"Far Above Cayuga's Waters" is Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

's alma mater

Alma Mater (song)

The alma mater is the generic title given to the official song or anthem of a school, college, or university.The official song may be referred to as the alma mater of the school, college or university, and it may be understood by those who know, which song is referred to.A frequently used tune for...

. The lyrics were composed circa 1870 by roommates Archibald Croswell Weeks, 1872, and Wilmot Moses Smith

Wilmot Moses Smith

Wilmot Moses Smith was an American jurist and songwriter. He was on the New York Supreme Court, but is perhaps more famous for co-writing "Far Above Cayuga's Waters", Cornell University's alma mater....

, 1874, and set to the tune of "Annie Lisle

Annie Lisle

"Annie Lisle" is the name of an 1857 ballad by Boston, Massachusetts songwriter H. S. Thompson first published by Moulton & Clark of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and later by Oliver Ditson & Co. It is about the death of a young maiden, by what some have speculated to be tuberculosis, although the...

", a popular 1857 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 by H. S. Thompson

H. S. Thompson

Henry S. Thompson was an American songwriter of the mid-nineteenth century.Little is known of Thompson other than his works, mainly syrupy ballads used in blackface minstrel shows; 48 works were published under the name H. S. Thompson between 1849 and 1885....

 about a heroine dying of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

.

History

This song is one of the better known alma maters in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is the only alma mater song included in Ronald Herder's 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics. In a novel, Betty Smith

Betty Smith

Betty Smith, née Elisabeth Wehner , was an American author.-Biography:Born on December 15, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to German immigrants, she grew up poor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and attended Girl's High School. These experiences served as the framework to her first novel, A Tree Grows in...

 called it "the saddest and oldest of all college songs". Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey

Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental...

, in One Life at a Time, Please, mentions a campfire sing in which he contributed "the first line of the only Ivy League

Ivy League

The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 song that occurred to me: 'Far above Cayuga's waters . . ..

The tune has been adopted since by dozens of universities

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

, college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

s, high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

s, and camps worldwide. For example, Professor George Penny of the University of Kansas

University of Kansas

The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

 wrote his school's alma mater by changing a few words from Cornell's song ("Far above the golden valley..."). Other colleges and universities that have borrowed the song include the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, the College of William and Mary

College of William and Mary

The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...

, the Colorado State University

Colorado State University

Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...

, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

, Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, the University of Missouri

University of Missouri

The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

, the University of Georgia

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

, the University of Alabama

University of Alabama

The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

, Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, Wofford College

Wofford College

Established in 1854 and related to the United Methodist Church, Wofford College is an independent, Phi Beta Kappa liberal arts college of 1,525 students located in downtown Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States. The historic campus is recognized as a national arboretum and features “The...

, Ripon College

Ripon College

Ripon College can refer to:*Ripon College - US college*Ripon College, North Yorkshire - secondary school*Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire - theological college...

, Birmingham-Southern College

Birmingham-Southern College

Birmingham–Southern College is a 4-year, private liberal arts college located three miles northwest of downtown Birmingham. Founded in 1856, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Approximately 1400 students from 30 states and 23 foreign countries attend the college...

, Emory University

Emory University

Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

, Erskine College

Erskine College

Erskine College is a four year, Christian liberal arts college located in Due West, South Carolina.-Early history:Established in 1839 by the Associate Reformed Synod of the South as an academy for men, Erskine College became the first four year, church-related college in South Carolina...

, Lehigh University

Lehigh University

Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...

, Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & Clark College is a private institution of higher learning located in Portland, Oregon. Made up of an undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences, a School of Law, and a Graduate School of Education and Counseling. Lewis & Clark is a member of the Annapolis Group of colleges with athletic...

, Moravian College

Moravian College

Moravian College a private liberal arts college, and the associated Moravian Theological Seminary are located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, in the Lehigh Valley region.-History:...

, Xavier University

Xavier University (Cincinnati)

Xavier University is a co-educational Jesuit university in the United States located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The University is the sixth-oldest Catholic university in the nation and has an undergraduate enrollment of about 4,000 students and graduate enrollment of 2,600 students. Xavier is primarily...

, Acadia University

Acadia University

Acadia University is a predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level...

, Salem College, Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

, Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

, the American University of Beirut

American University of Beirut

The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...

, and even the fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al Plainfield Teacher's College

Plainfield Teacher's College

Plainfield Teacher's College was an imaginary college, created as a hoax, that fooled the New York Times sports department and college football fans across the country....

.

The song traditionally concludes campus performances by the Cornell University Chorus

Cornell University Chorus

Founded in 1921 as the Cornell Women's Glee Club, the Cornell University Chorus tradition of excellence has been formed by high standards of musical achievement and versatility from all corners of the university...

 and Cornell University Glee Club

Cornell University Glee Club

The Cornell University Glee Club is the oldest student organization at Cornell University, having been organized shortly after the first students arrived on campus in 1868. The CUGC is a sixty-member chorus for male voices, with repertoire including classical, folk, 20th century music, and...

. 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

Cornell Big Red Marching Band

The Cornell Big Red Marching Band is the only traditional marching band in the Ivy League. It performs at all home, and most away, Cornell Football Games...

 or the Cornell Big Red Pep Band

Cornell Big Red Pep Band

The Cornell Big Red Pep Band is Cornell University's student-run pep band that performs primarily at Cornell Men's ice hockey, with frequent appearances at Women's ice hockey, Men's and Women's lacrosse and basketball, and occasional appearances at a diverse array of other events, such as...

. A rendition of the tune is also used to conclude all of the school's daily afternoon chime concerts (evening performances traditionally end with the "Evening Song"; the morning concert begins with the "Jennie McGraw Rag" but has no traditional finale).

Lyrics

The first two verses are the best known and are usually the only verses sung. These verses and the rest of the song are as follows:

Far above Cayuga's waters

Cayuga Lake

Cayuga Lake   is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area and second largest in volume. It is just under 40 miles long. Its average width is 1.7 miles , and it is at its widest point near Aurora...

, with its waves of blue,

Stands our noble Alma Mater, glorious to view.

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

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

,

Reared against the arch of heaven, looks she proudly down.

Lift the chorus, speed it onward, loud her praises tell;

Hail to thee, our alma mater! Hail, all hail, Cornell!

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.

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!

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!

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 away!

As it is presented above in full form, the song has six verses and no refrains. However, in common practice, only the first two verses are sung, and they share the lines "Lift the chorus, speed it onward, loud her praises tell; / Hail to thee our Alma Mater! Hail, all hail, Cornell!". Due to this symmetry, whenever only the first two verses are printed or sung, it is customary to consider lines 1–2 and 5–6 as being verses 1 and 2, respectively, and lines 3–4 and 7–8 as being a single repeated refrain:

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

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
• Link to an article mentioning its use in a song about the fictitious "Plainfield Teacher's College"