American Patriotic Songs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hail to the Chief

The first time "Hail to the Chief" was played to honour a United States President was in 1815 during the commemoration of George Washington's birthday. The title of the song was taken from a line in the poem "Lady of the Lake" by Sir Walter Scott.

Answer: Johnny

Although the song was written during the American Civil War it became more popular during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The original printed version of the song, credited the words and music to a "Louis Lambert." This was in fact the nom de plume used by Gilbert. The song was also dedicated to "The Army and Navy of the Union."

Answer: U.S. Navy

1n 1906, Midshipman First Class Alfred Miles approached Lieutenant Charles A. Zimmerman, who was the bandmaster of the Naval Academy, with a request to compose "a piece of music that would be inspiring...that would live forever." Miles then wrote the first two stanzas for the football song.

These were subsequently revised by George D. Lottman making the song more than "merely" a football song.

Answer: Woody Guthrie

"This Land is your Land" was written by Woodie Guthrie in 1940 and first appeared in print in the folk-song magazine "Sing Out" in 1954. The tune for the song was taken from the gospel hymn "When the World's on Fire" which had been recorded by the Carter Family in 1930.
Woodie Guthrie was born on 14th July 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma and died on 3rd October 1967. His son Arlo continues in the same folk tradition.

Answer: John Brown's Body

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" first appeared in the publication "The Atlantic Monthly" in February 1862, during the Civil War. The wife of a prominent Boston slavery abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe had visited a Union Army camp in Virginia where she heard soldiers singing a tribute song to the abolitionist John Brown. During her visit, She was challenged by a clergyman at the camp, who was aware that she also wrote poetry, to craft some new verses to the popular song, which would have a more appropriate meaning in respect of the Civil War effort. Howe wrote the new words in a single night.

Answer: Home on the Range

Dr Brewster M. Higley moved to the State of Kansas following the Homestead Act of 1862. "Home on the Range" was originally titled "My Western Home" and was published in 1873 in the publication, "Smith County Pioneer." The melody to the words was written by Daniel E Kelley, who was a friend of Higley's.

Answer: America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)

Although the music to the song "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" is shown on the score as "God Save the King" it is a very cosmopolitan piece of music. As early as the seventeenth century, it could be found in Swiss music, and it also had a long history of usage in Germany, Sweden and Russia. Nine years after Samuel Francis Smith adopted the tune to accompany the words he wrote, the German composer "Beethoven" wrote some piano variations on it.

In Britain, depending on the gender of the monarch at the time, the tune is known as either "God Save the King" or God Save the Queen."

Answer: The Battle of Baltimore

Francis Scott Key's poem "The Star Spangled Banner" was set to an adaptation of the melody to an eighteenth century ode to the Greek poet Anacreon (563-478 B.C.).

Answer: True

"Yankee Doodle" first appeared in a London newsapaper in 1775. Its subtitle was "The Lexington March." The British band played it on it's march to the Battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, during "The Revolutionary War." It was intended to cheer up the Redcoats and encourage them whilst at the same time mock the American soldiers. "Yankee Doodle" is the state song of Connecticut.

Answer: America the Beautiful

The first draft of this poem by Katherine Lee Bates was penned in 1893. She revised it in 1904 and the final version was penned in 1913. She said of the experience which pre-empted the poem:

"One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000 foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. but when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.

The poem was set to a variety of different tunes, but by the 1920s it had become permanently joined with the tune "Materna" which had been composed by Samuel Augustus Ward in 1892 for the hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem."