George Frederick Root

{{Infobox person | image = George F Root.jpg | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1820|8|30}} | birth_place = Sheffield, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1895|8|6|1820|8|30}} | death_place = Bailey Island, Maine, U.S. | occupation = Composer | known_for = Wartime songs | signature = Signature of George Frederick Root.png }}

'''George Frederick Root''' (August 30, 1820{{snd}}August 6, 1895) was a romantic American composer, who found particular fame during the American Civil War, with songs such as "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!", the tune re-used for "Jesus Loves the Little Children", and "The Battle Cry of Freedom". He is regarded as the first American to compose a secular cantata.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=American Popular Stage Music, 1860-1880|last=Root|first=Deane L.|publisher=UMI Research Press|year=1981|location=Ann Arbor|pages=12–13}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Root was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and was named after the German composer George Frideric Handel. Root left his farming community for Boston at 18, flute in hand, intending to join an orchestra. He worked for a while as a church organist in Boston, and from 1845 taught music at the New York Institute for the Blind, where he met Fanny Crosby, with whom he would compose fifty to sixty popular secular songs.<ref>{{cite book|first=Darlene|last=Neptune|title=Fanny Crosby Still Lives|publisher= Pelican Publishing|year=2001|page=108}}</ref> At least two of his children, Frederic Woodman Root and Grace W. Root, also became composers.

In 1850, he made a study tour of Europe, staying in Vienna, Paris, and London.<ref name=":2">[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/08/08/102468103.pdf Obituary], ''New York Times'', August 8, 1895, p. 2</ref> He returned to teach music in Boston, Massachusetts as an associate of Lowell Mason, and later Bangor, Maine, where he was director of the Penobscot Musical Association and presided over their convention at Norumbega Hall in 1856.<ref name=Edwards>{{cite book|first= George Thornton|last=Edwards|title=Music and Musicians of Maine|page=95}}</ref>

From 1853 to 1855, Root helped Lowell Mason and William Bradbury establish the New York Normal Musical Institute, which served as a school for aspiring music educators. From 1855 on, Root would spend most of his summers traveling and teaching at music education conventions throughout New England.<ref name=":0" /> He applied a version of Pestalozzi's teaching and was instrumental in developing mid- and late-19th century American musical education. He was a follower of the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.<ref>{{cite book|first=Polly|last=Carder|title=George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography|publisher= McFarland|year=2008|page=223}}</ref>

==Career== {{more citations needed|section|date=June 2017}} On his return from Europe, Root began composing and publishing sentimental popular songs, a number of which achieved fame as sheet-music, including those with Fanny Crosby: ''The Hazel Dell'', ''Rosalie the Prairie Flower'', ''There's Music in the Air'' and others, which were, according to Root's ''New York Times'' obituary, known throughout the country in the antebellum period.<ref name=":2" /> Root chose to employ the pseudonym Wurzel (German for Root) to capitalize on the popularity of German composers like Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Weber and Schumann during the 1850s, and to keep his identity as a serious composer against his composition of minstrel and popular songs.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Coonley|first=Lydia Avery|date=January 1896|title=George F. Root and His Songs|journal=New England Magazine|volume=19|pages=555–70}}</ref>

Besides his popular songs, he also composed gospel songs in the Ira Sankey vein, and collected and edited volumes of choral music for singing schools, Sunday schools, church choirs and musical institutes. Root assisted William Bradbury in compiling ''The Shawm'' in 1853, a collection of hymn tunes and choral anthems, featuring the cantata ''Daniel: or the Captivity and Restoration''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QOi23dJSIG0C&q=daniel+cantata+the+shawm+crosby+root&pg=PA303|title=The Shawm: A Library of Church Music : Embracing about One Thousand Pieces : Consisting of Psalm and Hymn Tunes Adapted to Every Meter in Use, Anthems, Chants and Set Pieces : to which is Added an Original Cantata, Entitled Daniel, Or, The Captivity and Restoration : Including, Also, The Singing Class : an Entirely New and Practical Arrangement of the Elements of Music, Interspersed with Social Part-songs for Practice|last1=Bradbury|first1=William Batchelder|last2=Root|first2=George Frederick|date=1853|publisher=Mason Brothers|language=en}}</ref> The cantata was a collaboration between Root and Bradbury musically, with text by Fanny Crosby and C.M. Cady. In 1860 he compiled ''The Diapason: Collection of Church Music''.

He also composed various sacred and secular cantatas including the popular ''The Haymakers'' (1857). Root's cantatas were popular on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the 19th century. His first cantata, ''The Flower Queen: or The Coronation of the Rose'', was composed in 1851 with libretto by Fanny Crosby, and gained immediate success in singing schools across the United States.''The Flower Queen'' has been regarded as the first secular cantata written by an American.<ref name=":0" /> thumb|right|Cover to "The Battle-Cry of Freedom" by George F. Root Building on his talent for song-writing, Root moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1859 to work for his brother's music publishing house of Root & Cady. He became particularly successful during the American Civil War, as the composer of martial songs such as "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (The Prisoner's Hope), "The Vacant Chair" (with lyrics by Henry S. Washburn), "Just before the Battle, Mother", and "The Battle Cry of Freedom".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Story_of_a_Musical_Life_(Root,_George_Frederick)|title=The Story of a Musical Life (Root, George Frederick) – IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music|website=imslp.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-03}}</ref> He wrote the first song concerning the war, ''The First Gun is Fired'', only two days after the conflict began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He ultimately had at least 35 war-time "hits", in tone from the bellicose to the ethereal.<ref name=Edwards /> His songs were played and sung at both the home front and the real front. ''Tramp, Tramp, Tramp'' became popular on troop marches, and "Battle Cry of Freedom" became well-known even in England.<ref name=Edwards />

After the war, he was elected as a 3rd Class (honorary) Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Root's songs, particularly "The Battle Cry of Freedom", were popular among Union soldiers during the war. According to Henry Stone, a Union war veteran recalling in the late 1880s:

{{Quotation|text=A glee club came down from Chicago, bringing with them the new song, 'We'll rally 'round the flag, boys', and it ran through the camp like wildfire. The effect was little short of miraculous. It put as much spirit and cheer into the army as a victory. Day and night one could hear it by every camp fire and in every tent. I never shall forget how the men rolled out the line, 'And although he may be poor, he shall never be a slave.' I do not know whether Mr. Root knows what good work his song did for us there, but I hope so.|author=Henry Stone|source=1887<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VUs6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA320 |title=The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine |year=1888 |page=320 |access-date=2017-06-25 |last1=Holland |first1=Josiah Gilbert |last2=Gilder |first2=Richard Watson }}</ref>}}

==Later life and death== Root was awarded the degree of Musical Doctor by the first University of Chicago in 1872.<ref>{{Nuttall|inline=1|title=Root, George Frederick}}</ref> He died at his summer home in Bailey Island, Maine, at the age of 74. He was buried at the Harmonyvale Cemetery in North Reading, Massachusetts.<ref name=":1" />

==Legacy== Root was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

''Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching'' provided the tune for the later ''Jesus Loves the Little Children'', with lyrics by C. Herbert Woolston, and also for the later ''God Save Ireland''. ''The Vacant Chair'' provided a tune reused in ''Life's Railway to Heaven'', and sometimes reused in ''To Jesus' Heart All Burning''.

== Bibliography == * George F. Root: ''The story of a musical life; an autobiography'' * Polly Carder: ''George F. Root, Civil War songwriter : a biography'' * Polly Hinson Carder: ''George Frederick Root, pioneer music educator his contributions to mass instruction in music'' * Cheryl Ann Jackson: ''George Frederick Root and his Civil War songs''

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Frederick Root}} *[https://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/15028 Polly H. Carder Collection on George Frederick Root] – Special Collections in Performing Arts, University of Maryland, College Park *{{ChoralWiki}} *{{MutopiaComposer|RootGF}} *[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=root&GSfn=george&GSby=1820&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1895&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=6673782&df=all& George F Root] Find A Grave memorial *{{Shof|id=189|name=George Frederick Root}} * {{IMSLP|id=Root, George Frederick}} * [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/ohio/ohio-family.html Free Scores by George Frederick Root] through [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/ohio/ohio-home.html Home Sweet Home]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Root, George Frederick}} Category:1820 births Category:1895 deaths Category:People from Sheffield, Massachusetts Category:American male composers

Category:American lyricists Category:Songwriters from Illinois Category:Songwriters from Massachusetts Category:Bailey Island (Maine) Category:People of Illinois in the American Civil War Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:Musicians from Chicago Category:19th-century American musicians Category:19th-century American male musicians Category:American male songwriters