Home! Sweet Home!

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This article is about the popular 19th century song. For other meanings, see Home Sweet Home

Cover of the sheet music for a 1914 publication of "Home, Sweet Home"

"Home! Sweet Home!" (also known as "Home, Sweet Home") is a song that has remained well-known for over 150 years. Adapted from the 1823 opera Clari, Maid of Milan, the song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne. The opening lines

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;

have become famous. It is also used with Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs and in Alexandre Guilmant's Fantasy for organ Op. 43, the Fantalsie sur deux mélodies anglaises, both of which also use Rule, Britannia. More recently, in 1909, it was pictured to be played in the silent film "The House of Cards" by Thomas A. Edison. In the particular scene a frontier bar was hurriedly closed due to a fracas. A card reading "Play Home Sweet Home" was displayed upon which an on-screen fiddler promptly supplied a pantomime of the song. This may imply a popular association of this song with the closing hour of drinking establishments.

This song is famous in Japan as "Hanyu no Yado" ("A Lodging"). It has been used in such movies as The Burmese Harp and Grave of the Fireflies and is also used at Senri-Chuo Station on the Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway.

Home! Sweet Home!
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[edit] Popular culture

Key phrases from the song have been a cultural staple for several generations.

Needlework portraits of a house with the phrase "Home Sweet Home" have long been an icon.
The song's melody played in the underscore as Dorothy spoke of "No Place Like Home" near the end of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
Tom Lehrer's satire of the old southern United States finished with the line, "Be it ever so decadent, there's no place like home."

[edit] References

'Home Sweet Home'; sung at western-style weddings in Japan

[edit] External links

Sheet music for Home, Sweet Home, from Project Gutenberg
MIDI for Home, Sweet Home, from Project Gutenberg

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v • d • e Patriotic music of the United States

General	America the Beautiful · Ballad of the Green Berets · Battle Cry of Freedom · The Battle Hymn of the Republic · Blood on the Risers · Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean · Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American) · Fanfare for the Common Man · Fifty Nifty United States · For The Dear Old Flag, I Die · God Bless America · God Bless the USA · Hail, Columbia · Hail to the Chief · Home on the Range · Home! Sweet Home! · The Liberty Bell · The Liberty Song · Lift Every Voice and Sing · Marching Through Georgia · My Country, 'Tis of Thee · National Emblem · Over There · Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition · PT-109 · Seventy-Six Trombones · Stars and Stripes Forever · The Star-Spangled Banner · There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving · This is My Country · This Land Is Your Land · The Washington Post · We Shall Overcome · When Johnny Comes Marching Home · Yankee Doodle · The Yankee Doodle Boy · You're a Grand Old Flag

Armed services	Anchors Aweigh · The Army Goes Rolling Along · Eternal Father, Strong to Save · Marines' Hymn · Semper fidelis · Semper Paratus · Taps · The U.S. Air Force

List of U.S. state songs

v • d • e Patriotic music of the United Kingdom

General	"Abide with Me" • "Crown Imperial March" • "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" • "Fantasia on British Sea Songs" • "God Save the Queen" • "Heart of Oak" • "Home! Sweet Home!" • "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" • "I Vow to Thee, My Country" • "See the Conquering Hero" • "Nimrod" • "Radio 4 UK Theme" • "Rule, Britannia!" • "Soldiers of the King" • "Song of Liberty" • "The British Grenadiers" • "The Saucy Arethusa" • "Zadok the Priest"

England	"Jerusalem" • "Land of Hope and Glory" • "London Pride" • "Rose of England" • "The Roast Beef of Old England" • "There'll Always Be an England"

Scotland	"Flower of Scotland" • "Highland Cathedral" • "Scotland the Brave" • "Scots Wha Hae" • "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond"

Northern Ireland	"Londonderry Air"

Wales	"Cwm Rhondda" • "David of the White Rock" • "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" • "Men of Harlech"

County Songs	"Bro Goth Agan Tasow" (Cornwall) • "Come, all ye jolly Tinner boys" (Cornwall) • "Hail to the Homeland" (Cornwall) • "The Song of the Western Men" (Cornwall) • "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" (Yorkshire)