![]() The Commandant of Midshipmen approved the music and "Navy Blue and Gold" was first sung in public in its present form on April 24, 1926. After several other efforts to fit music to the words had failed, the present tune was received with acclaim by the Glee Club. The words were set to music and tried out by the Glee Club but the music did not take at all. The first fruits of this movement came in 1921, when an officer in the Fleet submitted the inspiring words that were later adopted. For years most of the songs had dealt with football games and the traditional rivalry with West Point. This composition is the result of efforts to have a strictly Naval Academy song. "Navy Blue and Gold" (Naval Academy's Alma Mater Song). ![]() ![]() "Anchor's Aweigh" is the air to which the regiment of midshipmen march into the stadium for their annual football game with the cadets of the United States Military Academy it is the inspiring march that the band plays when the midshipmen pass in review during dress parade it is the song that every graduate will sing upon the slightest provocation. Commander A. H. Miles, then a midshipman, wrote the words with the exception of the last verse which was written in 1925 by Midshipman R. Lovell, Class of 1926. b The tune was composed by Lieutenant Zimmerman, Bandmaster of the Naval Academy Band and Choir Director, who composed a march each year for the graduating class. "Anchor's Aweigh." - The words and music of this song are entirely a Naval Academy production, and as first written was intended as the 1907 Class march. Only those who have delved into Naval Academy traditions and incidents know that the original manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner" rested silently from about 1814 to 1845 on the very spot which was to become the United States Naval Academy. "The Star-Spangled Banner." - The National Anthem is the piece of music most often heard in the Navy, played as it is at "Colors" and at the conclusion of every official entertainment.įrancis Scott Key spent much of his early life in Annapolis, on the spot of the present United States Naval Academy, where he frequently visited his friend and brother-in‑law, Judge Nicholson, who set this anthem to the air of "Anacreon in Heaven." Also as the cadets of the United States Military Academy are the traditional rivals of the midshipmen, it is natural that so many of the songs should have reference to the West Pointers - more usually referred to as the "Army" and the "Gray-legs." Those that follow are a few of the ones midshipmen sing during their years at the Naval Academy and on their practice cruise.Īs the singing and cheering at athletic contests is an important part of the contest, a large percentage of Academy songs are athletic in nature. The Book of Navy Songs was collected and edited by the "Trident Society" of the United States Naval Academy and the Naval Institute is indebted to that midshipmen's organization for permission to include in this issue certain of the many songs associated with the Naval Academy. The songs reproduced in this issue are taken from The Book of Navy Songs, a carefully compiled collection of the most typical songs sung by the men and officers of the United States Navy from its very birth right down to the present day. ![]() There is not a graduate that has not on more than one occasion been called upon to lead or participate in a 4‑N yell during reunions, parties with our Army friends, or other gatherings where good fellowship reigns. The cheer that the graduates carry into the Service is the 4‑N, probably because it is the oldest, is the most familiar, and is the simplest of execution. ![]() Throughout the four years at the academy and on the practice cruises giving voice to these cheers is the method midshipmen use to show their approbation, appreciation, and good fellowship.Īs an instance, last summer the press carried a story that a group of midshipmen on their practice cruise was given an audience by the Pope and that upon their departure the midshipmen made the walls of the Vatican echo to a "4‑N with three Holy Fathers." a It is not only at football games that midshipmen make the welkin ring with their yells. ![]()
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