America, in music, a patriotic hymn of the United States. The words (beginning “My country, 'tis of thee”) were written in 1832 by Samuel Francis Smith while he was a theological student in Andover, Massachusetts. According to his own account he was asked by Lowell Mason to examine a book of German songs and, if he found any good tunes, to write an English translation or an original song. Smith found the tune God Save the King, which inspired the words of his patriotic poem, and it was not until later that he learned that he had happened upon the tune of the British national hymn. The tune is used in many countries, but credit is usually given to the English composer, Henry Carey, for the tune in its present form.
See C. A. Browne, The Story of Our National Ballads (1919), and J. T. Howard, Our American Music (1946).
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