A Moment in Alpha History: The Fraternity Hymn
“In our dear A Phi A, Fraternal Spirit Binds, All the noble the true and courageous”. This begins the first line to what we know as our “Fraternity Hymn”, our song revered by all Brothers and sung after every meeting, event, convention, and special occasions when Brothers gather. It was as early as 1909, three years after our founding, that then General President Roscoe Conkling Giles called for the composition of a fraternity hymn stating “surely, within the ranks of our organization of educated Negro college men composed of the best in the number of leading universities in the county, someone may be found to give impression to our ideals in songs.” At the requests, songs came from Alpha and Beta Chapters, but none were adopted.
Other variations of the song were submitted but none were adopted. It was our Brother Abram L. Simpson (Xi ’12), who would become the composer of our song. He was elected General Vice President in 1914 under General President Henry Lake Dickerson and in 1915 during the year our Jewel Callis served as General President. A committee was appointed in 1915, but no decision was made as to the official adoption of a song. During the year of 1920, Brother Simpson’s composition was referred to the song committee, which would be adopted with some records reporting during the 18th Annual Convention in 1925, as the “National Frat Song” in the tune of “Far Away in the South”. By 1929, the Fraternity Song was recognized as the “National Hymn”, with publication of the hymn going far back at 1925, 1929, and 1935, as well in our history book. Brother John J. Erby (Xi ’25) completed his arrangement after the adoption in 1925. Brother Thomas Pauley, Past National Historian, reported that Brother Simpson musical source for the hymn was “That Old Cabin Home Upon the Hill” written by Frank Dumont and published in 1880.
The “Alpha Hymn” is 32 measures in length, in true strophic form, three verses and a refrain. The verse of the song is 16 measures, form of the verse portion is “aa” (8+8) and the refrain portion is “cd” (8+8), which denotes that the two phases of the verse are similar and the refrain is comprises of two phrases of new melodic material as reported by Brother Pauley. The rhythm of the hymn is reserved and less active as dotted rhythms, are replaced in several places by longer notes values of equal time duration. Brother Erby considered the hymn to contain a significant amount of chromaticism, especially at the phrase endings and the reflective “barbershop quartet” style of singing from the late 1800’s.
Through the years, the hymn has maintained a level solemn and reflection for the Brothers. The hymn should be sung in sophistication and majesty only heard from the voices of the Brotherhood. We applaud Brother Simpson and Brother Erby for capturing the true essence of the Fraternity with song. In the words of Brother Pauley, the Fraternity Hymn has continued to be “elevated, enriched and ennobled by the passionate singing of thousands of Alpha Men”. Just imagine this song was originally composed as a “planation melody and arranged for both solo and barbershop quartets in the 1880’s” to the prominence of today…..”Alpha Phi Alpha, the pride of our hearts, love by us dearly art thou, We cherish thy precepts, thy banner shall be raised, To thy glory thy honor and renown”…..
In this moment of Alpha History, you will see the version of the Alpha Hymn printed from 1925 and a YouTube video of the Alpha Hymn being sung that is often played during Founders’ Day.
Brother, this is your moment in Alpha History and protocol refresher.
Brother Sean C. Hall
