Samuel A. Ward: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|American organist and composer}}

'''Samuel Augustus Ward''' ([[28 December]], [[1847]] - [[28 September]], [[1903]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[organist]] and [[composer]]. Born in [[Newark, New Jersey]], Ward studied music in [[New York]] and became an organist at Grace [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]] Church in Newark in [[1880]]. He is remembered for his hymn "Materna" ([[1882]]) which was used for the anthem "[[America the Beautiful]]", with words by [[Katharine Lee Bates]]. However, Ward never met Ms Bates, and he died in [[1903]] in Newark.

{{For|others with this name|Samuel Ward (disambiguation)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}[[File:Samuel Augustus Ward.jpg|thumb|upright|Samuel Augustus 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,<ref name=":3"/> he studied under several teachers in New York and became an organist at [[Grace Church (Newark)|Grace Episcopal Church]] in his home town in 1880. He married Virginia Ward in 1871, with whom he had four daughters.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/americabeautiful00sher|title=America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind our Nations's Favorite Song|last=Sherr|first=Lynn|publisher=Public Affairs|___location=New York |year=2001|isbn=9781586480851}}</ref>

He is remembered for the 1882 tune "Materna", which he intended as a setting for the hymn "[[O Mother dear, Jerusalem|O Mother Dear, Jerusalem]]".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000001/|title=America the Beautiful|work=The Library of Congress|access-date=2018-11-25|language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kde8yd0INHsC&pg=PA379|title=The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion|last=McKim|first=LindaJo H.|date=1993-01-01|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=9780664251802|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SXYDQAAQBAJ|title=Stories Behind the Hymns That Inspire America: Songs That Unite Our Nation|last=Collins|first=Ace|date=2009-08-30|publisher=Zondervan|isbn=9780310866855|language=en}}</ref> Ward never met Bates.<ref name=":3" />

Samuel A. Ward, the composer, was the last in an unbroken line of Samuel Wards beginning with Rhode Island Governor (and Representative to the Continental Congress) Sam Ward. Samuel A. Ward had no children who lived to adulthood. {{Fact|date=March 2007}}

Ward was founder and first director of the Orpheus Club of Newark,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> where he died on September 28, 1903.<ref name=":0" /> He is buried in Newark‘s Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Ward was inducted into the [[Songwriters Hall of Fame]] in 1970.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.songhall.org/ceremony/1970_awards_and_induction_ceremony|title=1970 Inaugural Induction Ceremony|website=Songwriters Hall of Fame|access-date=2018-11-25}}</ref>

Samuel A. Ward was inducted into the [[Songwriters' Hall of Fame]] in [[1970]].

==External linkReferences ==

{{Reflist}}

*[http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_home_page.asp?exhibitId=202 Samuel A. Ward's entry at the Songwriters' Hall of Fame]

==External links==

*{{Shof|id=202|Samuel A. Ward}}

*{{IMSLP|id=Ward, Samuel Augustus}}

*{{ChoralWiki|Samuel A. Ward}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Samuel A.}}

[[Category:18471848 births]]

[[Category:1903 deaths]]

[[Category:Songwriters19th-century HallAmerican of Fame inducteescomposers]]

[[Category:19th-century American male musicians]]

[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]

[[Category:American classical composers]]

[[Category:American classical organists]]

[[Category:RomanticAmerican male classical composers]]

[[Category:American Romantic composers]]

[[Category:PeopleBurials fromat Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)]]

[[Category:Classical musicians from New Jersey]]

[[Category:Classical musicians from New York (state)]]

{{US-composer-stub}}

[[Category:Musicians from Newark, New Jersey]]

[[Category:American male classical organists]]

[[Category:19th-century American organists]]

{{US-composer-19thC-stub}}

{{US-keyboardist-stub}}

[[nl:Samuel Augustus Ward]]