" Maryland, My Maryland " is the official song of the state of the state of Maryland. The song was accompanied by a melody of "Lauriger Horatius" - the same song "O Tannenbaum" was taken. The lyrics are derived from the nine stanzas poems written by James Ryder Randall (1839-1908) in 1861. The state general assembly adopted "Maryland, My Maryland" as the state song on 29 April 1939.
Songs refer to the history and geography of Maryland and specifically mention some important historical figures for the country. The song calls for Maryland to fight the Union and is used in the South during the Civil War as a battle hymn. This has been called the "martial poetry" of America.
Because of its origins in reaction to the Baltimore unrest of 1861 and Randall's support for the Confederacy, it included lyrics that referred to President Abraham Lincoln as "tyrants", "despots", and "Vandals", and to the Union as "Northern Trash", and referred to the phrase "Sic semper tyrannis", whose slogan was then shouted at by Marylander John Wilkes Booth when he killed Lincoln. For this reason, occasional attempts have been made to replace it as a state song of Maryland, but to date, all such efforts have failed.
Video Maryland, My Maryland
History
The poem was the result of events at the beginning of the American Civil War. During the crisis of secession, President Abraham Lincoln (referred to in poetry as "unjust" and "tyrant") ordered Union forces to be brought to Washington, DC, to protect the capital and prepare for war with the breakaway southern states.. Many of these troops were taken through the City of Baltimore, a major transportation hub. There was considerable Confederate sympathy in Maryland at the time, as well as a large number of residents who objected to waging a war against their southern neighbors. Riots occurred when Union troops came through Baltimore on their way south on April 1861 and were attacked by mobs. A number of Union troops and residents of Baltimore died in Baltimore riots. The Maryland legislation summarized the ambivalent feelings of the country when met soon afterwards, on April 29, voted 53-13 against secession, but also voted not to reopen the railway links with the North, and asked Lincoln to remove the growing number of federal troops in Maryland.. At this time, the legislature seems to want to avoid involvement in the war against separating neighbors. The controversial issue of troop transport through Maryland will lead a month later to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, also a Marylander, who writes one of the most controversial war decisions in the United States, Ex parte Merryman.
One of the victims reported from the troop transport riots was Francis X. Ward, a friend of James Ryder Randall. Randall, a native Marylander, taught at Poydras College in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, at the time and, moved by the news of his friend's death, wrote nine verses, "Maryland, My Maryland". The poem is a plea to his native Maryland to break away from Union and join the Confederacy. Randall later claimed the poem was written "almost involuntarily" in the middle of the night on April 26, 1861. Unable to sleep after hearing the news, he claimed "some powerful spirits appeared to possess me... the whole poem was dashed. off quickly... [below] what is called the conflagration of the senses, if not the inspiration of the intellect ".
The poem contains many references to the Revolutionary War as well as Mexican-American and Maryland War figures in the war (many of which have fallen into obscurity). It was first published in New Orleans Sunday Delta . The poem quickly turned into a song - put into the song "Lauriger Horatius" - by Baltimore Jennie Cary, sister of Hetty Cary. It became instantly popular in Maryland, aided by a series of unpopular federal acts there, and across the South. It is sometimes called "Marseillaise of the South". The Confederate United Army band played the song after they crossed over to the Maryland area during the Maryland Campaign in 1862. In 1864, Southern Punch recorded the song "clearly the most popular" among the "national songmakers" for the Confederation. According to some accounts, General Robert E. Lee ordered his troops to sing "Maryland, My Maryland", when they entered the city of Frederick, Maryland, but his troops received a cold response, because Frederick was located in the western part of the union of the country. At least one Confederate band of regiments also played the song as Lee's forces retreated across the Potomac after the bloody Antietam Battle.
During the War, versions of the song were written with lyrics that supported the purpose of the Union.
After the War, author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. comparing "Maryland, My Maryland" with "John Brown's Body" as the two most popular songs of the opposing party in the early months of the conflict. Each side, he wrote, had a "sword in his hand, each with a song in his mouth". The songs also indicate their respective audiences, according to Holmes: "One is a song of praise, with images of ghosts and songs like songs, the other is lyrical poetry, which mainly attracts local pride and passion."
Maps Maryland, My Maryland
Lyrics
Efforts to revise the state song of Maryland
Unsuccessful attempts to revise the song lyrics or to replace songs were entirely attempted by the Maryland General Assembly in 1974, 1980, 1984, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2016, and 2018.
In July 2015, Delegate Peter A. Hammen, chairman of the Maryland Government Delegation Health and Government Committee, requested the State Archives of Maryland to form an advisory panel to review the song. The Panel issued a report in December 2015, which suggested that it was time for the song to be stopped. The panel offers several options for revising the lyrics of the song or replacing it with another song.
The panel report states that the state song of Maryland must:
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- celebrate Maryland and its citizens;
- unique to Maryland;
- is historically significant;
- inclusive of all Marylanders;
- memorable, popular, sung and short (one, or at most, two long stanzas)
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By 2016, the Maryland Senate passed a law to revise the song to include only the third lyrics of Randall's lyrics and only the fourth stanza of poetry of the same name, written in 1894, by John T. White. The revision has the support of the Maryland Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller, who rejected changes to "Maryland, My Maryland" in the past. It was not reported from the Operations Committee on Health and Government at the House of Delegates, however.
On August 28, 2017, The Mighty Sound of Maryland, a marching band from the University of Maryland, announced that they will suspend playing songs until they have time to review whether they are in tune with school values.
On March 16, 2018, the Maryland Senate passed a revised bill that would change the status of "Maryland! My Maryland!" from "official country song" to "State Historical song". The Bill received a Dissatisfaction Report by the Health and Governance Operations Committee on April 9, 2018.
Other uses of melody
The songs "Michigan, My Michigan", "Florida, My Florida", and "The Song of Iowa" are set to the same tone as "Maryland, My Maryland". In 1962, Edmund Wilson used the phrase "patriotic gore" of the song as the title of his book on American Civil War literature. The third verse "Maryland, My Maryland" is sung every year at Preakness Stakes by the gang club of the United States Naval Academy.
In the movie version of Gone with the Wind, "Maryland, My Maryland" played in the opening scene of Charity Ball when Scarlett and Melanie re-acquainted with Rhett Butler. It confuses some viewers to think it's a Christmas ball with "O Tannenbaum" playing in the background.
Bing Crosby put the song in the medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961).
See also
- Maryland in the American Civil War
- US state song list
References
- Maryland State Archives (2004). Maryland State Song - "Maryland, My Maryland". Retrieved December 27, 2004.
- Morrison Foundation for Music Research, Inc. (January 15, 2004). James Ryder Randall (1839 - 1908). Retrieved December 27, 2004.
External links
- Washington Post : The state of Maryland's song is very off-key, the panel says
- "Maryland, My Maryland": Women, War, and Song, at the University of Maryland Library
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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