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The East High Alumni Page presents:

The East High School Alma Mater
East High School, Memphis, Tennessee

   
The words are the same, but the music has apparently changed.*
Listen to the two versions of our Alma Mater as performed by the East High Choir — 40 years apart
.

The East High School
Alma Mater
as performed May 23, 1967

Image of a lamp of knowledge The East High School
Alma Mater
as performed Nov. 20, 2007

 

The East High School Alma Mater
Words written in 1950 by East student Shirley Wilkes ('51)

How dear to all our memories

And fondest dreams we'll share
Are days we've spent within your halls,
With friends who tarried there.
Our hearts sing out to thee,
Alma Mater, to the sky;
We'll always think of you and love you,
Dear old East High.

We love and cherish thee
And you'll always find us true,
For all you've meant to us these years
In memory lives anew.
Our lamp of knowledge brightly burns,
we owe its light to you;
These days with you will never die
Nor will our love for you.


Text source:
Student Handbook for East High School
Published by the Student Council
circa 1967
Sheet music of early version

Ed Skinner (associated with the Class of '66) took on the task to transcribing into sheet music the audio recording of the East High School Alma Mater as preformed at the 1967 commencement exercise. His efforts are appreciated! The sheet music reproduced below.



The Melody
*The melody for the East High Alma Mater is reported that of the hymn "Lead On, O King Eternal." According to the 1967 East High band director and the 2007 East High choir director and that is what they believe it has always been. However, the performance of the two versions above (1967 and 2007), seem to be arranged differently or otherwise altered such that it is easy to think they are sung to different melodies..

A PDF version of the sheet music is available here.

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