![]() He died at his summer home in Bailey Island Maine, at the age of 74 and is buried in Harmonyvale Cemetery in N. Root was awarded the degree of Musical Doctor by the First University of Chicago in 1872. ![]() His songs were played and sung at the home front and the real front.Īfter the war, he was elected as a 3rd Class Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U. ![]() He had at least 35 wartime hits in tone from the bellicose to the ethereal. 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 became particularly successful during the American Civil War, as a composer of martial songs such as “Tramp!, Tramp!, Tramp! ” (The Prisoner’s Hope), ”Just Before the Battle, Mother, ” and “The Battle Cry of Freedom”. The “Flower Queen” has been regarded as the first secular cantata written by an American.īuilding on his talent for song-writing, Roots moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1859 to work for his brother‘s music publishing house of Root and Caddy. His first cantata “The Flower Queen” was composed in 1851 with libretto by Fanny Crosby, and gained immediate success in singing schools across United States. Root’s cantatas were popular throughout the 19th century. He also composed various sacred and secular cantatas including the popular “The Haymakers” (1857). In 1860 he compiled the Diapason : Collection of Church Music. The cantata was a collection between Root and Bradbury musically, with text by Fanny Crosby and C. Root assisted William Bradbury in composing the “Shawm” in 1853, a collection of hymn-tunes and coral anthems, featuring the cantata Daniel: or the Captivity and Restoration. Root chose to employ the pseudonym Wurzel (German for Root) to capitalize on the popularity of German composers during the 1850s, and to keep his identity as a serious composer against his composition of minstrel and popular songs.īesides his popular songs, he also composed gospel songs in the Ira Sankey vein, and collected and edited volumes of coral music for singing schools, Sunday school, church choirs and musical instrument institutes. 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: “Hazel Dell, ” “ Rosalie the Prairie Flower, ” “ There’s Music in the Air”Īnd others, which were, according to Root’s New York Times obituary, known throughout the country in the Antebellum period. He was a follower of the teachings of Emmanuel Swedenborg. He applied a version of Pestalozzi’s teaching and was instrumental in developing mid-and late-19th century American musical education. From 1855 on, Root would spend most of the summer traveling and teaching at music education conventions throughout New England. 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 precided over the convention at the Norumbega of Hall in 1856.įrom 1853 to1855, Root helped Lowell Mason and William Bradbury establish the New York Normal Musical Institute, which served as a school for aspiring music educators. In 1850, he made a study-tour of Europe, staying at Vienna, Paris, and London. 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 50 to 60 popular secular songs. Root Left his farming community for Boston at 18, flute in hand, intending to join an orchestra. Root was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and was named after the German composer George Frederick Handel. He is regarded as the first American to compose a secular cantata. 6, 1895), was an American songwriter who found particular fame during the American Civil War.
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