Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam

Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam is subtitled “A Message of Hope for America”. It was written by Jerry Brubaker (see below) in 2002.

This piece was inspired by a phrase from “America, the Beautiful” and it is dedicated to the patriotic spirit of America following the September 11th terrorists attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in 2001. It is a reverent musical memorial to those who lost their lives in the attack, and is a message of strength and resolve for all of us whose lives were changed by that event. Finally, the piece reinforces the determination that the cities of America will continue to endure and triumph and will indeed gleam once again.

In 1893, at the age of 33, Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach at Colorado College. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the “White City” with its promise of the future contained within its gleaming white buildings; the wheat fields of North America’s heartland state, Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16th; and the majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Pikes Peak.

On the pinnacle of that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her, and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the original Antlers Hotel. The poem was initially published two years later in a church magazine, The Congregationalist, to commemorate the Fourth of July. It quickly caught the public's fancy. An amended version was published in 1904.

The fourth and final verse of “America the Beautiful”:

O beautiful for patriot dream,

That sees beyond the years.

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

Composer Jerry Brubaker was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania in 1946 and was an active musician throughout his early years. He graduated from the Altoona Area School District in 1964 and received a “Distinguished Alumni Award” from the school district in 2006. In 1968, Brubaker received his undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music and later pursued a Master of Music degree from the Catholic University of America.

Brubaker served for 30 years in the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC as a French horn soloist and composer and arranger. In 1985, he became the Band's Chief Arranger, and held that position until his retirement from the Navy in 1998.

After retiring from the military, Brubaker has performed and arranged for the Village Band of Estes Park (Colorado), City of Fairfax (Virginia) Band and the Virginia Grand Military Band and is a Past-President of The Association of Concert Bands. He is an exclusive composer and arranger for Alfred Publishing Co. Inc., and has written commissions for musical organizations across the United States, such as the East Winds Symphonic Band in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has been the composer and arranger of more than 200 published works of music for concert band, symphony, and chorus.

He is married to Virginia (Ginny) Brubaker and currently lives in Estes Park, Colorado.

The music for Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam was provided for the band by

Ross Fjermedal and Susan Evans.