From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water

"From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water"
Sheet music cover, 1909
Song
Published	1909
Composer(s)	Charles Wakefield Cadman
Lyricist(s)	Nelle Richmond Eberhart

"From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water" (1909) is a popular song composed by Charles Wakefield Cadman. He based it on an Omaha love song collected by Alice C. Fletcher. "Sky-blue water" or "clear blue water" is one possible translation of "Mnisota," the name for the Minnesota River in the Dakota language.^[1]

Composition[]

Cadman's collaborator, Nelle Richmond Eberhart, wrote a poem as the lyrics:

From the Land of Sky-blue Water,
They brought a captive maid,
And her eyes they are lit with lightnings,
Her heart is not afraid!

But I steal to her lodge at dawning,
I woo her with my flute;
She is sick for the Sky-blue Water,
The captive maid is mute.^[2]

The song became widely popular after noted American soprano Lillian Nordica performed it in concert in 1909.

Representation in other media[]

• An arrangement of the song for harp and flute is performed by Harpo Marx in the 1940 Marx Bros. film, Go West.
• Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams sings a part of the song in Scene Two while she is in the bathroom.
• The first line, "From the Land of Sky-blue Water", is sung by the Three Stooges in the film The Three Stooges In Orbit (1962), at about the three-quarter point in the film, before they launch into space for the first time.
• The Hamm's Brewery used a version of the lyrics- "From the land of sky blue waters/ comes the beer refreshing" - as an advertising jingle through the mid-twentieth century, accompanied by pseudo-Native American drumming.^[3]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Cadman, Charles Wakefield (m); Eberhart, Nelle Richmond (w). "Hamm's Brewery" (Sheet music). Boston : White-Smith Music Publishing Company (1909).

External links[]

• Sheet Music for Four American Indian Songs Op. 45 No. 1; words by Nelle Richmond Eberhart; White-Smith Music Publishing Co., 1909, includes music for "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water"
• From the land of the sky-blue water – Florence Hinkle – Victor 60079 – Camden, New Jersey (1912-10-03) | National Jukebox LOC.gov
• From the land of the sky-blue water Musical score | Nebraska Memories

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