Protect America!

"Protect America!" was composed in 2010 by Alice Ann Holmquist, who at the time felt a deep need for a new patriotic song to inspire faith and unity in the nation. Lacking formal training in music, she was uncertain how to begin. In a moment of sincere humility, she knelt in prayer and said, "Heavenly Father, if You want me to write a song, please make me an instrument in Thy hands; because I do not know what I'm doing." With confidence that divine help would come, she sat at the piano and began to work. Gradually, the music and lyrics started to come to hernote by note for the melodies, word by word for the lyrics, and interval by interval for the harmoniesunfolding one musical phrase at a time until the song was complete. Protect America! was the first song she had ever written. Transcribing the music proved to be a significant challenge. Holmquist purchased staff paper and a chart illustrating how piano notes correspond to the lines and spaces of the grand staff. With only three years of childhood piano lessons and a month or two of voice lessons at age 14, she relied on determination and faith to notate the piece. Unable to grasp the complexities of rhythmic notation, she chose to leave the rhythms unwritten. Remarkably, two years later, when she hired engraver David Batchelor to prepare the formal sheet music, she recalled the rhythms perfectly.