{"id":1329,"date":"2018-07-02T06:21:35","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T10:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2018-07-02T07:18:35","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T11:18:35","slug":"guitar-music-for-the-4th-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/guitar-music-for-the-4th-of-july\/","title":{"rendered":"Guitar Music for the 4th of July"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fireworks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you are a guitarist and are looking for music to celebrate Independence Day this July 4th, here is a patriotic song that became popular during the American Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

The words and music were both composed by America\u2019s first prolific composer, William Billings (1746\u20131800). Billings lived in Boston and made his living as a tanner. He was part of an effort in Protestant churches in America to help congregations learn to sing well. He composed over 100 songs and taught in a \u201csinging school\u201d in his church.<\/p>\n

The first verse and tune of the hymn \u201cChester\u201d were published by Billings in The New England Psalm Singer\u00a0<\/em>(1770). The remaining verses were added during the war and published in The Singing Master’s Assistant<\/em>\u00a0(1778).<\/p>\n

CHESTER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
\nAnd Slav’ry clank her galling chains,
\nWe fear them not, we trust in God,
\nNew England’s God forever reigns.<\/p>\n

Howe\u00a0and\u00a0Burgoyne\u00a0and\u00a0Clinton\u00a0too,
\nWith Prescot and\u00a0Cornwallis\u00a0join’d,
\nTogether plot our Overthrow,
\nIn one Infernal league combin’d.<\/p>\n

When God inspir’d us for the fight,
\nTheir ranks were broke, their lines were forc’d,
\nTheir ships were Shatter’d in our sight,
\nOr swiftly driven from our Coast.<\/p>\n

The Foe comes on with haughty Stride;
\nOur troops advance with martial noise,
\nTheir Vet’rans flee before our Youth,
\nAnd Gen’rals yield to beardless Boys.<\/p>\n

What grateful Off’ring shall we bring?
\nWhat shall we render to the Lord?
\nLoud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
\nAnd praise His name on ev’ry Chord.<\/p>\n

Download a transcription of the tune CHESTER<\/a> for classical guitar (PDF sheet music).<\/p>\n

Download a transcription of the national anthem<\/a> (The Star Spangled Banner) for classical guitar (PDF sheet music).<\/p>\n

More music for classical guitar<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a guitarist and are looking for music to celebrate Independence Day this July 4th, here is a patriotic song that became popular during the American Revolutionary War. The words and music were both composed by America\u2019s first prolific composer, William Billings (1746\u20131800). Billings lived in Boston and made his living as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[74,3],"tags":[214,76,75,98,122,18,215],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-music","tag-america","tag-classical-guitar","tag-guitar","tag-hymn","tag-independence-day","tag-music-2","tag-revolutionary-war"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4lLgO-lr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1335,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}