America Hears the Call
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https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/96388890-e466-0135-4ad8-0050569601ca-9The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to the following terms and conditions: https://www.newberry.org/rights-and-reproductions
Descriptive Information
Title | America Hears the Call |
Alternative Title | Benny Havens, Oh! |
Composer | anonymous |
Lyricist | Howe, Rev. Reginald Heber |
Publisher | Boston : C. W. Thompson & Co. |
Year of Publication | 1917 |
Date of Copyright | No copyright registered. |
Physical Description | 1 score, mixed chorus and piano ([1], [1-2], [1]p.) |
Type | Musical notation |
Comment | Both the content of the lyrics and the author's biography place this song in 1917. In both tune and text, Howe clearly sought to link America's entry into the war with the recruitment of troops in the Civil War: “Benny Havens, Oh!” was a popular Civil War tune, and Howe's text recalls “We Are Coming, Father Abraham,” a Civil War poem that was sometimes sung to the same tune. |
Historical Note |
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Musical Note | A simple march ballad (“Moderato”) set for four-part chorus, with fermatas in the penultimate line, this song provides a new text for “The Wearing of the Green,” to which the text to “Benny Havens, Oh!” had been set in the early nineteenth century. The melody is quoted in full in a standard four-part arrangement that is nearly identical to that found in Songs That Never Grow Old (1913). |
Dedication | Dedication |
Subject - Topic | |
Lyrics |
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Musical Genre | March ballad |
Repository | Newberry Library |
Conditions of Use | The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to the following terms and conditions: https://www.newberry.org/rights-and-reproductions |
Cover Description | Text only, with simple dividers. |
Back Cover Description | Blank. |
Interior Description |
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Performance Medium | Mixed voices and piano. |
Local Identifier | nda163_094 |
Collection | World War I Sheet Music from the James Francis Driscoll Collection of American Sheet Music |
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