About the State Song of Ohio

State songs celebrate the virtues of their subject. Like most, "Beautiful Ohio" was not written expressly for the purpose, but was adopted as an anthem because of its popularity. And like some others, such as "My Old Kentucky Home" and "The Missouri Waltz," the lyrics of Ohio's state song required some adjustment. Not because of offensive content: "Beautiful Ohio" has always been innocuous. Rather, change was necessary because the song wasn't actually about the state at all.

History

By 1969, when most of the other states of the union had designated at least one official state song, Ohio had none. The state legislature remedied this lack on October 14 of that year by designating "Beautiful Ohio" the state song. "Beautiful Ohio," a waltz written in 1918 by two non-Ohioans, had become a standard, at least within its namesake state: many Ohioans believed it to be the state song before it attained official status.

Features

The composer of "Beautiful Ohio" was Mary Earl, one of the euphonious feminine pseudonyms of Robert "Bobo" King, born Robert Keiser. The lyricist was Ballard MacDonald, a prolific songwriter who wrote in a number of styles. A particular focus of Tin Pan Alley writers such as MacDonald and King was songs whose titles included the names of states. MacDonald also produced "(Back Home Again in) Indiana" and "There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland," among others. Like "Beautiful Ohio," these titles had a ready-made audience. A year after the release of "Beautiful Ohio," King had another hit, this time under his own name, with "On the Old Ohio Shore"; in 1921, as Mary Earl once again, he wrote "By the Old Ohio Shore." Both King and MacDonald were at the height of their careers when they collaborated on what would decades later become Ohio's theme song.

Identification

The title of MacDonald and Earl's "Beautiful Ohio" offered a quality most desirable in an official state song: the name of the state referred to in a positive fashion. A problem with the song as an anthem, however, was that the lyrics clearly refer to the Ohio River rather than the state of Ohio. The story concerns a person who fondly thinks of another who had "a little red canoe/in it room for only two," and recalls drifting down the river in it as "love found its start ... and like a flower grew." The Ohio Legislature, aware of the narrow application of the song, approved it with the intention of later changing the lyrics. However, Elizabeth MacDonald, the widow of the lyricist, refused to allow such a change until the copyright ran out on the song, so the alteration had to wait until at least 1974.

Types

The state song of Ohio remained as it was until 1989. In that year, an attorney from Youngstown, Ohio, named Wilbert McBride proposed a set of lyrics to "Beautiful Ohio" that more completely described the state as a whole. Lines such as "Freedom is supreme in this majestic land/Mighty factories seem to hum in tune, so grand," were deemed more descriptive of the state and sufficiently elevated for an official song. Despite the objections of then-Gov. Richard Celeste, the revised "Beautiful Ohio" became the state song on November 6.

Function

Anyone who hears "Beautiful Ohio" played these days is most likely watching an Ohio State football game. In addition to being the state song of Ohio, it is also one of the most frequently performed songs of the Ohio State University marching band and serves as the theme song of the alumni band. Though "Beautiful Ohio" was composed as a waltz, the Ohio State band plays the song, naturally enough, as a march, and includes only the chorus in its performance. There is no vocal accompaniment, so while the tune of "Beautiful Ohio" is familiar to many, the lyrics of both the old and the new versions are not.

Resources

• Both versions of the lyrics, with sound files of each
• Sheet music for the original version