Annotation:Amazing Grace
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
AMAZING GRACE. English, Air. The hymn "Amazing Grace" was written by one John Newton, an 18th century English slave trader who had a religious conversion and rejected his former trade. In Beyond the Hebrides, edited by Donald Fergusson, it is stated: "Since the melody is that of a bag-pipe tune and is a gapped-scale melody with a distinctly modal, plain-song character, it is very probably that Newton's composition was to an old Scottish melody. If not, early settlers may have adapted the lyrics to an old Scottish melody they brought with them." The words to "Amazing Grace" can be found in Olney Hymns (1779), a collection of Newton's hymns made in collaboration with William Cowper, however, the work contains no music and no tune direction was given. The tune is attributed to J. Carrell and D. Clayton in the American shape-note publication Virginia Harmony, c. 1831. It has also been suggested the original title for the tune was "New Britain."
In modern times "Amazing Grace" was recorded by singer Judy Collins, whose 1969 issue was a commercial success in Britain. Her rendition is supposed to have inspired the setting by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in 1972, which itself became very popular catapulted bagpipe music into popular climbing to No. 1 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Australia, as well scoring high in the American charts. Since that time it has been frequently requested to be played by pipers at funerals. It was played, for example, at the funerals of American Presidents Ronald Regan and Gerald Ford.
