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"Far Above Cayuga's Waters" is Cornell University's alma mater. The lyrics were composed circa 1870 by roommates Archibald Croswell Weeks, 1872, and Wilmot Moses Smith, 1874, and set to the tune of "Annie Lisle", a popular 1857 ballad by H. S. Thompson about a heroine dying of tuberculosis.
Arguably, this song is the most popular and best known alma mater in the United States. It is the only alma mater song included in Ronald Herder's "500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics." In a novel, Betty Smith called it "the saddest and oldest of all college songs." Edward Abbey, in One Life at a Time, Please, mentions a campfire sing in which he contributed "the only Ivy League song that occurred to me: 'Far Above Cayuga's Waters.'"
The tune has been adopted since by dozens of universities, colleges, and high schools worldwide. For example, Professor George Penny of the University of Kansas wrote his school's alma mater by changing a few words from Cornell's song ("Far above the golden valley..."). Other colleges and universites that have borrowed the song include the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the College of William and Mary, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Missouri, the University of Georgia, Lewis & Clark College, Moravian College, Xavier University, Acadia University, Vanderbilt University, the American University of Beirut, and even the fictional Plainfield Teacher's College.
The song traditionally concludes campus performances by the Cornell University Glee Club. It is also heard between the second and third periods of men's ice hockey games, halftime or the end of the third quarter of football games, and half time of other Cornell athletic contests attended by the Cornell Big Red Marching Band or the Cornell Big Red Pep Band.
The first two verses are the best known and are usually the only verses sung. They are as follows:
- Far Above Cayuga's Waters
- With its waves of blue,
- Stands our noble Alma Mater
- Glorious to view.
- Refrain:
- Lift the chorus, speed it onward,
- Loud her praises tell.
- Hail to thee, our Alma Mater,
- Hail, all hail, Cornell!
- Far Above the busy humming
- Of the bustling town;
- Reared against the arch of Heaven,
- Looks she proudly down.
- Refrain
- Sentry-like o'er lake and valley towers her regal form,
- Watch and ward forever keeping, braving time and storm.
- So through clouds of doubt and darkness gleams her beacon light,
- Fault and error clear revealing, blazing forth the right.
- Refrain
- To the glory of her founder rise her stately walls.
- May her sons pay equal tribute whene'er duty calls.
- When the moments, swiftly fleeting, ages roll between,
- Many yet unborn shall hail her: Alma Mater, Queen!
- Refrain
- In the music of the waters as they glide along,
- In the murmur of the breezes with their whispered song,
- In the tuneful chorus blending with each pealing bell,
- One refrain seems oft repeated: Hail, all hail, Cornell!
- Refrain
- Here, by flood and foaming torrent, gorge and rocky dell,
- Pledge we faith and homage ever to our loved Cornell.
- May time ne'er efface the memory of her natal day,
- And her name and fame be honored far and wide alway!
- Refrain
As expected in a song that has become part of popular culture, it is the subject of parodies. Allan Sherman's "No One's Perfect," about choral clinkers, put these words to the tune:
"Far above the other singers
In the treble clef
A soprano sings in E Flat
But... the key is F."
Another parody, presumably emanating from some rival institution, runs
"Far above Cayuga's waters
There's a nasty smell:
Some folks say that it's Cayuga
Others say 'Cornell'."
An alternative version is:
"Far above Cayuga's waters
There's a dreadful smell,
Where ten thousand sons of bitches
Call themselves 'Cornell'."
An auxiliary chorus for one of the above verses might go: "Cornell eats shit, Cornell eats shit, Cornell eats shit. Rah rah rah rah! Some folks say that it's Cayuga Others say 'Cornell'."
References
- Abbey, Edward (1988): One Life at a Time, Please. Owl Books, ISBN 0-8050-0603-6
- Herder, Ronald (1998), 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics. Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-29725-X'
- Smith, Betty: Joy in the Morning
External links
- Cornell Songs - Read the more on Alma Mater history, download PDF sheet music, and listen to an mp3.
- Sounds of the Cornell Chimes - Cornell Chimes website includes mp3s of the three daily Cornell songs (Alma Mater, Evening Song, and Jenny McGraw Rag) available for free download
- The Borrowing of the Song
- Cornell University Glee Club
- Original Annie Lisle lyrics
