Samuel A. Ward
Samuel A. Ward
Samuel Augustus Ward (December 28, 1848 – September 28, 1903) was an American organist and composer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a shoemaker,[1] he studied under several teachers in New York and became an organist at Grace Episcopal Church in his home town in 1880. He married Virginia Ward in 1871, with whom he had four daughters.[1]
He is remembered for the 1882 tune "Materna", which he intended as a setting for the hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem".[2] This was published ten years later, in 1892. In 1903, after Ward had died, the tune was first combined by a publisher with the Katharine Lee Bates poem "America", itself first published in 1895, to create the patriotic song "America the Beautiful." The first book with the combination was published in 1910.[3][4] Ward never met Bates.[1]
Ward was the founder and first director of the still extant Orpheus Club of Newark,[3][4] where he died on September 28, 1903.[2] Buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the same city, he was the last in an unbroken line of Samuel Wards, beginning with the Rhode Island Governor and Representative to the Continental Congress.[citation needed] Ward was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Sherr, Lynn (2001). America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind our Nations's Favorite Song. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 9781586480851.
- ^ a b "America the Beautiful". The Library of Congress. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- ^ a b McKim, LindaJo H. (January 1, 1993). The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664251802.
- ^ a b Collins, Ace (August 30, 2009). Stories Behind the Hymns That Inspire America: Songs That Unite Our Nation. Zondervan. ISBN 9780310866855.
- ^ "1970 Inaugural Induction Ceremony". Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
External links[edit]
- A. Ward Samuel A. Ward at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
- Free scores by Samuel A. Ward at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Free scores by Samuel A. Ward in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
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- 1847 births
- 1903 deaths
- American classical organists
- American male organists
- American Romantic composers
- American male classical composers
- American classical composers
- Musicians from Newark, New Jersey
- Burials at Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)
- Burials in New Jersey
- 19th-century American composers
- Classical musicians from New York (state)
- Classical musicians from New Jersey
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 19th-century American male musicians
- American composer, 19th-century birth stubs
- American keyboardist stubs
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