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came curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper. Amazing Grace was written to illustrate a sermon on New
Years Day of 1773. It is unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses; it may have simply been
chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779
in Newton and Cowpers Olney Hymns but settled into
relative obscurity in England. In the United States however, Amazing Grace was used extensively during the
Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. It has
been associated with more than 20 melodies, but in 1835
it was joined to a tune named New Britain to which it
is most frequently sung today.
2
ton to become a clergyman, but she died of tuberculosis
when he was six years old.[5] For the next few years,
Newton was raised by his emotionally distant stepmother
while his father was at sea, and spent some time at a
boarding school where he was mistreated.[6] At the age
of eleven, he joined his father on a ship as an apprentice;
his seagoing career would be marked by headstrong disobedience.
As a youth, Newton began a pattern of coming very close
to death, examining his relationship with God, then relapsing into bad habits. As a sailor, he denounced his
faith after being inuenced by a shipmate who discussed
Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, a book
by the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, with him. In a series of
letters he later wrote, Like an unwary sailor who quits his
port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and
comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other
comfort was about to fail me.[7] His disobedience caused
him to be pressed into the Royal Navy, and he took advantage of opportunities to overstay his leave and nally
deserted to visit Mary Polly Catlett, a family friend with
whom he had fallen in love.[8] After enduring humiliation for deserting,[lower-alpha 1] he managed to get himself
traded to a slave ship where he began a career in slave
trading.[lower-alpha 2]
Newton often openly mocked the captain by creating obscene poems and songs about him that became so popular the crew began to join in.[9] He entered into disagreements with several colleagues that resulted in his being starved almost to death, imprisoned while at sea and
chained like the slaves they carried, then outright enslaved
and forced to work on a plantation in Sierra Leone near
Newtons conversion was not immediate, but he contacted Pollys family and announced his intentions to
marry her. Her parents were hesitant as he was known
to be unreliable and impetuous. They knew he was profane, but they allowed him to write to Polly, and he set to
begin to submit to authority for her sake.[16] He sought a
place on a slave ship bound for Africa, and Newton and
his crewmates participated in most of the same activities
he had written about before; the only immorality from
which he was able to free himself was profanity. After a severe illness his resolve was renewed, yet he retained the same attitude towards slavery as was held by
his contemporaries.[lower-alpha 5] Newton continued in the
slave trade through several voyages where he sailed up
rivers in Africa now as a captain procured slaves being oered for sale in larger ports, and subsequently transported them to North America. In between voyages, he
married Polly in 1750 and he found it more dicult to
leave her at the beginning of each trip. After three shipping experiences in the slave trade, Newton was promised
2.1
Olney Hymns
a position as ships captain with cargo unrelated to slavery He will my shield and portion be
when, at the age of thirty, he collapsed and never sailed As long as life endures.
again.[17][lower-alpha 6]
Yes, when this esh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call'd me here below,
Will be forever mine.
John Newton, Olney Hymns, 1779
The vicarage in Olney, where Newton wrote the hymn that would
become Amazing Grace
Olney curate
2.1
Olney Hymns
3 DISSEMINATION
Chronicles 17:1617, Faiths Review and Expectation hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high
was the title of the poem with the rst line Amazing degree, O LORD God.
grace! (how sweet the sound)".[4]
1 Chronicles 17:1617, King James Version
2.2
Critical analysis
And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and
said, Who am I, O LORD God, and what is mine house, 3 Dissemination
that thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet this was a
small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spo- Although it had its roots in England, Amazing Grace
ken of thy servants house for a great while to come, and became an integral part of the Christian tapestry in the
5
Shout, shout aloud for glory;
Brother, sister, mourner,
All shout glory hallelujah.[1]
3.1
3 DISSEMINATION
the U.S. and Europe, giving the song international exposure. Moodys preaching and Sankeys musical gifts were
signicant; their arrangements were the forerunners of
gospel music, and churches all over the U.S. were eager
to acquire them.[57] Moody and Sankey began publishing their compositions in 1875, and Amazing Grace appeared three times with three dierent melodies, but they
were the rst to give it its title; hymns were typically published using the rst line of the lyrics, or the name of the
tune such as New Britain. A publisher named Edwin
Othello Excell gave the version of Amazing Grace set
7
to New Britain immense popularity by publishing it in
a series of hymnals that were used in urban churches.
Excell altered some of Walkers music, making it more
contemporary and European, giving New Britain some
distance from its rural folk-music origins. Excells version was more palatable for a growing urban middle class
and arranged for larger church choirs. Several editions
featuring Newtons rst three stanzas and the verse previously included by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Toms
Cabin were published by Excell between 1900 and 1910,
and his version of Amazing Grace became the standard
form of the song in American churches.[58][59]
Recorded versions
With the advent of recorded music and radio, Amazing Grace began to cross over from primarily a gospel
standard to secular audiences. The ability to record combined with the marketing of records to specic audiences
allowed Amazing Grace to take on thousands of different forms in the 20th century. Where Edwin Othello
Excell sought to make the singing of Amazing Grace
uniform throughout thousands of churches, records allowed artists to improvise with the words and music specic to each audience. AllMusic lists more than 7,000
recordings including re-releases and compilations as
of September 2011.[60] Its rst recording is an a cappella version from 1922 by the Sacred Harp Choir. It
was included from 1926 to 1930 in Okeh Records' catalogue, which typically concentrated strongly on blues and
jazz. Demand was high for black gospel recordings of
the song by H. R. Tomlin and J. M. Gates. A poignant
sense of nostalgia accompanied the recordings of several
gospel and blues singers in the 1940s and 1950s who used
the song to remember their grandparents, traditions, and
family roots.[61] It was recorded with musical accompaniment for the rst time in 1930 by Fiddlin' John Carson, although to another folk hymn named At the Cross,
not to New Britain.[62] Amazing Grace is emblematic
of several kinds of folk music styles, often used as the
standard example to illustrate such musical techniques as
lining out and call and response, that have been practiced
in both black and white folk music.[63]
Collins decided to record it in the late 1960s amid an atmosphere of counterculture introspection; she was part
of an encounter group that ended a contentious meeting
by singing Amazing Grace as it was the only song to
which all the members knew the words. Her producer
was present and suggested she include a version of it on
her 1970 album Whales & Nightingales. Collins, who
had a history of alcohol abuse, claimed that the song was
able to pull her through to recovery.[3] It was recorded
in St. Pauls, the chapel at Columbia University, chosen
for the acoustics. She chose an a cappella arrangement
that was close to Edwin Othello Excells, accompanied
by a chorus of amateur singers who were friends of hers.
Collins connected it to the Vietnam War, to which she
objected: I didn't know what else to do about the war
in Vietnam. I had marched, I had voted, I had gone to
jail on political actions and worked for the candidates I
believed in. The war was still raging. There was nothing left to do, I thought ... but sing 'Amazing Grace'.[70]
Gradually and unexpectedly, the song began to be played
Those songs come out of conviction and suering. The on the radio, and then be requested. It rose to number
Billboard Hot 100, remaining on the charts for
worst voices can get through singing them 'cause they're 15 on the [71]
as if, she wrote, her fans had been waiting
15
weeks,
telling their experiences.
[72]
to
embrace
it.
In the UK, it charted 8 times between
Mahalia Jackson[64]
1970 and 1972, peaking at number 5 and spending a total
of 75 weeks on popular music charts.[73]
Mahalia Jackson's 1947 version received signicant ra- Although Collins used it as a catharsis for her opposition
dio airplay, and as her popularity grew throughout the to the Vietnam War, two years after her rendition, the
1950s and 1960s, she often sang it at public events such Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, senior Scottish regiment of
as concerts at Carnegie Hall.[65] Author James Basker the British Army, recorded an instrumental version feastates that the song has been employed by African Amer- turing a bagpipe soloist accompanied by a pipe and drum
icans as the paradigmatic Negro spiritual because it band. The tempo of their arrangement was slowed to alexpresses the joy felt at being delivered from slavery
low for the bagpipes, but it was based on Collins: it began with a bagpipe solo introduction similar to her lone
voice, then it was accompanied by the band of bagpipes
and horns, whereas in her version she is backed up by a
chorus. It hit number 1 in the UK singles chart in April
1972, spending 24 weeks total on the charts, topped the
RPM national singles chart in Canada for three weeks,[74]
and rose as high as number 11 in the U.S.[75][76] It is
also a controversial instrumental, as it combined pipes
with a military band. The Pipe Major of the Royal Scots
Dragoon Guards was summoned to Edinburgh Castle and
chastised for demeaning the bagpipes.[77] Funeral processions for killed police, re, and military personnel have
often played a bagpipes version ever since.
Aretha Franklin and Rod Stewart also recorded Amazing Grace around the same time, and both of their renditions were popular.[lower-alpha 9] All four versions were
marketed to distinct types of audiences thereby assuring
its place as a pop song.[78] Johnny Cash recorded it on his
1975 album Sings Precious Memories, dedicating it to his
older brother Jack, who had been killed in a mill accident
when they were boys in Dyess, Arkansas. Cash and his
family sang it to themselves while they worked in the cotton elds following Jacks death. Cash often included the
song when he toured prisons, saying For the three minutes that song is going on, everybody is free. It just frees
the spirit and frees the person.[3]
The U.S. Library of Congress has a collection of 3,000
versions of and songs inspired by Amazing Grace, some
of which were rst-time recordings by folklorists Alan
and John Lomax, a father and son team who in 1932
traveled thousands of miles across the South to capture
the dierent regional styles of the song. More contemporary renditions include samples from such popular artists as Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers (1963),
The Byrds (1970), Elvis Presley (1971), Skeeter Davis
(1972), Mighty Clouds of Joy (1972), Andy Williams
(1972), Amazing Rhythm Aces (1975), Willie Nelson
(1976), The Lemonheads (1992) and Dropkick Murphys
(1999).[62]
Somehow, Amazing Grace [embraced] core American values without ever sounding triumphant or jingoistic. It was a song that could be sung by young and old,
Republican and Democrat, Southern Baptist and Roman
Catholic, African American and Native American, highranking military ocer and anticapitalist campaigner.
Steve Turner, 2002[79]
In popular culture
Following the appropriation of the hymn in secular music, Amazing Grace became such an icon in American culture that it has been used for a variety of secular purposes and marketing campaigns, placing it in dan-
MODERN INTERPRETATIONS
6 Modern interpretations
In recent years, the words of the hymn have been changed
in some religious publications to downplay a sense of
imposed self-loathing by its singers. The second line,
That saved a wretch like me!" has been rewritten as
That saved and strengthened me, save a soul like
me, or that saved and set me free.[87] Kathleen Norris in her book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith
characterizes this transformation of the original words
as wretched English making the line that replaces the
original laughably bland.[88] Part of the reason for
this change has been the altered interpretations of what
wretchedness and grace means. Newtons Calvinistic
view of redemption and divine grace formed his perspective that he considered himself a sinner so vile that he was
unable to change his life or be redeemed without Gods
help. Yet his lyrical subtlety, in Steve Turners opinion,
leaves the hymns meaning open to a variety of Christian and non-Christian interpretations.[89] Wretch also
represents a period in Newtons life when he saw himself
outcast and miserable, as he was when he was enslaved in
Sierra Leone; his own arrogance was matched by how far
he had fallen in his life.[90]
The communal understanding of redemption and human
self-worth has changed since Newtons time. Since the
1970s, self-help books, psychology, and some modern
expressions of Christianity have viewed this disparity in
9
edged this force when he explained why he chose Amazing Grace to represent a collection of anti-slavery poetry:
there is a transformative power that is applicable ... : the
transformation of sin and sorrow into grace, of suering
into beauty, of alienation into empathy and connection,
of the unspeakable into imaginative literature.[93]
Moyers interviewed Collins, Cash, opera singer Jessye
Norman, Appalachian folk musician Jean Ritchie and her
family, white Sacred Harp singers in Georgia, black Sacred Harp singers in Alabama, and a prison choir at the
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. Collins, Cash, and
Norman were unable to discern if the power of the song
came from the music or the lyrics. Norman, who once
notably sang it at the end of a large outdoor rock concert
for Nelson Mandelas 70th birthday, stated, I don't know
whether its the text I don't know whether we're talking
about the lyrics when we say that it touches so many people or whether its that tune that everybody knows. A
prisoner interviewed by Moyers explained his literal interpretation of the second verse: "'Twas grace that taught
my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved by saying
that the fear became immediately real to him when he
realized he may never get his life in order, compounded
by the loneliness and restriction in prison. Gospel singer
Marion Williams summed up its eect: Thats a song
that gets to everybody.[3]
The Dictionary of American Hymnology claims it is included in more than a thousand published hymnals, and
recommends its use for occasions of worship when we
need to confess with joy that we are saved by Gods grace
alone; as a hymn of response to forgiveness of sin or as
of pardon; as a confession of faith or after
terms of grace being an innate quality within all peo- an assurance[4]
the
sermon.
ple who must be inspired or strong enough to nd it:
something to achieve. In contrast to Newtons vision of
wretchedness as his willful sin and distance from God,
wretchedness has instead come to mean an obstacle of 7 References
physical, social, or spiritual nature to overcome in order
to achieve a state of grace, happiness, or contentment. Explanatory notes
Since its immense popularity and iconic nature, grace
and the meaning behind the words of Amazing Grace [1] Stripped of his rank, whipped in public, and subjected to
the abuses directed to prisoners and other press-ganged
have become as individual as the singer or listener.[91]
men in the Navy, he demonstrated insolence and rebellion
Bruce Hindmarsh suggests that the secular popularity of
during his service for the next few months, remarking that
Amazing Grace is due to the absence of any mention of
the only reason he did not murder the captain or commit
God in the lyrics until the fourth verse (by Excells versuicide was because he did not want Polly to think badly
sion, the fourth verse begins When we've been there ten
of him. (Martin [1950], pp. 4147.)
thousand years), and that the song represents the ability
of humanity to transform itself instead of a transforma- [2] Newton kept a series of detailed journals as a slave trader;
these are perhaps the rst primary source of the Atlantic
tion taking place at the hands of God. Grace, however,
slave trade from the perspective of a merchant (Moyers).
to John Newton had a clearer meaning, as he used the
Women, naked or nearly so, upon their arrival on ship
[92]
word to represent God or the power of God.
A Canadian bagpiper playing Amazing Grace during a memorial service, October 29, 2009, at Forward Operating Base Wilson, Afghanistan
[3] Newtons father was friends with Joseph Manesty, who intervened several times in Newtons life. Newton was supposed to go to Jamaica on Manestys ship, but missed it
10
Citations
REFERENCES
11
[74] Top Singles Volume 17, No. 17, June 10 1972 RPM
Magazine (June 10, 1972). Retrieved November 4, 2011.
[60] AllMusic search=Amazing Grace Song, AllMusic. Retrieved on September 18, 2011.
Bibliography
Aitken, Jonathan (2007). John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, Crossway Books. ISBN 158134-848-7
Basker, James (2002). Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems About Slavery, 16601810, Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09172-9
Benson, Louis (1915). The English Hymn: Its Development and Use in Worship, The Presbyterian Board
of Publication, Philadelphia.
Bradley, Ian (ed.)(1989). The Book of Hymns, The
Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-346-2
Brown, Tony; Kutner, Jon; Warwick, Neil (2000).
Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles & Albums, Omnibus. ISBN 0-7119-7670-8
12
EXTERNAL LINKS
Watson, J. R. (ed.)(2002). An Annotated Anthology of Hymns, Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-826973-0
Whitburn, Joel (2003). Joel Whitburns Top Pop Singles, 19552002, Record Research, Inc. ISBN 089820-155-1
Duvall, Deborah (2000). Tahlequah and the Cherokee Nation, Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-73850782-2
Julian, John (ed.)(1892). A Dictionary of Hymnology, Charles Scribners Sons, New York.
Martin, Bernard (1950). John Newton: A Biography, William Heineman, Ltd., London.
Martin, Bernard and Spurrell, Mark, (eds.)(1962).
The Journal of a Slave Trader (John Newton), The
Epworth Press, London.
8 External links
Amazing Grace at Hymnary.org
The Amazing Grace
U.S. Library of Congress Amazing Grace collection
Cowper & Newton Museum in Olney, England
Amazing Grace: Some Early Tunes Anthology of
the American Hymn-Tune Repertory
13
9.1
Text
9.2
Images
14
Ensemble=$-$1&Genre=6 Original artist: James Carrell/David Clayton/w:John Newton, arranged by MSgt. Alan Baylock, performed by
The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note
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%28USAFB_strings%29.ogg License:
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ensemble=57 Original artist: James Carrell/David Clayton/w:John Newton, performed by United States Air Force Band Strolling Strings
File:Amazing_Grace_-_Judy_Collins_1970.ogg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Amazing_Grace_-_Judy_
Collins_1970.ogg License: Fair use Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
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ihas.200049059/default.html (direct link) Original artist: Sacred Harp Singing Society, Birmingham, Alabama
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The Cowper and Newton Museum Original artist: Joseph Collyer the Younger, after John Russell
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CyberHymnal, and p. 112 of Turner, Steve (2002). Amazing Grace: The Story of Americas Most Beloved Song, HarperCollins. ISBN
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9.3
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