University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alma mater

Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...

of the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

was adopted soon after the University changed its name in 1908 from the Western University of Pennsylvania to its current moniker. Lyrics were written by George M. P. Baird, class of 1909 and were set to the tune of what was then the Austrian National Anthem (adopted as the German National Anthem in 1922). A new tune for the "Alma Mater" hymn was composed by Charles W. Scovel, class of 1883, but it was not widely adopted and was either lost or became obscure.

Use and recordings

The "Alma Mater" acts as an official anthem

Anthem

The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...

of the university and often is played to open and/or close various University functions, including athletic contests such as football

Pittsburgh Panthers football

Pittsburgh Panthers football is the intercollegiate football team of the University of Pittsburgh, often referred to as "Pitt", located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Traditionally the most popular sport at the university, Pitt football has played at the highest level of American college football...

and basketball games. It is more formal than the traditional fight songs such as "Hail to Pitt

Hail to Pitt

"Hail to Pitt" is the most traditional fight song of the University of Pittsburgh, which is commonly referred to as Pitt. The saying "Hail to Pitt!" is also the most traditional and commonly used slogan of the University of Pittsburgh and its athletics teams. The slogan is frequently used in...

" and the "Victory Song

Pitt Victory Song

The Pitt Victory Song, one of the most popular and widely used fight songs of the University of Pittsburgh, is often played in conjunction with Hail to Pitt and the Panther Song. Few people know the rarely heard first portion of the song, before the chorus. Lyrics were by G. Norman Reis and...

", and is typically played and sung in a more reverent fashion than other university songs.

One of the first professional recordings of "Alma Mater", along with "Hail to Pitt", was by the Criterion Quartet on Gennett Records

Gennett Records

Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.-Label history:Gennett records was founded in Richmond, Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett....

in 1920 During the 1940s, Joseph Wood

Joseph R. Wood

Joseph Wood was an American composer and music educator.-Biography:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wood attended Bucknell University from 1932-1934. Afterwords, he began his formal music training at the Juilliard Institute of Musical Arts where he received a diploma in piano performance in 1936...

conducted a recording of a collection of songs entitled Songs of the University of Pittsburgh that featured Walter Scheff, Ralph Nyland, and Michael Stewart

Michael Stewart (musician)

Michael “Mike” Stewart was the guitarist for We Five. He was also the brother of John Stewart , a one-time member of The Kingston Trio and later a very successful singer/songwriter, and the father of Jamie Stewart, frontman of popular avant-garde group Xiu Xiu...

. Released on two 78-rpm discs by Republic records, the album featured "Pitt Alma Mater", "Hail to Pitt

Hail to Pitt

", "The Panther", and the "Pitt Victory Song

Pitt Victory Song

". Various compilations by the Pitt Band and Pitt Men's Glee Club have also been produced that have included the "Alma Mater". Around the 1952-1953 school year, the Pitt Band and the Pitt Men's Glee Club collaborated to release a compilation songs entitled Songs of Pitt on RCA Victor Records. More recent compilations included two versions of the "Alma Mater" in a 1987 three record set entitled Proud Traditions on the Europadisk Ltd. label that celebrated the bicentennial of Pitt's founding, Pitt Spirit released on audio cassette in 1989, Proudly Pittsburgh in 1997, and in the late 2000s Pitt Pride! and Panther Fans...Are You Ready? on compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

. Today, the Pitt's "Alma Mater" is available for purchase in a variety of formats including compact discs, MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

s, and ringtones.

Lyrics

The lyrics below to the University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater are attributable to the 1916 edition of The Owl student yearbook. The song is to be sung con spirito (as a triumphant anthem, not as a dirge). Some printings of the Alma Mater do not repeat the first verse at the end of the song.

Alma Mater, wise and glorious,

    Child of Light and Bride of Truth,

Over fate and foe victorious,

    Dowered with eternal youth,

Crowned with love of son and daughter,

    Thou shalt conquer as of yore,

Dear old Pittsburgh, Alma Mater,

    God preserve Thee evermore!

First beyond the mountains founded,

    Where the West-road opens free,

When twin rivers forest bounded,

    Merge and journey toward the sea,

In the dawning of the nation

    Ere the clouds of strife had cleared,

'Rose Thy rough-hewn habitation,

    By our prophet fathers reared.

Close Thy mother-love embraces

    All who gather at Thy knee,

Castes and classes, creeds and races,

    Mother, are as one to Thee;

Thou who unto knowledge bore us,

    In the good old days long gone,

Raise Thy Gold and Blue high o'er us,

    Land and we will follow on.

Alma Mater, wise and glorious,

    Child of Light and Bride of Truth,

Over fate and foe victorious

    Dowered with eternal youth,

Crowned with love of son and daughter,

    Thou shalt conquer as of yore,

Dear Old Pittsburgh, Alma Mater,

    God preserve Thee evermore.

The lyrics of the second stanza refer to the geographical location of the university in Pittsburgh and that city's role in the early nation as the "Gateway to the West". "First beyond the mountains founded" refers to the fact that the University of Pittsburgh is the oldest continuously chartered institution of learning in the U.S., west of the Allegheny Mountains

Allegheny Mountains

The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...

. The verse stating "twin rivers forest bounded, Merge and journey toward the sea" refers to the confluence

Confluence

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...

of the Allegheny River

Allegheny River

The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

from the northeast and Monongahela River

Monongahela River

The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...

from the southeast to form the Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

which eventually merges into the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

that runs in the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

. The "dawning of the nation" refers to the cities establishment as a fort and trading post prior to the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

and the founding of the school in 1787, just before the beginning of the Constitutional Convention

Philadelphia Convention

The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from...

, and to the "rough-hewn habitation" refers to the mostly log and wooden structures that made up the early city at this time, including the school's own origins in a log cabin

Log Cabin (University of Pittsburgh)

The Log Cabin at the University of Pittsburgh, located near Forbes Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania adjacent to the school's Cathedral of Learning, serves as a landmark that symbolizes the university's origins on the 18th Century western frontier of the early United States...

.

In the third stanza, "All who gather at Thy knee, Castes and classes, creeds and races, Mother, are as one to Thee" references the long history of diversity in the university's student body as the first African-American student attended the school in 1829 and the first women in 1895.. "Gold and Blue" refer to the school's colors, which were chosen sometime prior to the twentieth century when the university was known as the Western University of Pennsylvania.

Music

The official alma mater of the University of Pittsburgh is set to the tune of Joseph Haydn's

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

1797 music for "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God save Francis the Emperor") and was used as the official anthem of the Austrian emperor until the end of the monarchy in 1918. Haydn also used the tune in the second movement of one of his string quartets, the "Kaiserquartett". It was adopted as the music for the German national anthem, "Das Deutschlandlied", in 1922 during the time of the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

and is still used as the German national anthem today. The tune is also used in the English-speaking world as a hymn tune

Hymn tune

A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....

, often used for the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken" by John Newton

John Newton

John Henry Newton was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career on the sea at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of...

. In this context, the tune is called "Austria", "Austrian Hymn", or "Emperor's Hymn" http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/l/glorious.htm The tune is also used for the hymn "Not Alone for Mighty Empire" by William P. Merrill

William P. Merrill

William Pierson Merrill was an American Presbyterian clergyman, pacifist, author, and hymn writer. He was acknowledged during his time as one of the most influential ministers in America...

. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/n/a/nalonfme.htm

Western University of Pennsylvania

Prior to 1908, the university was known as the Western University of Pennsylvania (W.U.P.), which was often termed "Wup" for short. The lyrics for the Alma Mater for W.U.P., per the 1907 The Owl student yearbook, are below. The references to the old name of the school in every stanza of the song suggest that, upon the university taking the name of the University of Pittsburgh in 1908, that a desire grew to replace it with a new Alma Mater.

           ALMA MATER

                      I.

Have you heard the glad refrain?

We will sing it once again,

    Singing for Western Pennsylvania.

With our loyal comrades true

We will cheer the gold and blue,

    Cheering for Western Pennsylvania.

                Chorus.

Hail, Alma Mater,

Thy sons cheer thee now,

To thee, W-U-P,

All foemen must bow;

Victorious forever

They colors shall be,

And ever shall wave in victory

                       II.

Every morn our colors rise

In the blue and golden skies,

    Shining for Western Pennsylvania,

And the love in every soul

Brings us nearer to the goal-

    Vict'ry for Western Pennsylvania

                       III.

Every man shall play his part;

Each hath love within his heart,

    Love for old Western Pennsylvania

Dear old Wup shall never fear

While a thousand voices cheer,

    Cheer for old Western Pennsylvania.

                       IV.

Let the echo then resound

With the joyous gladsome sound,

    Singing for Western Pennsylvania

Loyalty each breast shall sway,

Hand and heart shall meet to-day,

    Cheering for Western Pennsylvania.

                      Chant.

Western Pennsylvania,

All Hail to thee;

Ever beloved

They name shall be.

Honored in memory

Thy name we hold;

Ever revering

The Blue and Gold-

                       Amen.

Alma Mater chants

Various lyrics, poems, or chants under the heading or title of "Alma Mater" have appeared throughout the years in various student and school publications. The pervasiveness and use of these lyrics throughout the university is generally unknown.

A Chant

The following uncredited Alma Mater: A Chant appeared in front of the 1911 The Owl student yearbook. Published by the junior class, the yearbook chronicles only the second school year in which the university was first known as the University of Pittsburgh following its name change from the Western University of Pennsylvania. Unknown is whether this chant served as a predecessor or candidate Alma Mater for the university.

The lyrics of the chant represent an appreciation for the struggles endured during throughout the history of the university, which had recently moved to a new location in the Oakland

Oakland (Pittsburgh)

Oakland is the academic, cultural, and healthcare center of Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania's third largest "Downtown". Only Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh can claim more economic and social activity than Oakland...

section of Pittsburgh. This is reflected in the theme of that year's Owl, who was dedicated to "The Builders of the University." Specifically referenced in the third stanza are references to two fires in the university's history: the Great Fire of 1845 that wiped out 20 square blocks of the most valuable part of Pittsburgh and the subsequent fire only four years later in 1849 that destroyed the university and forced a suspension of its operations while it regrouped and rebuilt.

Alma Mater

A Chant

Up from the heart of things Thou hast risen, my beautiful mother,

Born with the nation, in strife of Freedom's travail and tears,

Formed of the new-word stuff and breath of the great Primeval,

Strong in the valiant thews and the heart of the Pioneers.

Blessed are they of old appointed by God for they keeping,

Men of the larger life, world-sculptors, captains, seers

Of the time to be, in they wilderness birth

Fruits of this perfect tree, glory of coming years.

Up, through sorrow and toil Thou hast struggled, my beautiful mother,

Life wars, lures of the dust, pangs of becoming, flashes

Of world-hate conquered and broken, twice purged by refining fires

Phoenix-like, dowered with truth, Thou hast risen in strength from the ashes.

Loyal are they and true, the sons of they blest, begetting,

Proud with a son's just, pride, loving, swift to defend,

Doing God's work and thine in the fields of the world forever

Till the hand of the flower be stayed and song of the reaper shall end.

White on thy mountain top though shinest, my beautiful mother,

Tented by sapphire skies and cloudbergs fashioned in gold,

Gazing with theoughful eyes o'er the ale to the world's last, border

Were the battle of Being is red and the new life wars with the old.

Potent and wise are they who trim thy torch for the burning,

Consecrate priests of the truth, maters of lore and deed,

Pouring the miracle cruse that, richer grows the pouring,

Making the base things high, sowing the perfect feed.

Rise, for they triumph is come, O my glorious mother,

And my city, forsaking her worship of riches and power,

Shall leap from her grime and her gold, at Thy bidding stand

Inspired, a sister of might in they conquering hour.

A Chant for Unwreathed Victory

A chant, entitled Alma Mater, appeared in the 1914 Owl student yearbook and may have been a candidate to become, or a predecessor of, the current University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater that first appeared in the 1916 Owl. The author, who may have been Baird, was credited simply as "B.-'09", and although no mention was made of possible accompanying music, the Owl contained the following lyrics.

             Alma Mater

A Chant for Unwreathed Victory

               ————

O Thou, who tread'st, with valiant feet,

     The rugged road of hostile years,

Whose lot hath been the glean-ed ears

     Snatched from a world of garnered wheat,

O hungered tender of the vine

     Wright of unguerdoned husbandry,

O thirst-irked treaderout of wine

     Red crushed for others' revelry,

Wreathed in new song, I bring to Thee

     The love of those whose hearts are thine.

Upon they hip the sword of might,

     In thy firm hand the torch of truth,

Thy cheeks flushed with eternal youth

     Thy sapphire eyes thought-starred with light ;

Strong limbed and goddess molded, free,

     Aureant armored, laurel crowned,

And 'neath thy fountain brests close bound

     With cinctures of self mastery

Hear thou the song we sing for Thee

     In whose fair strength our hope is found.

O Thou, who from reluctant dust

     Mingled with labor's sweat and tears, —

Strong in a faith that knows no fears,—

     'Gainst scourge of flame and jealous thrust

Hast reared Thy pillared citadel ;

     O keeper of the sacred fire,

O warder of Pirene's well

     O pioneer of hearts' desire,

On in they triumph mounting higher

     To thunderous song no storm can quell.

Thy faith mocks our inconstancy,

     Thy lavish palms, our avarice,

Thou giv'st beyond great rubies' price,

     A niggard alms we grudge to Thee ;

We buy world-laughter and reproach

     In love of show and civic guad,

For alien brows Thy cruse we broach,

     Thy wealth we squander far abroad ;

How long shall scorn and churlish pence

     Be bartered for thine opulence?

God help thy loyal sons to plead

     Thy righteous cause till men shall rise

To aid Thee in thy high emprise

     And guard thee in thine hour of need ;

God rear thy temples on the height,

     Loosen thy burdens, set them free.

God give thee champions to fight

     The winning fight for truth and thee.

God give thee faith to keep aright

     Thine upwards path of destiny.

External links

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