George Frederick Root: Civil War songs and gospel hymns

About George Frederick Root

George Frederick Root was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, on 30 August 1820 and named after Handel. He left for Boston at eighteen hoping to join an orchestra, worked as a church organist, and from 1845 taught at the New York Institute for the Blind, where he met Fanny Crosby. A study trip to Europe in 1850 took him to Vienna, Paris and London. He later taught in Boston as an associate of Lowell Mason and helped Mason and William Bradbury set up the New York Normal Musical Institute in 1853.

His first big success was 'The Flower Queen' of 1851, a cantata with a libretto by Crosby that is often called the first secular cantata by an American. 'The Haymakers' followed in 1857. In 1859 he moved to Chicago to join his brother's publishing house, Root & Cady, and the war made him: 'The Battle Cry of Freedom' appeared in 1862, 'The Vacant Chair' set Henry Washburn's poem on the death of Lieutenant John William Grout, and 'Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!' became a marching song. He sometimes published light music as 'Wurzel', and he died at Bailey Island, Maine, on 6 August 1895.

The catalogue is dominated by the war songs and by the gospel hymns Root wrote for the Sunday-school market, often in collections he edited himself. It is broad rather than deep: 143 entries but only about 81 minutes, because most pieces are a verse and a refrain. Three entries are not filed as classical, and 63 carry no lyrics, some of them instrumental arrangements of the songs.

Listening and playing notes

These are strophic songs, and the piano parts are deliberately simple, so most of the effect comes from the words being audible. Keep the war songs marching rather than triumphant; 'The Battle Cry of Freedom' was written for large groups of untrained voices and works best that way. The gospel hymns need a lighter touch and a clear refrain. If you are playing an SATB version, check whether the file is a period arrangement or a modern one before rehearsing.

Selected scores

1. The Battle Cry of Freedom

   Written in 1862 and published by Root & Cady; it is estimated that over 700,000 copies of the sheet music circulated.

2. Jesus Loves the Little Children

   The tune is Root's, borrowed from 'Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!'; the words were added later by C. Herbert Woolston.

3. There's Music in the Air (SATB)

   A choral setting of the song Root wrote to words by Fanny Crosby, one of the antebellum pieces his obituary singled out.

4. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah sing today

   A gospel hymn in the revival idiom, with the refrain carrying most of the text.

5. She Only Touched the Hem of His Garment

   A gospel hymn on the woman healed in Matthew 9, printed in Faith Hymns (Boston, 1887).

6. The Vacant Chair

   Henry Washburn's poem on Lieutenant John William Grout, set by Root in 1861 and sung on both sides of the Atlantic.

7. Come to the Savior

   An invitation hymn of the kind Root supplied in quantity for Sunday-school and revival collections.

8. Glory to God in the Highest

   A Christmas anthem on the angels' song from Luke 2.

9. Hark! Hark! the Song the Ransomed Sing

   A hymn on the song of the redeemed, one of several entries here drawn from revival songbooks.

10. Ring the Bells of Heaven

    A gospel hymn on the joy of repentance, in the compact verse-and-refrain form Root used for the Sunday schools.