Sheet Music: The Battle Hymn of the Republic

TitleThe Battle Hymn of the Republic
Alternate titlesJohn Brown's Body
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
ComposerWilliam Steffe (1830–1890)
InstrumentationFlute and Piano
KeyB-flat major
RangeD5–D6
Time signature4/4
Tempo100 BPM
Performance time0:50
Difficulty leveleasy
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (73 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (702 kB)
Play-along accompanimentMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (702 kB)
Date added2009-08-29
Last updated2009-08-29
Download popularity index☆☆☆☆☆ 1.5 (above average)
Categories
American Civil War, Funeral music, Hymn tunes, Marches, Military music, Patriotic, Spirituals, Traditional/Folk

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Saturday 29 August 2009

Tune of the Day: The Battle Hymn of the Republic

American patriotic song, aka “John Brown's Body”

This tune was originally written around 1855 by William Steffe as a campfire spiritual, “Oh brothers, will you meet us on Canaan's happy shore?”. The tune spread across the United States, taking on many sets of new lyrics, and eventually evolved into the well-known “John Brown's Body”.

In 1861 Julia Ward Howe heard the song during a public review of the troops in Washington, D.C. She wrote a poem to the same tune for The Atlantic Monthly, and the magazine called it “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

The hymn was sung at the fun­er­als of Brit­ish states­man Win­ston Church­ill, Amer­i­can sen­at­or Ro­bert Ken­ne­dy, and Amer­i­can pre­si­dents Ron­ald Rea­gan and Ri­chard Nix­on.