(Arranged by Carmen Dragon)

It was the spacious skies and purple mountain majesties of Pikes Peak in Colorado that inspired Katherine Lee Bates to write the poem America, the Beautiful in 1893. It was not intended to be sung, but its meter fitted a number of tunes popular at the time. It is most closely associated with Samuel Augustus Ward's Materna, originally written for a hymn in 1882. Together, the words and music have become the country's second most popular patriotic song. --James Huff 06:04, 23 November 2008 (UTC) (from the program notes of The Claremont Winds, submitted with permission)