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mmcirvinOkay, here is something that has baffled me for a while. The Morton Gould piece to which I am listening is based on an American Revolutionary hymn called "Chester", which was apparently one of the most popular patriotic songs at the time and sort of an unofficial proto-national anthem for a while.
This page has some lyrics for "Chester". These lyrics have been somewhat redacted: originally they were much more specific about naming names, which made the song rather inflammatory.
In any case, try as I might I can't figure out how you'd sing those lyrics to this tune. They don't quite seem to go. Were they just a little looser about beats-to-syllables correspondence at the time? Were they doing Mariah Carey type histrionics with the "i-i-iron rod"?
UPDATE: It was William Schuman, not Morton Gould. Thanks, Sam.
This page has some lyrics for "Chester". These lyrics have been somewhat redacted: originally they were much more specific about naming names, which made the song rather inflammatory.
In any case, try as I might I can't figure out how you'd sing those lyrics to this tune. They don't quite seem to go. Were they just a little looser about beats-to-syllables correspondence at the time? Were they doing Mariah Carey type histrionics with the "i-i-iron rod"?
UPDATE: It was William Schuman, not Morton Gould. Thanks, Sam.