The Pittsburgh 250 commemoration has been going on for a quite a while, and we don't have a new song or anthem that we can sing and play to celebrate our city.

Cause for dismay? Maybe not. Perhaps there's no need for a new song. Pittsburgh has great old songs.

But do Pittsburghers these days have the opportunity to learn any "oldies but goodies" that evoke the city?

The city celebrated its 200th anniversary with, I think, greater fervor than we have mustered for the 250th. Among the celebrations was a musical concert of some "oldies" and other music composed for the occasion, both highly entertaining and informative. It was called "Sing the Sweet Land: A Program of Western Pennsylvania Music." (See program at bottom.) The performers were the All-City Senior High School Chorus and the United Senior High School Choirs of Pittsburgh. I was on the stage of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall that night, Oct. 9, 1959, as a soprano in the Allderdice choir.

This past year, we've been asked through advertising to "Imagine What You Can Do Here." Today, I will ask you to imagine the gorgeous and thrilling sound of 12 choirs of talented female and male teenagers singing in 4-6-8-part harmonies.

Let's look at the musical selections sung that night in our pursuit of a potential song for our city among them.

Take a look at part C: "The Clash of Empires" with two historically significant ballads: "General John" (that would be Forbes) and "The Pennsylvania Line (War of 1812)." Stirring songs, but anthems for Pittsburgh? Probably not.

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PG AUDIO

Bonnie Theiner and two Allderdice classmates -- twin sisters Barbara Hershenson (Wolf) and Nancy Hershenson (Joseph) -- sing a few songs from the 1959 concert "Sing the Sweet Land: A Program of Western Pennsylvania Music"

• Group introduction
• "Solid Steel from McKeesport Down" by Woody Guthrie
• "Sing Oh! the City Oh!" by Robert Schmertz
• "Forks of the Ohio" by Robert Schmertz

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Under the category "Of Romance and Worship, of Tragedy and Gaiety," there is a wide variety of tunes, some still familiar. "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" (no, not the TV genie, Barbara Eden) is by Pittsburgh's own Stephen Foster. "Dunlap's Creek" is a fire and brimstone religious hymn. "A Steel Mill Tragedy" (which has an alternate title, "I Lie in the American Land") speaks to the reality of death and the harsh industrial and ethnic experiences of the Pittsburgh community. Sorry, I don't recall "Down the Ohio" and could not find it in sources. Do you know the song?

"Pittsburgh Gals" has its versions in other locales as well. Ours goes, "Pittsburgh gals won't you come out tonight ... / And we'll dance by the light of the moon."

"The Mouse's Courting Song" is an African-American children's song, adapted from a nursery song called "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go," about a frog courting a mouse. According the book "Pennsylvania Songs and Legends" by George Korson, Pittsburgh children in black neighborhoods updated it with characters from Disney (Mickey and Minnie Mouse) and Westerns. A boy named Grantion Farrish brought it to a first-grade class at Miller School and the teacher, Gladys Lentz Zeiler, notated it.

The program proceeds to the concept of "The Melting Pot," with a song originally in German, "Children of Friendship," translated to English by the Harmony Society's Old Economy Village, a communal settlement in Ambridge. "Children of friendship, and love lift your voices / Sing the sweet bond that uplifts and rejoices ..." A lovely sentiment, but not especially about Pittsburgh.

Emphasizing steel and the Slavic background of many Pittsburghers, a steelworker's song is sung in Slovak: "Aja Lejber Man" ("I'm a Labor Man").

And finally, "Our Musical Life Matures" brings the performance of an aria, "Italian Street Song," from the operetta "Naughty Marietta," by an Irish-American Pittsburgh composer, Victor Herbert.

Recognition is surely due to the composers, arrangers and writers for "Sing the Sweet Land." The prologue, "The Dream of Our Fathers," was written by Edwin L. Peterson, a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Clifford O. Taylor, assistant professor of music at Chatham College, wrote the music for it. And Reuel Lahmer, a college instructor and organist and choir director at the Church of the Ascension, provided the settings.

A song from Woody Guthrie, "Solid Steel from McKeesport Down," was part of the prologue. You may have heard a snippet of the song on WDUQ-FM, promoting the station's series on Pittsburgh 250. It goes, "Pittsburgh is a smoky old town, Pittsburgh!"

The other songs in the prologue bear special attention. They are by Robert W. Schmertz, a Pittsburgh legend.

In his day job, he was a practicing architect and a professor of architecture at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon). But he had a rich career as a singer and songwriter. Some of his work was recorded by Burl Ives, Gary Crosby and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

One song, "Roll On, Monongahela," is actually the chorus to his "Monongahela Sal," a kind of "he done her wrong" song. It goes: "Roll on, Monongahela / Roll on to the Ohio / Roll on, past Alliquippi / Down to the Mississippi / Clear to the Gulf of Mexico!"

That and the Guthrie song are fun to sing, but don't quite have the quality of an anthem.

I am a fan of Schmertz's "Sing Oh! the City Oh!" Here are a few lines:

Sing Oh! the City Oh!
Our fathers thought it pretty Oh!
Here where three rivers flow,
they chose to settle down

Sing Oh! their labor Oh!
when they lay down the saber Oh!
To forge a mighty city
from a struggling frontier town.

I believe the song can be updated for our times. I offer here an additional verse, with apologies to Robert Schmertz:

Sing Oh! the City Oh!
Three sport teams who are gritty Oh!
Medical center and research give us renown.

Sing writers, artists Oh! The theater, opera, ballet Oh!
Jazz and symphony that wear a world-class crown.

Sing the steel industry, inventors and technology,
Museums with dinosaurs, robotics like steel clowns.

Sing universities, the neighborhood, diversities,
Ethnic groups and seniors,
Sing unique Pittsburgh town.

While researching this piece, it was a pleasure to reconnect with my fellow Allderdice choir classmates of 50 years ago. As we reminisced, it was apparent that participation in the choir had been a highlight of their high school years. They had fond memories of Virginia C. Lowe, an accomplished pianist who was the Allderdice choir director. Along with my fellow music education teachers, we deplored the diminishing numbers of choirs and the decline of music in schools.

From her home in State College, Blair Jessop Grabos, a teacher, shared memories of the choir performance. She continued to talk about how the theory and skills learned in music, which is itself mathematical in nature, have application to learning math and other subjects.

James Grossman, a public relations executive in New York, has an enduring remembrance: "I remember 'Emitte Spiritum' [the choir's anthem] and 'You'll Never Walk Alone' -- my favorite. ... Hearing old songs is a powerful tool to bring back memories -- sometimes pleasant, sometimes melancholy. It is, I guess, the auditory equivalent of when you smell something that triggers old memories."

Rosamond Marlin Swartz, a school psychologist in Pittsburgh, recalls, "The scope of this experience was evident by witnessing the talented individuals from other schools. I remember being impressed with many of the mature voices, whose powerful notes soared effortlessly to the music of years gone by. I took away a greater knowledge of a rich, diverse and talented Pittsburgh."

Hundreds of teenagers of different races, religions and nationalities, from many neighborhoods and socioeconomic backgrounds, worked together to learn, practice and perform a technically complex choral program in only one month. 'Twas diversity in harmony!

The songs referred to here are but a small fraction of the hundreds of songs about Pittsburgh written decades and centuries ago. May we continue to "Sing the Sweet Land" that we call Pittsburgh.

A. NATIONAL PATRIOTIC HYMN
1. "America, the Beautiful"

B. PROLOGUE
1. "The Dream of Our Fathers"
Text, 1959, Edwin L. Peterson
Music, 1959, Clifford O. Taylor

Our of the darkness of the forests, out of the dimness of the woods that were William Penn's, our fathers came upon a sweet land, a precious land, a land bounded by three rivers;

And they looked on this land and did not depart, for they had a dream in their hearts, and the rivers were cool and the mountains were blue in the evening.

And our fathers knew it was good to stay here and to till the soil and to beget the children and to build cabins under the pines that touched the sky;

From the dream in their hearts foretold that here at last, for them and their children and their children's children, would come goodness and mercy and life abundant for all, in that sweet land.

2. "Sing Oh! the City Oh!" Text and tune, 1957, Robert Schmertz

3. Medley: Setting, 1958, Reuel Lahmer

a. "Roll on, Monongahela" Tune and text, c. 1941, Robert Schmertz

b. "Solid Steel from McKeesport Down" Text 1941, Woody Guthrie, with later additional verses, Falk School Children Tune, traditional American

C. "THE CLASH OF EMPIRES"
1. "General John" (Ballad) Tune and text, 1958, Robert Schmertz

2. "The Pennsylvania Line (War of 1812)" Traditional text, early American tune and harmonization

D. OF ROMANCE AND WORSHIP, OF TRAGEDY AND GAIETY
1. "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" Text and tune, 1854, Stephen C. Foster (Pittsburgher, 1826-1864)

2. "Dunlap's Creek" Text, 1707-9, Isaac Watts; tune, 1816, Samuel McFarland, Washington County

3. "A Steel Mill Tragedy" Text and tune, c. 1900, Andrew Kovaly, Slovak steelworker

4. Of Fun and Nonsense: Play party, minstrel-show and nonsense songs medley

a. "Down the Ohio" (play party song, after 1868)

b. "Pittsburgh Gals" (minstrel show song, 1844)

c. "The Mouse's Courting Song" (Pittsburgh form)

d. "Come, Love, Come" (minstrel song, 1851)

f. "The Needle's Eye" (19th-century play party song)

g. "Skip to the Lou" (19th-century play party song)

h. "Jimmie Jinkins" (19th-century nonsense song)

E. THE MELTING POT
1. "Children of Friendship" ("Freut Euch Ihr Kinder") Original German text and music, c. 1820, Frederick Rapp, Old Economy (Ambridge)

2. "Aja Lejber Man" ("I'm a Labor Man") Traditional Pittsburgh Slovak steelworker's song, c. 1900 (Sung in Slovak)

F. OUR MUSICAL LIFE MATURES
1. "Italian Street Song" (from "Naughty Marietta," 1910) Text, Rida Johnson Young; Music, Victor Herbert (Irish-American Pittsburgher)