OccasionWritten at the request of the Corporation of the City of New York and sung at the Croton Water Celebration, October 14, 1842
Modern digital reconstruction from the original score — not a historical recording.
AI-generated performance from George Pope Morris's 1842 text (owner-generated, to be re-recorded) · owner-generated
The Original Score
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The Poem
[Poem] "The Croton Ode" by George Pope Morris (1842). Written at the request of the Corporation of the City of New York and performed October 14, 1842 at the Croton Water Celebration. Sung in front of the Park Fountain by members of the N.Y. Sacred Music Society. Set to music by Sidney Pearson. Printed on broadsides distributed during the celebration parade.
Gushing from this living fountain,
Music pours a falling strain,
As the goddess of the mountain
Comes with all her sparkling train.
From her grotto-springs advancing,
Glittering in her feathery spray,
Woodland fays beside her dancing,
She pursues her winding way.
Gently o'er the rippling water,
In her coral-shallop bright,
Glides the rock-king's dove-eyed daughter,
Decked in robes of virgin white.
Nymphs and naiads, sweetly smiling,
Urge her bark with pearly hand,
Merrily the sylph beguiling
From the nooks of fairy-land.
Swimming on the snow-curled billow,
See the river-spirits fair
Lay their cheeks, as on a pillow,
With the foam-beads in their hair.
Thus attended, hither wending,
Floats the lovely oread now,
Eden's arch of promise bending
Over her translucent brow.
Hail the wanderer from a far land!
Bind her flowing tresses up!
Crown her with a fadeless garland,
And with crystal brim the cup.
From her haunts of deep seclusion,
Let intemperance greet her too,
And the heat of his delusion
Sprinkle with this mountain-dew.
Water leaps as if delighted,
While her conquered foes retire!
Pale Contagion flies affrighted
With the baffled demon Fire!
Safety dwells in her dominions,
Health and Beauty with her move,
And entwine their circling pinions
In a sisterhood of love.
Water shouts a glad hosanna!
Bubbles up the earth to bless!
Cheers it like the precious manna
In the barren wilderness.
Here we wondering gaze, assembled
Like the grateful Hebrew band,
When the hidden fountain trembled,
And obeyed the prophet's wand.
Round the aqueducts of story,
As the mists of Lethe throng,
Croton's waves in all their glory
Troop in melody along.
Ever sparkling, bright, and single,
Will this rock-ribbed stream appear,
When posterity shall mingle
Like the gathered waters here.
Completion of the Croton Aqueduct — Broadside (1842)
Printed broadside celebrating the completion of the Croton Aqueduct, October 14, 1842. These broadsides were distributed during the celebration parade along with copies of the Croton Ode by George Pope Morris.
Large panoramic view of the 1842 Croton Water Celebration from the NYPL collection. Shows the full scope of the celebration in City Hall Park, with the 50-foot fountain visible. A seven-mile parade wound through Manhattan to this spot, where the New York Sacred Music Society sang the Croton Ode to music adapted from Rossini.
When Croton water finally reached Manhattan, the city commissioned George Pope Morris — the era's most popular songwriter-editor — to write the celebration's official ode. It was performed at the Croton Water Celebration on October 14, 1842, the day the fountains opened, and reprinted in his collected Poems (1853).
Source:
George Pope Morris, Poems (1853), Project Gutenberg. Public domain. Celebration broadside: Library of Congress, Rare Book Division.
· Provenance in the archive →
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