and science, and virtue thy fame.

2. To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire;
Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire;
Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend,
And triumph pursue them, and glory attend.
A world is thy realm: for a world be thy laws,
Enlarged as thine empire, and just as thy cause;
On freedom's broad basis, that empire shall rise,
Extend with the main, and dissolve with the skies.

3. Fair science her gates to thy sons shall unbar,
And the east see thy morn hide the beams of her star.
New bards, and new sages, unrivaled shall soar
To fame unextinguished, when time is no more;
To thee, the last refuge of virtue designed,
Shall fly from all nations the best of mankind;
Here, grateful to heaven, with transport shall bring
Their incense, more fragrant than odors of spring.

4. Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend,
And genius and beauty in harmony blend;
The graces of form shall awake pure desire,
And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire;
Their sweetness unmingled, their manners refined,
And virtue's bright image, instamped on the mind,
With peace, and soft rapture, shall teach life to glow,
And light up a smile in the aspect of woe.

5. Thy fleets to all regions thy power shall display,
The nations admire, and the ocean obey;
Each shore to thy glory its tribute unfold,
And the east and the south yield their spices and gold.
As the day-spring unbounded, thy splendor shall flow,
And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall bow:
While the ensigns of union, in triumph unfurled,
Hush the tumult of war, and give peace to the world.

5. Thus, as down a lone valley, with cedars o'er-spread,
From war's dread confusion I pensively strayed,
The gloom from the face of fair heaven retired;
The winds ceased to murmur; the thunders expired;
Perfumes, as of Eden, flow'd sweetly along,
And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung:
"Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world and the child of the skies."

 

Anonymous, before 1818

1. O how I have longed for the coming of God
And sought him by praying and searching his word,
With watching and fasting my soul was oppressed,
Nor would I give over till Jesus had blessed.

2. The news of his mercy, at length did appear,
According to promise he answered with prayer,
And glory is opened in floods on my soul,
Salvation from Zion’s beginning to roll.

3. The news of his mercy is spreading abroad,
And sinners come crying and weeping to God,
Their mourning and praying is heard very loud,
And thousands find pardon in Jesus’s blood.

4. Here’s more, my dear Savior, who fall at thy feet,
Oppressed by a burden enormously great,
O raise them, my Jesus, to tell of thy love,
And shout hallelujah like angels above.

5. I’ll sing and I’ll shout, and I’ll shout and I’ll sing,
O God make the nations with raises to ring,
With loud acclamations of Jesus’s love,
And carry us all to the city above.

6. We’ll wait for his chariot, it seems to draw near,
O come my dear Savior, let glory appear;
We long to be singing and shouting above,
With angels o’er-whelmed in Jesus’s love.
________
From Pious Songs: Social, Prayer, Closet, and Camp-Meeting Hymns and Choruses, Third Edition. Baltimore: Armstrong and Berry. 477 pp.