The Story Behind Amazing Grace Music

Ever heard of the song "Amazing Grace"? Sure you have.

Love the tune and melody of it's music? Sure you do.

Amazing grace music has been first linked to the variant of the tune "New Britain" of which the composer is unknown and which is in William Walker's shape-note tunebook Southern Harmony,1935. In addition to that, New Britain first appeared in a shape note hymnal from 1829 called Columbian Harmony.

Furthermore, the melody is Scottish or Irish origin since it is pentatonic and suggests a bagpipe tune. When we talk about Scottish or Irish music the Great Highland Bagpipe indeed has a large role in it since it has long played an important part of Scottish music. Although this particular form of bagpipe developed exclusively in Scotland, it is not the only Scottish bagpipe, and other bagpiping traditions remain across Europe.

The earliest mention of bagpipes in Scotland dates to the 1400s although they could have been introduced to Scotland as early as the sixth century. On the other hand, when we talk about Irish music, the harp, reels, hornpipes, jigs, mazurka, the flute, the fiddle and the uilleann pipes are the musical instruments which are commonly used in this type of music.

Amazing grace music has an origin which is a mixture of both Scottish and Irish music. It has been mentioned earlier that bagpipes in this type of music. What are bagpipes anyway? Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag.

Even though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of several varieties can be found in use throughout Europe, Northern America, the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus. Amazing grace music indeed has a very interesting origin which is why it has a very unique and wonderful sound.