by Christa Visperas

Created on: July 02, 2009   Last Updated: July 04, 2009

The United States celebrates its Independence Day every Fourth of July to commemorate the momentous occasion when its founding fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776.

Every American since then celebrate this National Day with family and friends, parades and fantastic firework displays, cheery barbecues and picnics, and a concert or baseball game or two.

This holiday also brings out the patriotic spirit in Americans, with the stars and stripes proudly unfurled. But nowhere is this spirit more visible than in the patriotic songs that are sung to glorify the birth of the American nation and to honor the American men and women that made America a great and independent nation.

One such inspirational song that reflects the patriotic spirit of America is "America the Beautiful". The words written by English professor Katharine Lee Bates was set to music by choirmaster Samuel A. Ward, and went on to become one of the best-loved patriotic songs in America. It was said that Bates wrote the poem where the song was based after being moved by the sights of America she saw in one of her train travels, such as the golden wheat fields of Kansas and the magnificent view of the Great Plains on top of Zebulon's Pikes Peak. "America the Beautiful" is melodic and lyrical, with both words and music clearly capturing the admiration that Americans feel for the natural beauty of their country.

"Yankee Doodle" is another song that occupies a prominent place in American patriotism. It is actually a British song that circulated in America as a seemingly silly dither about a character referred to as "Yankee Doodle". "Yankee Doodle" is a pre-Revolutionary War character that reflected the British military's perception of the colonial "Yankees" during the French and Indian War, alluding to the disorganized and unprofessional demeanor of most of the colonials. This song typifies the great American spirit, where despite the mocking message that this song originally carried, the colonials embraced it with good humor and succeeded to make this song their own.

Before the "Star-Spangled Banner", there was "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", which was written by Samuel Francis Smith with the melody adopted from the British national anthem. The song is about the "sweet land of liberty" and how the sight of this country causes "heart with rapture thrills". This song is noteworthy because when Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the 1963 Civil Rights March, he quoted excerpts from this song in his famous speech "I Have a Dream", the speech that inspired and made a great impact in the course of the nation's history.

The "Star-Spangled Banner" is the official anthem of the United States, based on the 1814 poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" by Francis Scott Key who witnessed the bombardment of Fort Henry during the Battle of Baltimore in 1812. The tune for this song came from "The Anacreontic Song" which was already widely popular in America at that time. The "Star-Spangled Banner" is a difficult song to sing, but it is perhaps this intricacy that made the song more fitting as the National Anthem of a nation born out of hardship, thrived in adversity, and went on to become a great country despite all odds.

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