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'''Henry Clay Work''' (October 1, 1832, [[Middletown, Connecticut|Middletown]] – June 8, 1884, [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]]) was an American [[songwriter]] and [[composer]] of the mid-19th century. He is best remembered for his musical contributions to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]—songs documenting the barbarity of slavery, the hardships of army life and Northern triumphs in the conflict. His [[Sentimental ballad|sentimental ballads]], some of which promoted the growing [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance movement]], have also left their mark on [[Music of the United States|American music]]. Many of Work's compositions were performed at [[Minstrel show|minstrel shows]] and Civil War veteran reunions. Although largely forgotten nowadays, he was one of the most successful musicians of his time, comparable to [[Stephen Foster]] and [[George Frederick Root|George F. Root]] in sales and sheer influence. In songwriting, he is renowned for his dexterity in [[African-American Vernacular English|African-American dialect]] and [[Melody|melodics]]. |
'''Henry Clay Work''' (October 1, 1832, [[Middletown, Connecticut|Middletown]] – June 8, 1884, [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]]) was an American [[songwriter]] and [[composer]] of the mid-19th century. He is best remembered for his musical contributions to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]—songs documenting the barbarity of slavery, the hardships of army life and Northern triumphs in the conflict. His [[Sentimental ballad|sentimental ballads]], some of which promoted the growing [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance movement]], have also left their mark on [[Music of the United States|American music]]. Many of Work's compositions were performed at [[Minstrel show|minstrel shows]] and Civil War veteran reunions. Although largely forgotten nowadays, he was one of the most successful musicians of his time, comparable to [[Stephen Foster]] and [[George Frederick Root|George F. Root]] in sales and sheer influence. In songwriting, he is renowned for his dexterity in [[African-American Vernacular English|African-American dialect]] and [[Melody|melodics]]. |
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Born to a [[Connecticut|Connecticutian]] family in 1832, Work's upbringing was modest and rather galling but also instrumental in gearing him to appreciate songwriting. His father, Alanson, was an [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] who tirelessly strove to free [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive slaves]], for which he was briefly imprisoned. While lacking much formal education, less so in musical theory, his passion for writing and music manifested itself early on. In his spare time, he wrote poems for various newspapers. Work first published a complete musical piece in 1853, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary," sold to the popular troupe[[Christy's Minstrels]] for ample profit. It encouraged him to pursue songwriting further, migrating to [[Chicago]] two years later. |
Born to a [[Connecticut|Connecticutian]] family in 1832, Work's upbringing was modest and rather galling but also instrumental in gearing him to appreciate songwriting. His father, Alanson, was an [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] who tirelessly strove to free [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive slaves]], for which he was briefly imprisoned. While lacking much formal education, less so in musical theory, his passion for writing and music manifested itself early on. In his spare time, he wrote poems for various newspapers. Work first published a complete musical piece in 1853, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary," sold to the popular troupe [[Christy's Minstrels]] for ample profit. It encouraged him to pursue songwriting further, migrating to [[Chicago]] two years later. |
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His career came of age at the [[American Civil War#Outbreak of the war|Civil War's outbreak]]; willing to contribute to the Union struggle, Work started writing patriotic tunes for the local publishing firm [[Root & Cady]]. Impressed by "[[Kingdom Coming]]" (1861), Root hired him for the war's duration, during which he drove the business to unprecedented success and produced some of the most iconic wartime songs, most notably, "[[Marching Through Georgia]]" (1865). After the war, Work embarked on a maritime tour around Europe; it was at this time that his venture in balladry initiated, his first being "[[The Ship That Never Returned]]" (1865). Upon returning to the United States, he was left impoverished by a failed speculation of farmland. In conjunction with Root & Cady's failure in 1871, Work's songwriting efforts declined considerably. |
His career came of age at the [[American Civil War#Outbreak of the war|Civil War's outbreak]]; willing to contribute to the Union struggle, Work started writing patriotic tunes for the local publishing firm [[Root & Cady]]. Impressed by "[[Kingdom Coming]]" (1861), Root hired him for the war's duration, during which he drove the business to unprecedented success and produced some of the most iconic wartime songs, most notably, "[[Marching Through Georgia]]" (1865). After the war, Work embarked on a maritime tour around Europe; it was at this time that his venture in balladry initiated, his first being "[[The Ship That Never Returned]]" (1865). Upon returning to the United States, he was left impoverished by a failed speculation of farmland. In conjunction with Root & Cady's failure in 1871, Work's songwriting efforts declined considerably. |
Revision as of 20:26, 16 July 2024
Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832, Middletown – June 8, 1884, Hartford) was an American songwriter and composer of the mid-19th century. He is best remembered for his musical contributions to the Union in the Civil War—songs documenting the barbarity of slavery, the hardships of army life and Northern triumphs in the conflict. His sentimental ballads, some of which promoted the growing temperance movement, have also left their mark on American music. Many of Work's compositions were performed at minstrel shows and Civil War veteran reunions. Although largely forgotten nowadays, he was one of the most successful musicians of his time, comparable to Stephen Foster and George F. Root in sales and sheer influence. In songwriting, he is renowned for his dexterity in African-American dialect and melodics.
Born to a Connecticutian family in 1832, Work's upbringing was modest and rather galling but also instrumental in gearing him to appreciate songwriting. His father, Alanson, was an abolitionist who tirelessly strove to free fugitive slaves, for which he was briefly imprisoned. While lacking much formal education, less so in musical theory, his passion for writing and music manifested itself early on. In his spare time, he wrote poems for various newspapers. Work first published a complete musical piece in 1853, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary," sold to the popular troupe Christy's Minstrels for ample profit. It encouraged him to pursue songwriting further, migrating to Chicago two years later.
His career came of age at the Civil War's outbreak; willing to contribute to the Union struggle, Work started writing patriotic tunes for the local publishing firm Root & Cady. Impressed by "Kingdom Coming" (1861), Root hired him for the war's duration, during which he drove the business to unprecedented success and produced some of the most iconic wartime songs, most notably, "Marching Through Georgia" (1865). After the war, Work embarked on a maritime tour around Europe; it was at this time that his venture in balladry initiated, his first being "The Ship That Never Returned" (1865). Upon returning to the United States, he was left impoverished by a failed speculation of farmland. In conjunction with Root & Cady's failure in 1871, Work's songwriting efforts declined considerably.
He committed to another collaboration with Chauncey M. Cady, formerly of Root & Cady, in the latter half of the 1870s, yielding one sole success—but a considerable success at that—"Grandfather's Clock" (1876). Work could not reproduce his wartime fame and fortune, further saddened by financial and domestic woes such as his wife being consigned to a mental asylum. He died without much recognition in 1884; a New Haven Journal-Courier obituary succinctly encapsulates his legacy:
Our country has produced few song writers whose works have been more widely sung than Mr. Work. Some few of his productions have not only been on the lips of nearly every man, woman and child in America, but have been known and sung, with some variations, in every part of the world. [...] Mr. Work excelled in war songs. It would be difficult to find a survivor of the rebellion who had not joined in the chorus of "Rally 'Round the Flag"[a] and "Kingdom Coming," or the old slavery song "Old Nicodemus."[b] His songs were of the popular order and touched the popular heart.[1]
Early life
Henry Clay Work, named for distinguished statesman and former House speaker Henry Clay,[2] was born on October 1, 1832, in Middletown, Connecticut.[3] The Work family was of Scottish origin, their surname derived from Auld Wark, a significant stronghold during the Anglo-Scottish wars. To avert religious persecution, they migrated to the north of Ireland. Soon after, in 1720, Joseph Work emigrated to the United States, settling in Ashford, Connecticut.[4]
Henry Work's background was modest, "pass[ing] his boyhood days almost in want"[5] without much formal education.[6] When aged just three, his father, Alanson, resettled the family near Quincy, Illinois, to better their fortunes.[7] He was "a noted and fearless anti-slavery advocate,"[8] organizing the family home into a station of the Underground Railroad, a network for fugitive slaves to escape to freedom.[9] For aiding thousands of slaves flee from bondage,[10] Alanson was sentenced to twelve years' hard labor in Missouri in 1841. He was conditionally pardoned four years later, forced to return to Connecticut and abandon the Railroad.[11] The efforts of Henry Work's father left a stirring impression on him, having spent much time with the freed slaves.[12] In his 1923 biography of the composer, Bertram G. Work remarked:
"That Henry Clay Work drew much of the inspiration for his songs from his youthful experiences cannot be doubted. During his most impressionable years, he came in contact with many noted anti-slavery workers; perhaps even assisted his father in his humanitarian work."[13]
He became familiar with the African-American dialect and minstrelsy, and, above all, came to terms with the cruelty of slavery. Work grew to share his father's staunch abolitionism, manifesting itself in his later compositions, many of which were endowed with "a pronounced moralistic zeal."[14]
While in Illinois, he attended irregular Latin and Greek courses at Mission Institute.[15] These fostered a deep interest in philology; aged twelve, he noted his "considerable progress" in inventing two languages, "one in which English letters were used to form new words, and one that had an alphabet of its own."[16] In music, Work was largely self-taught, save for some lessons at a church singing school and exposure to camp meetings in his neighborhood.[17] He quickly grew acquainted with the principles of musical notation, devising original melodies while laboring at the family pasture.[18]
In 1845, obliged by the terms of Alanson's release from prison, the Work family migrated back to Middletown, except for Henry who stayed a year longer.[2] Then aged fourteen, he reluctantly commenced his apprenticeship as a tailor, but his father soon allowed him to pursue a career more "congenial to his tastes" in printing, specializing in typesetting music.[19] Work never permanently strayed from this trade.[20] He later became a proofreader, granting him further insight into the English language, indispensable for his songwriting ventures.[18] In his spare time, his "everyday thought" of writing and music took effect, penning numerous poems, adapting them to melodies and contributing them to various newspapers.[21]
Early career
Formative years
In 1853 Work composed his first song with original lyrics and melody, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary". Instead of sending it to a gazette's "poet's corner," he submitted it to Edwin P. Christy, founder of the renowned eponymous minstrel troupe based in New York City that had initiated Stephen Foster's career.[22] Christy was "well pleased" and performed it at his shows, received with respectable praise and some popularity.[23] He later sold it to the local publishing firm Firth, Pond & Co. for the sufficient remuneration of $25,[c] bestowing Work the profit.[20] This encouraged him to pursue "more ambitious efforts as a composer,"[18] publishing a comic song, "Lilly-Wily Woken," for the New York firm William Hall & Son two years later.[24]
While his career had been moderately fruitful so far, Work started doubting his songwriting capabilities. He passed the rest of the decade without publishing any music, choosing to focus exclusively on printing.[25] For this reason he migrated to Chicago in 1855, aged twenty-three, and took up a new printing job.[26] Two years later, he married Massachusettsan Sarah Parker and bought a cottage at Hyde Park.[27][d] In March 1861, with his passion for songwriting revived, Work published a song commemorating the steamer Lady Elgin's shipwreck, "Lost on the Lady Elgin," meeting little success.[29]
Background to his Civil War career
The following month, the American Civil War broke out, laying out a new path for Work's aspirations. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12–13, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the Southern rebellion.[30] Music, which "aroused herself to meet the exigencies of the times,"[31] was instrumental to raising the Union's spirits, rallying civilians and troops, both White and Black, round a collective struggle for unity.[32] Folk music enthusiast Irwin Silber notes:
"Throughout the war, soldiers and civilians of the Union states were inspired and propagandized by a host of patriotic songs. An endless stream of compositions poured forth from the dedicated pens of scores of professional song writers and hundreds of eager amateurs. [...] a few of these songs caught the tempo and the spirit across the country carried on the lips of millions of Americans."[33]
Being in such high demand, patriotic song submissions began pouring into local newspapers and music labels, most of which were rather trite.[34] It is estimated that approximately two thousand were published as sheet music in 1861 alone.[35]
No firm attained such success in publishing Unionist music as Chicago-based Root & Cady, "the largest of [...] the era"[36] and "the most prolific producers of wartime music."[37] It was established in 1858 by Ebenezer T. Root and Chauncey M. Cady and, from 1860 onwards, principally operated by George F. Root.[38] Root was one of the most renowned composers of the Civil War era, with such tunes as "Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" to his name.[39] By the war's opening weeks, his firm was receiving roughly sixty daily submissions; throughout the conflict, it published over a hundred songs.[40] In fact, it issued the very first Unionist composition, "The First Gun is Fired!", in response to the attack on Fort Sumter.[41] However, the Union still lacked much antislavery vigor.[42] Having just been remotivated to write music, Work, who had witnessed the hardships of slavery firsthand, was drawn to Root & Cady, conveniently situated in his hometown of Chicago. He engaged in a hugely successful partnership with the firm throughout the war and in subsequent years.[43]
Civil War career
Work's music "captured the spirit and struggle of the Civil War,"[44] composed with "a fiery partisanship."[45] From 1861 to 1865 he penned 27 patriotic pieces and published them for Root & Cady.[46] He is held as one of the Union's preeminent bards whose songs reflected the nation's progress and civilian struggles during the war.[47] His musical contributions to the Union are paralleled with military efforts on the battlefield itself.[48] An 1884 anthology of Northern compositions, Our National War Songs, lists more songs penned by Work than any other composer, illustrating their value in the struggle.[49] Chief among them are "Kingdom Coming" (1861), "Grafted into the Army" (1862), "Song of a Thousand Years" (1863), "Babylon is Fallen" (1863), "Wake Nicodemus" (1864) and "Marching Through Georgia" (1865).[50] They reaped nigh unrivalled success; Work's career, as well as Root & Cady's, crested during the war.[51]
Many of Work's songs present slaves' routine undertakings on the plantation and incorporate African-American dialect, thus falling in the minstrelsy genre.[52] In Florine Thayer McCray's words, they evoke "the very atmosphere of awakening plantation life" and echo "the cottonpicker’s musing hum and the roustabout’s refrain."[53] However, contrary to the minstrel tradition, Work exposes the all-too-real horrors endured by African Americans rather than stereotyping or idealizing them as most antebellum musicians such as Stephen Foster and Thomas D. Rice had done. Having come face to face with their hardships while in the Underground Railroad, Work genuinely understood the plight of slaves.[54] He resorted to minstrelsy not merely for entertainment but to endorse emancipation and Black enlistment.[55]
1861
"Brave Boys Are They," a grim overview of army life, kickstarted Work's wartime career but it was not until March that his music started leaving an impression.[56] That month, George F. Root bought out another of his Unionist compositions, "Our Captain's Last Words," amassing considerable sales.[57] Root met him in person a short while after as Work presented the manuscript for a new song; his autobiography gives an account of the encounter:
"One day early in the war a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad, was sent up to my room from the store with a song for me to examine. I looked at it and then at him in astonishment. It was "Kingdom Coming"—elegant in manuscript, full of bright, good sense and comical situations in its "darkey" dialect—the words fitting the melody almost as aptly and neatly as Gilbert fits Sullivan—the melody decidedly good and taking, and the whole exactly suited to the times. 'Did you write these words and music?' I asked. A gentle 'Yes' was the answer. 'What is your business, if I may inquire?' 'I am a printer.' 'Would you rather write music than set type?' 'Yes.' 'Well, if this is a specimen of what you can do, I think you may give up the printing business.'"[58]
He saw great potential in Work's "gift for composition"[59] and, in a time that "called for patriotic songs with a strong Union flavor,"[37] assigned him a songwriting post lasting until the Civil War's end.[43]
First verse and chorus
Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa,
Wid the muffstash[e] on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin',
Like he gwine to leab de place?
He seen a smoke, way up de ribber,
Whar de Linkum gumboats lay;
He took his hat, an' lef' berry sudden,
An' I spec[f] he's run away!
De massa run? ha! ha!
De darkey stay? ho! ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom comin',
An' de year ob Jubilo![60]
"Kingdom Coming" and minstrelsy
"Kingdom Coming" is deemed "the first of [Work's] important songs"[61] as well as his "unquestioned masterpiece," cementing itself as a wartime favorite of African-American troops.[62] A symbol of the war's progress, it portends the Emancipation Proclamation, the executive order effectively liberating all slaves in Confederate territory.[63] A "hypocritical and cowardly" slave owner, fearing being captured by incoming Union military forces, escapes his plantation, then taken over by his slaves who lock their overseer up as retribution for his cruelty.[64] The "year of Jubilo [Jubilee]" alludes to the biblical practice of freeing bondsmen every 50 years (delineated in Leviticus 25, OT), a lasting metaphor of liberation from oppression; to subjugated Blacks, it represents the end of their servitude.[65]
A staple of minstrelsy, "Kingdom Coming" reverses the antebellum tradition of denigrated the plight of slaves, instead sympathizing with them.[66] Ever since the 1830s lower-class Northern theater had been dominated by troupes of blackface performers. Dressed in extravagant costumes and armed with banjos, they acted as caricatured African Americans reminiscing about their days in the agrarian South. The Romantic portrayal of Southern plantation life, with slaves and their owners residing harmoniously, gave uninformed Northern audiences a false impression of African Americans' toil in an era when slavery was growing into a dangerously divisive political issue.[67] Stephen Foster idealized the South in his early compositions; "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground" (1852), featuring slaves lamenting their master's death, provides a clear example:[68]
Massa made de darkeys love him,
Cause he was so kind,
Now dey sadly weep above him,
Mourning cause he leave them behind.
I cannot work before tomorrow,
Cause de teardrops flow,
I try to drive away my sorrow,
Picking on de old banjo.[69]
With African Americans stereotyped as blithe, imbecilic, docile servants, racism pervaded Northern society and shaped public attitudes until well after the Civil War; derogatory "coon songs" such as "All Coons Look Alike to Me" (1896) sprung up in the postbellum.[70] "Kingdom Coming" strays from the mockery of blackface minstrelsy, portraying a realistic picture of plantation life and humanizing slaves. Instead of the oppressive master reigning supreme over his slaves as generally observed in minstrel songs, these roles are inverted; the slaves take over the plantation and overcome their overseer.[66] This role reversal is also observed in "Babylon is Fallen" (1863), in which the slaves exclaim: "We will be de Massa, / He will be de servant."[71]
Prior to the Civil War, slaves turned to simple, sometimes comic, songs to lighten their labor.[72] However, from 1861 onward African-American music took a new serious form, serving as a collective call for liberation. Negro spirituals such as "Go Down Moses," alluding to Israel's journey to freedom in the promised land in Exodus, consoled stifled African-American populations and rallied support for emancipation.[73] While not a spiritual but a seriocomedy, "Kingdom Coming," likewise centered around a biblical metaphor (the Jubilee in Leviticus), vastly appealed to African-American Union troops who regularly sang it as they marched to the South.[74] The song's allure was bolstered by its employment of African-American dialect.[52] Its "robust melody,"[61] blending in perfectly with the lyrics, reflects Work's mastery of harmony.[75]
First advertised by Edwin P. Christy in April 1862, "Kingdom Coming" quickly became a linchpin of minstrel show repertoires.[76] Convinced of its potential, the publisher George F. Root embarked on a widespread advertising campaign to promote the song.[77] Such was its success that Root could not keep up with orders, claiming it to be his firm's most profitable composition "for nearly a year and a half" and "the most successful patriotic song in the West."[78] Within a few years, it sold 75,000 copies of sheet music.[79] After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, approximately 10,000 Chicagoans gathered at Clark Street to celebrate the occasion; "Kingdom Coming", symbolizing the proclamation's outcome, was one of the abolitionist songs chanted alongside "John Brown's Body."[80] While time has not been kind with the song, up until the 19th century's close, it was reportedly as popular as "Dixie."[81]Jerome Kern's 1921 Broadway musical Good Morning, Dearie and the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis prominently feature it.[82]
1862
By 1862 the surge in patriotic songs witnessed the year prior had slowed down,[83] but Work's output certainly did not decline. This included "God Save the Nation,"[84] "Uncle Joe's Hail Columbia"[85] and "Grafted into the Army."[86][87] The latter, arguably the most well-known of the bunch, is "a delightful comedy tune"[61] narrated by a widowed mother whose son was drafted into the Union army under President Lincoln's Enrollment Act. The song particularly targets a provision in the law exempting those paying a $300 fee to the government or appointing a substitute, while the poor mother's son is obliged to fight.[88]
1863
At the Civil War's apex, with many Northerners "Copperheads" questioning Lincoln's running of the conflict, Root accelerated the production of Unionist compositions to hike morale up but struggled to recruit enough composers for his firm. Still, it managed to print 250,000 copies of sheet music.[90] That year, he began issuing a periodical, the Song Messenger, with Work as its editor. They agreed that Work would be "independent and untrammeled in the expression of his views on all subjects"[91] but this promptly sparked controversy. In a June article he admonished compilers of church music books for altering traditional tunes and corrupting their sanctity, followed up by another in July denouncing one of the adapted hymns as "hardly recognizable [and] mutilated."[92] Many compilers perceived these articles as defamation and demanded an apology; the periodical's reputation was marred irrevocably.[93] Nonetheless, this did not tarnish Work's collaboration with Root, as 1863 proved another fruitful year, indicated by the tunes "Sleeping for the Flag,"[94] "Song of a Thousand Years"[95] and, most notably, "Babylon is Fallen."[96][87]
"Kingdom Coming" had been such a major success that numerous takes on the theme of slaves' emancipation sprung up such as Root's "De Day ob Liberty's Comin" (1862).[97] Work published a sequel of his hit in July 1863 titled "Babylon is Fallen," alluding to Revelation 14, NT: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great,"[98] which symbolizes the downfall of despotism. This suits the song's content, narrating the slaves' seizure of their master who had fled to fight for the Confederate army and returned disgraced:[99]
Massa was de kernel[g] in de rebel army,
Ebber since he went an' run away;
But his lubly darkeys, they has been a watchin',
When dey take him pris'ner tudder[h] day.[100]
Also written in vernacular, "Babylon is Fallen" aroused African Americans recruited for the Union army; their numbers had grown since the Emancipation Proclamation's passage. Also an unparalleled favorite among abolitionists and soldiers, it sold more first-month copies than its prequel.[101]
1864
1863 had been exceedingly fruitful for Root & Cady and other Chicagoan music firms, thriving in "a flourishing condition" according to the Song Messenger.[102] Their songs were played routinely at minstrel shows and local musical gatherings. By 1864 Root was held as "the most popular songwriter in America,"[103] in no doubt helped by Work's success. That year, he published the patriotic songs "Wake Nicodemus"[104], a minstrel show hit,[105] "Washington and Lincoln"[106] and "Corporal Schnapps."[107] The last of these is a tragic yet humorous lament distinguished for its employment of German dialect, said to enable "the difficult fear of laughing and crying at the same time":[108]
"Come Home, Father" and temperance
Besides the Union struggle, Work devoted himself to the temperance movement, "[expressing] his passionate convictions about Prohibition" through music.[110] The movement gained much traction after the Civil War's close as many moralistic fraternities, most notably, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, called for public education on the perils of alcohol. Drunkards were framed as sinful and culpable for the degeneration of lives throughout the country.[111] "Reform literature" was the popular medium through which temperance was propagated, often taking the form of simple, sentimental and persuasive lyrics. Biographer George W. Ewing notes: "Many, if not most, of the hymnbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries contain at least two or three temperance hymns."[112] It borrowed elements from contemporary literary realism, documenting the hardships of domestic life with emphasis on women's oppression at the hands of their husband's indulgent habits.[113]
In line with the ever-growing movement, Work composed several songs spotlighting the perils of alcohol consumption.[114] His most renowned is "Come Home, Father," a young girl's plea for her father, then trifling away his pay and time in a bar getting drunk, to return home while her brother is slowly dying:
Father, dear father, come home with me now!
The clock in the steeple strikes one;
You said you were coming right home from the shop,
As soon as your day's work was done.
Our fire has gone out, our house is all dark
And mother's been watching since tea,
With poor brother Benny so sick in her arms,
And no one to help her but me.[115]
Like many other temperance lyrics, it is overtly sentimental to persuade the audience of the vices of alcoholism but also realistic in tackling a pressing social issue.[116] Such was its puissance that Work received hundreds of appreciative letters from social reformers. One Louisianan woman even wrote to him requesting a song targeted at inducing her husband to quit his extramarital affair and figuratively "return home."[117] In an 1898 New Haven Journal-Courier editorial, Florine Thayer McCray writes: "[...] who has not sat breathless listening to the rare combination of pathos and harmony with which the changing cadences of human voices plead 'Hear the Sweet Voice of the Child' [the chorus] and felt how much more persuasive and fetching than any temperance sermon was this song [...]"[53] A linchpin of temperance meetings, "Come Home, Father" was adopted as the Women's Christian Temperance Union's theme tune.[118] The song featured as an interlude in a production of Timothy Shay Arthur's acclaimed Prohibitionist play Ten Nights in a Barroom.[119]
Work wrote other temperance songs after the war, including "Lillie of the Snowstorm" (1866),[120] "King Bibler's Army" (1877), which was moderately successful,[121] and "Shadows on the Floor" (1877), an account of impoverished families' hardships,[122] although none faithfully captured the essence and fame of "Come Home, Father."[120][107]
1865
Root & Cady's early weeks of 1865 were occupied with Root's latest 1864 hit, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!", stimulated by grim revelations on the atrocities within Confederate prison camps. It took the Union by storm and earned the firm over $10,000[i] in profit within a few months.[123] In February Work set P. G. T. Beauregard's recent evacuation of Charleston to music; the product, "Ring the Bell, Watchman" reflected the unbroken toppling of Confederate cities during the war's final weeks.[124] Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9 marked the Civil War's end; Chicagoans paraded the streets and packed the local Court House until well into the night.[125] Work celebrated the triumph with a final wartime composition, "'Tis Finished!, or Sing Hallelujah," published in June.[126] However, for him, 1865 remains best remembered for meteoric popularity of "Marching Through Georgia."
"Marching Through Georgia"
First verse and chorus
Bring the good old bugle boys! we'll sing another song,
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along;
Sing it as we used to sing it fifty thousand strong,
While we were marching through Georgia.
Hurrah! Hurrah! we bring the Jubilee!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.[127]
Of all Work's Civil War compositions, none were as acclaimed and fruitful as "Marching Through Georgia", widely regarded as "the greatest of his war songs."[128] The end of 1864 saw the March to the Sea, in which Union forces crippled Confederate resources in Georgia and took over Atlanta and Savannah. Work capitalized on this to write another of his topical songs, "Marching Through Georgia," chronicling the momentous Union triumph after which Georgia became a "thoroughfare for freedom."[129] Its "suggestive verse" and "swinging meter" capture the actual enthusiasm felt by Union troops during the campaign.[53] Published in January 1865, it was a runaway success, selling 500,000 copies in its first twelve years.[130] In his autobiography published 26 years after the song's drafting, Root explained its popularity:
"It is more played and sung at the present time than any other song of the war. This is not only on account of the intrinsic merit of its words and music, but because it is retrospective. Other war songs, “The Battle Cry of Freedom” for example, were for exciting the patriotic feeling on going in to the war or the battle; “Marching Through Georgia” is a glorious remembrance on coming triumphantly out, and so has been more appropriate to soldiers’ and other gatherings ever since."[131]
"Marching Through Georgia" quickly became a staple of any Civil War reunion; Work even sang it at one of the Grand Army of the Republic's annual campfires—something he typically resisted.[132] Its ubiquity famously inflamed General William T. Sherman, whom it is dedicated to. He grew to despise it after repeatedly hearing it in every public gathering he attended; he once remarked when attending a reunion: "Scarcely had I gotten under way, however, when the strains of that infernal tune smote upon my ear."[133]
Later career
Postbellum
With the Civil War over, Work's motivation for songwriting and output declined considerably.[134] Turning away from patriotic songs now deemed outdated, he settled into sentimental balladry. Work, newly enriched by his war efforts, embarked on a tour around Europe from 1865 to 1866, during which he wrote the first of his notable postbellum songs, “The Ship That Never Returned.”[135] It narrates the departure of a ship from a harbor that never come back, with a mother and the captain's wife lamenting the loss of their loved ones who were on board:
On a summer's day, when the wave was rippled
By the softest gentlest breeze,
Did a ship set sail with a cargo laden
For a port beyond the seas.
There were sweet farewells, there were loving signals
While a form was yet discerned;
Though they knew it not, 'twas a solemn parting
For the ship, she never returned.[136]
It immediately entered the folk tradition and, starting from the 1880s, sparked the creation of numerous melodic imitations.[137] One of the early parodies, "The Train that Never Returned," recounts a fatal railway incident.[138] The most famous of these, however, is "The Wreck of the Old 97" (1903), among the most renowned of tragic ballads.[139] In 1866 Work composed another composition concerning a maritime disaster, "When the 'Evening Star' Went Down," commemorating the eponymous steamer's sinking after sailing into a hurricane.[140][141]
Upon returning to the United States, Work and his brother invested most of their wealth in over a hundred acres of land and multiple houses in the hopes of establishing a profitable fruit farm in Vineland, New Jersey. Their expectations were swiftly wiped out, bankrupting them both. This was the first of several personal tragedies to befall him.[142] "[F]orced to begin life over again," Work left Vineland and disappeared from public life.[143] He spent a few years in California.
In the postwar years leading up to 1872, he penned 17 songs,[j] in contrast to the 27 authored during the war;[46] the only remotely profitable one was "The Ship That Never Returned." Others include "Andy Veto" (1866), a satire of then-President Andrew Johnson's vetoing of Reconstruction legislation,[145] and "Crossing the Grand Sierras" (1870), describing a train voyage across the nation set just after the Transcontinental Railroad's completion.[146] The latter was Work's last song published for Root & Cady—personal differences between him and Root as well as the business' abrupt closure brought their once fertile collaboration to a somber end.[147]
Decline
Root & Cady's closure
Contrary to Work's misfortune, the postbellum years were looking bright for Root & Cady. Publications and song anthologies, among them, the temperance song compilation titled The Musical Fountain,[148] were being churned out at a rate surpassing even their wartime production. The Chicagoan music scene was as lively as ever. Root also distinguished himself as a prominent campaigner for Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 presidential election.[149] However, their hopes came crashing down in the fall of 1871 when the firm was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire, incurring $315,000[k] in losses.[150] It raged on from October 8 to October 10, destroying all waterworks, banking houses and railway depots, and caused a minor depression in the national stock market. Every business in the city's south wing was obliterated; it was reported that over 20,000 buildings were demolished, wreaking over $200,000,000[l] in damages.[151] Root remarked in the Song Messenger: "all is gone, my musical library and the thousand useful things that I have gathered about me in so many busy years, swept in a moment."[152]
Unable to continue the business in its former rendition, Root & Cady's music copyrights were all sold to Ohioan publishers S. Brainard Sons and John Church & Co. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1862. Root continued his former teaching profession and Cady left Chicago for New York.[153] This made it harder for Work to rejuvenate his songwriting career.
"Grandfather's Clock"
First verse and chorus
My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short never to go again
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)
His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)
It stopped short never to go again
When the old man died.[154]
Work's last hit, also his most lucrative, was "Grandfather's Clock," published by Cady in 1876 and popularized by African-American entertainer Sam Lucas in New Haven.[155] Inspired by his sympathetic approach to disaffected individuals, he anthropomorphizes a clock to signify its owner; it had stood for ninety years throughout the "old man"'s life and accompanied him. When he dies, the clock also stops functioning, a symbol of human mortality and irreplaceable companionship. The song remains most memorable for its onomatopoeic "ticking" chorus and effortlessly inventive rhymes: "Ninety years without slumbering [...] / His life seconds numbering."[156]
Although Work expected nothing beyond a moderate hit,[157] Cady foretold its widespread success.[158] His prophecy was proven correct: the song secured over 800,000 sheet music sales.[159] It also coined the phrase "grandfather clock" to describe a longcase clock.[160] After Work sold the copyright to "Grandfather's Clock," Cady paid him $250[m] in monthly royalties, helping to lift him out of poverty.[161][n] In total, this was the highest bestowed to any American composer at the time, only possibly surpassed by Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home."[157] An 1879 issue of the San Marcos Free Press highlights its ubiquity, claiming that not knowing the song "argues yourself unknown", being "nightly played in theater and concert halls to applauding auditors."[163] American music historian John T. Howard claims that "there is scarcely a school songbook" excluding "Grandfather's Clock."[45]
In 1878 Work composed a follow-up to the song simply titled "Sequel to Grandfather's Clock," continuing its narrative after the grandfather's death. A relative of his returns to the old man's home to encounter his beloved clock being burnt for kindling wood; in its place now stands an unsightly wall ornament:[164]
Once again have I roamed thro’ the old-fashioned house,
Where my grandfather spent his ninety years.
There are strangers in charge, and the change they have wrought—
Oh! it saddens me, even to tears.
Dear old clock! when they found you were speechless from grief,
Then they went and swapped you off, case and all,
For that vain, stuck-up thing (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick)
For that vain, stuck-up thing on the wall.[165]
End
None of Work's compositions post-"Grandfather Clock" reproduced the same success.[166] In 1878 he left Brooklyn for the less hectic Bath in upstate New York, longing for a residence in which he "could find a still nook in this still noisy world where he might engage in literary and musical work, and at the same time find repose for over-strung nerves."[167] The "last years of his life were clouded with the illness of his wife."[53] He died abruptly of heart disease on June 8, 1884, while visiting his mother's residence at Chestnut Street, Hartford.[168] He was survived by one of his four children.[169] Obituaries "brushed off"[170] his legacy, often spanning a few lines and merely recognizing him as a "noted song writer and composer", citing a few famous songs and nothing more.[171] He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Hartford.[172] It was only until 25 years later that a monument in his honor was be erected, in the same cemetery.[173]
Personal life
Character
One of Work's obituaries summarized his apparent character as an "invalid-like fellow with sadness in his voice and bearing poverty in his dress."[174] Reportedly "a man of fine appearance," Work stood at about five feet ten inches, having brown hair, full whiskers and bluish-grey eyes.[175] He was "very reserved and unassuming", going as far as to refuse exposing plagiarism to his music; he made few intimate friends.[176] Despite much of his life being beclouded by tragedy, Work had a sense of humor, exhibited on one occasion when someone sang "Come Home, Father" claiming he had written it; Work stood through the performance without once speaking up.[177] Practicing what his temperance songs preached, he was a committed teetotaler and Prohibitionist activist, going as far as to advocate the outlawing of tobacco.[157]
Chicago
Work migrated to Chicago in 1855 to further his trade as a printer.[26] In 1859, after Paul Cornell established a new community in the city's south wing, Hyde Park, Work purchased a plot of land from him for $175.[178][o] Roughly a year later, he oversaw the construction of his residence at 5317 Dorchester Avenue, a small, humble cottage "hardly [looking] big enough to house a piano."[179] He and his wife, Sarah, devoted themselves to the Chicagoan community, being among the first organizers of the First Presbyterian Church.[180] Work even served as township clerk from 1864 to 1866.[181] In 1867 he sold the cottage and land and took up a new residence in New York City.[182]
Pastimes and writing
Work indulged himself in mechanical studies and experiments, and during hiatuses in his musical career, he was devoted "almost exclusively"[175] to them. He invented and patented a knitting machine, a walking doll and a rotary engine.[183] In 1868 he wrote a once popular seriocomic poem, The Upshot Family, satirizing a prototypical American family; its title page catalogs most of the songs he had written by then, totaling 43.[184] Fixated on originality, he devised the melody for all his compositions, and wrote the lyrics of all but four, actively refusing requests to put others' words to music.[185][p] He went as far as to design the title pages of his songs.[187]
Songwriting style
Root said of Work's style of composition: "Mr. Work was a slow, painstaking writer, being from one to three weeks upon a song; but when the work was done it was like a piece of fine mosaic, especially in the fitting of words to music."[188] He stressed Work's natural poetic talent and "natural vein of true melody."[189] Another writer remarked:
"His melodies are simple and natural, but as unlike and varies as the emotions to which they give expression; but, whether grave or comic, they possess inspirational qualities that, as musical compositions, arouse the imagination and fasten themselves upon the memory of the hearer. In his songs, Mr. Work is distinguished by his use of plain Anglo-Saxon words. He discards frothy adjectives, all rant, all extravagance of language, and, like Dickens, relies upon the situation he creates. This is his source of power over the human heart."[190]
Legacy
In songwriting
Florine Thayer McCray describes him as "the most inspiring and permanently popular song writer of the period just previous to, during and following the war."[53] A "firm believer in social progress from abolition to temperance,"[191] his music promoted popular societal causes, part and parcel of contemporary antislavery and Prohibitionist gatherings. He was a "talented creator of sentimental ballads."[192] Irwin Silber considers him "the ultimate composer of quintessentially realistic popular song during the sixties and seventies."[193] Work was one of the pioneers of the carefully refined verse-chorus structure of late-19th-century popular songs.[194]
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.[195]
References
Notes
- ^ "Rally 'Round the Flag", also known as "Battle Cry of Freedom", was penned by George F. Root, not by Work, as is implied.
- ^ Better known as "Wake Nicodemus."
- ^ Roughly equating to $1,020 in 2024.
- ^ The date of Henry and Sarah's marriage is unclear. Whilst Root's concise biography of the composer gives it at 1856, Hill concludes that it "certain[ly]" took place in 1857.[28]
- ^ In Standard English, translating to "mustache."
- ^ In Standard English, translating to "expect."
- ^ In Standard English, translating to "coronel."
- ^ In Standard English, translating to "the other."
- ^ Roughly equating to $193,000 in 2024.
- ^ "Traveling Homeward," composed in 1872, is cataloged by Hill but Work did not recognize it. If incorporated in his list of songs, this would tally the postbellum 1865–1872 compositions up to 18.[144]
- ^ Roughly equating to $8.1 million in 2024.
- ^ Roughly equating to $5.1 billion in 2024.
- ^ Roughly equating to $7,850 in 2024.
- ^ An 1884 issue of the Evening Capital claims that Work earned $300 a month, as opposed to $250.[162]
- ^ Roughly equating to $6,620 in 2024.
- ^ According to Hill, the four songs with borrowed lyrics are "Little Hallie" (1861), written by J. L. Peters, "God Save the Nation" (1862), by Theodore Tilton, "Agnes by the River" (1868), by Mary J. McDermit, and "Traveling Homeward" (1872) by Cadet Otis. Additionally, the words to "Watching for Pa" (1863) and "The Picture on the Wall" (1864) were "adapted" by Work.[186]
Citations
- ^
- qtd. in New Haven Journal 1884, p. 2
- see also: Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 122
- ^ a b Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- ^ qtd. in Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- ^
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- ^ qtd. in Work 1923, p. 6
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Drury 1975, p. 251
- Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- Carder 2008, p. 114
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
- Washington Standard 1920, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, p. 215
- ^
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^ qtd. in Work 1923, p. 6
- ^
- qtd. in Finson 1994, p. 56
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- Carder 2008, p. 114
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- Hill 1953a, p. 215
- ^ qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, pp. 284–285
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- ^ a b c Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- ^
- qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, pp. 215–216
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- ^ a b
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- ^
- qtd. in Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, p. 216
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- ^
- qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- ^ Hill 1953a, pp. 213, 216
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Hill 1953a, p. 216
- ^ a b
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- Drury 1975, p. 251
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, p. 218
- Drury 1975, p. 251
- ^ Hill 1953a, p. 218
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, pp. 213, 216
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- ^ Carder 2008, p. 101
- ^ qtd. in Saturday Evening Post 1862, p. 4
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Silber 1995, p. 8
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 21
- McWhirter 2012, p. 15
- ^ qtd. in Silber 1995, p. 7
- ^
- Saturday Evening Post 1862, p. 4
- Tribble 1967, p. 435
- Silber 1995, pp. 7–8
- McWhirter 2012, p. 16
- ^ McWhirter 2012, p. 16
- ^
- qtd. in Kelley & Snell 2004, pp. 121–122
- Root 1891, pp. 139–140
- Root et al. 1892, p. 5
- Epstein 1944, p. 43
- Tribble 1967, p. 425
- Carder 2008, p. 2
- ^ a b qtd. in Tribble 1967, p. 425
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 122–123
- Birdseye 1879a, p. 147
- Epstein 1944, pp. 45–46
- Howard & Bellows 1967, p. 134
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 5
- ^
- Birdseye 1879a, p. 148
- Epstein 1944, p. 43
- Howard & Bellows 1967, p. 134
- Carder 2008, pp. 1–2, 149
- McWhirter 2012, p. 17
- ^ McWhirter 2012, pp. 15, 17
- ^
- Root 1891, p. 132
- Silber 1995, p. 7
- Carder 2008, p. 102
- McWhirter 2012, p. 17
- ^
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^ a b
- Root 1891, p. 138
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Tribble 1967, p. 425
- Hill 1953a, p. 216
- Carder 2008, pp. 112, 114
- ^ qtd. in Song of America (b)
- ^ a b qtd. in Howard & Bellows 1967, p. 135
- ^ a b
- Hill 1953a, pp. 213–214
- Kelley & Snell 2004, pp. 121–122
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- Hill 1953a, p. 211
- Tribble 1967, p. 425
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 119
- McWhirter 2012, p. 21
- ^
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 224
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 121
- ^
- Root 1891, p. 138
- Root et al. 1892, p. 224
- Hill 1953a, pp. 213–214
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 121
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 6–7
- Birdseye 1879b, pp. 284–285
- Epstein 1944, p. 43
- Hill 1953a, p. 211
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 119
- ^ a b
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 288
- Bailey et al. 1991, pp. 197–198
- McWhirter 2012, pp. 146–147
- ^ a b c d e
- qtd. in McCray 1898, p. 10
- ^
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- Finson 1994, pp. 56, 210
- Carder 2008, p. 114
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^
- McWhirter 2012, pp. 20–21
- ^
- Work 1861a
- Hill 1953a, p. 213
- Carder 2008, p. 130
- ^
- Work 1861b
- Hill 1953a, p. 213
- Carder 2008, p. 112
- ^
- qtd. in Root 1891, pp. 137–138
- see also: Carder 2008, p. 114
- ^ qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 114
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 122–124
- Finson 1994, pp. 210–211
- Herder 1998, p. 190
- Cohen 2015, pp. 126–128
- ^ a b c qtd. in Ewen 1962, p. 188
- ^ qtd. in Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- ^
- ^
- qtd. in Hursh & Goertzen 2009, p. 174
- Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- Finson 1994, pp. 210–211
- ^
- Finson 1994, p. 211
- Carmichael 2006, p. 122
- ^ a b
- Finson 1994, p. 210
- Silber 1995, p. 306
- McWhirter 2012, pp. 146–147
- Cohen 2015, p. 126
- ^
- Finson 1994, pp. 176–178, 198–199
- Sussman 2001, pp. 79–83
- ^ Sussman 2001, p. 83
- ^
- Foster 1852, p. 5
- Cochran 1999, p. 188
- ^ Floyd 1995, p. 60
- ^ qtd. in Silber 1995, p. 307
- ^ Floyd 1995, p. 52
- ^
- Finson 1994, p. 209
- Silber 1995, p. 270
- Floyd 1995, pp. 60–61
- McWhirter 2012, pp. 149–150, 157
- ^
- Bailey et al. 1991, p. 197
- Finson 1994, p. 210
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 137, 139
- ^
- Silber 1995, p. 306
- Carder 2008, p. 113
- Cohen 2015, p. 126
- ^
- Silber 1995, p. 306
- Carder 2008, p. 113
- McWhirter 2012, p. 146
- ^
- qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 133
- Carder 2008, p. 114
- ^
- Manitowoc Tribune 1867, p. 2
- Shepherd 2003, p. 592
- McWhirter 2012, p. 25
- ^
- Carder 2008, p. 122
- McWhirter 2012, p. 159
- ^ Hursh & Goertzen 2009, p. 174
- ^
- Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Tribble 1967, p. 426
- ^ McWhirter 2012, p. 20
- ^ Work 1862a
- ^ Work 1862c
- ^ Work 1862b
- ^ a b Hill 1953a, p. 213
- ^
- Silber 1995, p. 304
- Carder 2008, p. 130
- McWhirter 2012, p. 95
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, pp. 187–188
- Work 1923, p. 140
- McWhirter 2012, p. 95
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 132–134
- Carder 2008, pp. 129–130, 148
- ^ qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 130
- ^ qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 131
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 139–140
- Carder 2008, pp. 130–131
- ^ Work 1863b
- ^ Work 1863c
- ^ Work 1863a
- ^
- Silber 1995, p. 307
- Carder 2008, p. 121
- McWhirter 2012, p. 147
- ^ Revelation 14:8 NIV
- ^
- Hill 1953a, p. 213
- Silber 1995, pp. 306–307
- Carder 2008, p. 133
- McWhirter 2012, p. 148
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, pp. 39–40
- Work 1923, pp. 32–33
- McWhirter 2012, p. 148
- ^
- Silber 1995, p. 307
- McWhirter 2012, p. 147
- Library of Congress
- ^ qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 137
- ^
- qtd. in Chicago Tribune 1864b, p. 4
- see also: Carder 2008, p. 139
- ^ Work 1864a
- ^
- Ewen 1962, pp. 188–189
- ^ Work 1864b
- ^ a b Hill 1953a, pp. 213–214
- ^
- qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 141
- Chicago Tribune 1864a, p. 4
- Silber 1995, p. 307
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 181
- Work 1923, p. 126
- Silber 1995, p. 307
- ^
- qtd. in Ewen 1962, p. 189
- Finson 1994, p. 130
- ^
- Ewing 1977, pp. 13, 62–63, 123–124
- Sanders 2017, p. 180
- ^
- qtd. in Ewing 1977, p. 15
- Sanders 2017, pp. 179, 181
- ^ Finson 1994, p. 52–55
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 284
- Carder 2008, p. 166
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 54–55
- Finson 1994, p. 57
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Ewing 1977, pp. 16, 68–69
- Finson 1994, pp. 56–57
- Silber 1995, p. 120
- Sanders 2017, pp. 181–182
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 285
- Ewen 1962, p. 189
- Ewing 1977, pp. 16, 219
- Finson 1994, pp. 56–57
- ^
- Ewen 1962, p. 189
- Drury 1975, p. 252
- Ewing 1977, p. 15
- ^ a b Finson 1994, p. 57
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Finson 1994, p. 59
- ^
- San Marcos Free Press 1879, p. 3
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 287
- ^
- Epstein 1944, p. 48
- Silber 1995, p. 14
- Carder 2008, pp. 152–153
- McWhirter 2012, p. 169
- ^
- Work 1865a
- Hill 1953a, p. 214
- Carder 2008, p. 153
- ^ Carder 2008, p. 155
- ^
- Work 1865b
- Hill 1953a, p. 214
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 18–20
- Salt Lake Herald 1909, p. 21
- Herder 1998, p. 212
- McWhirter 2012, p. 164
- ^
- qtd. in Ewen 1962, p. 188
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Salt Lake Herald 1909, p. 21
- Tribble 1967, p. 426
- Silber 1995, p. 16
- McWhirter 2012, p. 169
- ^
- qtd. in Root et al. 1892, pp. 7–8
- Howard & Bellows 1967, p. 135
- Tribble 1967, p. 426
- Carder 2008, p. 153
- McWhirter 2012, p. 169
- ^
- Tribble 1967, p. 423
- Silber 1995, p. 238
- ^ qtd. in Root 1891, p. 138
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Tribble 1967, p. 428
- ^
- qtd. in Washington Standard 1920, p. 6
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- Tribble 1967, p. 428
- ^
- Washington Standard 1920, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, p. 215
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 122
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 6
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Hill 1953a, p. 216
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 92–93
- Randolph 1980, p. 140
- Cohen 2000, p. 199
- ^
- Finson 1994, p. 116
- Cohen 2000, p. 200
- Shepherd 2003, p. 209
- ^
- Randolph 1980, p. 140
- Cohen 2000, p. 200
- ^
- Cohen 2000, pp. 198–201
- Shepherd 2003, p. 209
- ^
- Baton Rouge Gazette 1866, p. 2
- Conservative 1866, p. 2
- Hill 1953a, p. 214
- ^
- Finson 1994, p. 116
- Shepherd 2003, p. 208
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- Hill 1953a, pp. 216–217
- Tribble 1967, p. 426
- ^ qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- ^ Hill 1953a, p. 214
- ^
- Work 1866
- Hill 1953a, p. 212
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 147–153
- Epstein 1945, p. 98
- Carder 2008, p. 171
- Song of America (a)
- ^
- Hill 1953a, p. 214
- Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 122
- ^
- Root 1891, p. 223
- Carder 2008, pp. 165–166
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 151–152, 171
- Epstein 1945, p. 81
- Carder 2008, p. 168
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 152–153
- San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- Howard & Bellows 1967, p. 134
- ^
- Nashville Union 1871, p. 1
- Mineral Point Tribune 1871, p. 4
- Epstein 1945, p. 89
- ^ qtd. in Carder 2008, p. 179
- ^
- Root 1891, pp. 157–158
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- Epstein 1944, pp. 88–89
- Carder 2008, p. 181
- ^
- Work 1923, pp. 178–180
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 287
- Grant County Herald 1905, p. 7
- Herder 1998, p. 122
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- San Marcos Free Press 1879, p. 3
- Hill 1953a, p. 214
- Ewen 1962, p. 189
- Tribble 1967, p. 428
- Finson 1994, p. 132
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 287
- Finson 1994, p. 130
- ^ a b c Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
- ^ San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Ewen 1962, p. 189
- Kelley & Snell 2004, pp. 122–123
- ^
- ^
- Morning Herald 1878, p. 3
- San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
- ^ Evening Capital 1884, p. 2
- ^ qtd. in San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
- ^
- Work 1878
- San Marcos Free Press 1879, p. 3
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 287
- Finson 1994, p. 133
- ^ Work 1878
- ^
- Kelley & Snell 2004, pp. 122–123
- ^ qtd. in Kelley & Snell 2004, p. 123
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- New Haven Journal 1884, p. 2
- Ewen 1962, p. 189
- Drury 1975, p. 252
- ^ New Haven Journal 1884, p. 2
- ^ qtd. in Hill 1953a, p. 211
- ^ see:
- Indianapolis Journal 1884, p. 2
- Rocky Mountain 1884, p. 2
- Eureka Daily 1884, p. 3
- ^
- Root et al. 1892, p. 6
- Drury 1975, p. 252
- ^
- McCray 1898, p. 10
- Tribble 1967, p. 428
- ^ qtd. in Tribble 1967, p. 428
- ^ a b qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, p. 288
- ^
- qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, p. 288
- Work 1923, p. 7
- ^ Work 1923, p. 7
- ^ Drury 1975, p. 250
- ^ qtd. in Drury 1975, p. 250
- ^
- Andreas 1884, p. 529
- Drury 1975, p. 251
- ^
- Andreas 1884, p. 514
- Drury 1975, p. 252
- ^ Drury 1975, p. 252
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 288
- Tribble 1967, p. 427
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Hill 1953a, p. 212
- Drury 1975, p. 252
- Walmart
- ^
- Work 1923, p. 7
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 287
- Hill 1953a, pp. 213–215
- ^ Hill 1953a, pp. 213–215
- ^
- Birdseye 1879b, p. 287
- San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
- ^ qtd. in Root 1891, p. 138
- ^ qtd. in Root 1891, p. 139
- ^ qtd. in Birdseye 1879b, pp. 287–288
- ^ qtd. in Finson 1994, p. 130
- ^ qtd. in Ewen 1962, p. 189
- ^ qtd. in Silber 1994, p. 56
- ^ Sadie & Tyrrell 2001, p. 568
- ^ Songwriters Hall of Fame
Bibliography
Books
- Andreas, Alfred T. (1884). History of Cook County Illinois: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Chicago, Illinois.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Bailey, Guy; Natalie, Maynor; Cukor-Avila, Patricia (1991). The Emergence of Black English: Text and Commentary. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55619-161-8.
- Carder, P. H. (2008). George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3374-2.
- Carmichael, Calum M. (2006). Illuminating Leviticus: A Study of Its Laws and Institutions in the Light of Biblical Narratives. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-8500-0.
- Cochran, Robert (1999). Music and Song in the Life of an Arkansas Family. Fayetteville, Arkansas: The University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-548-9.
- Cohen, Michael C. (2015). The Social Lives of Poems in Nineteenth-Century America. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4708-4.
- Cohen, Norm (2000). Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (2 ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-02520-6881-2.
- Drury, John (1975). Old Chicago Houses. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-16555-8.
- Ewen, David (1962). Popular American Composers from Revolutionary Times to the Present: A Biographical and Critical Guide. New York City, New York: H. W. Wilson Company. ISBN 978-0824200404.
- Ewing, George W. (1977). The Well-Tempered Lyre: Songs and Verse of the Temperance Movements. Dallas, Texas: Southern Methodist University Press. ISBN 0-870-740-008.
- Finson, Jon W. (1994). The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505750-3.
- Floyd, Samuel A. (1995). The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508235-4.
- Herder, Ronald (1998). 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-0-4861-7152-4.
- Howard, John Tasker; Bellows, George Kent (1967). A Short History of Music in America. New York City, New York: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8152-0162-1.
- Hursh, David; Goertzen, Chris (2009). Good Medicine and Good Music: A Biography of Mrs. Joe Person, Patent Remedy Entrepeneur and Musician, Including the Complete Text of Her 1903 Autobiography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3459-6.
- Kelley, Bruce C.; Snell, Mark A. (2004). Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1538-6.
- McWhirter, Christian (2012). Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3550-0.
- Merriam-Webster, Inc., ed. (2007). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (3 ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts. ISBN 978-0-87779-807-1.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Randolph, Vance (1980). Ozark Folksongs. Vol. 4. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-0300-0.
- Root, George F. (1891). The Story of a Musical Life: An Autobiography by Geo F. Root. Cincinnati, Ohio: The John Church Co.
- Root, George F.; Sawyer, Charles C.; Work, Henry C., eds. (1892). Our National War Songs (2 ed.). Chicago, Illinois: The S. Brainard's Sons Co.
- Shepherd, John (2003). Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 1. New York City, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-6321-5.
- Silber, Irwin (1995). Songs of the Civil War. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-28438-7.
- Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John, eds. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 27 (2 ed.). New York City, New York: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.
- Work, Henry C. (1923). Work, Bertram G. (ed.). Songs of Henry Clay Work. New York: United States: Little & Ives.
Studies and journals
- Birdseye, George (1879). "America's Song Composers: II. George F. Root". Potter's American Monthly. 12 (86): 145–148 – via Internet Archive.
- Birdseye, George (1879). "America's Song Composers: IV. Henry Clay Work". Potter's American Monthly. 12 (88): 284–288 – via Internet Archive.
- Epstein, Dena J. (1944). "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: The Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871". Notes. 1 (4): 43–59. doi:10.2307/891291. JSTOR 891291 – via JSTOR.
- Epstein, Dena J. (1945). "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: Chapter VI, the End of the Firm, 1868-1871". Notes. 3 (1): 80–98, 101–109. doi:10.2307/891291. JSTOR 891291 – via JSTOR.
- Hill, Richard S. (1953). "The Mysterious Chord of Henry Clay Work". Notes. 10 (2): 211–225. doi:10.2307/892874 – via JSTOR.
- Hill, Richard S. (1953). "The Mysterious Chord of Henry Clay Work (Conclusion)". Notes. 10 (3): 367–390. doi:10.2307/892162 – via JSTOR.
- Sanders, Paul D. (2017). "Temperance Songs in American School Songbooks, 1865–1899". Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. 38 (2): 178–208. doi:10.1177/1536600616667602 – via JSTOR.
- Sussman, Rachel (2001). ""The Carnivalizing of Race"". Etnofoor. 14 (2): 79–88. JSTOR 41396391 – via JSTOR.
- Tribble, Edwin (1967). ""Marching Through Georgia"". The Georgia Review. 21 (4): 423–429. JSTOR 41396391 – via JSTOR.
Newspaper articles
- McCray, Florine Thayer (January 19, 1898). "About Henry Clay Work". New Haven Morning Journal and Courier. p. 10. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Dies Iræ!: Another Fearful Fire at Chicago". Nashville Union and American. October 10, 1871. p. 1. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Famous Songs and their History: No. 5—Marching Through Georgia—By Henry C. Work". Salt Lake Herald Republican. August 15, 1909. p. 21. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Flue Dust: Scraps from the Note-book of the Sentinel's Reporter". Eureka Daily Sentinel. July 14, 1884. p. 3. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "General News". Rocky Mountain Husbandman. June 12, 1884. p. 2. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Henry C. Work". Indianapolis Journal. June 9, 1884. p. 2. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Henry Clay Work: The Famous Song Writer Ends His Life in Hartford". New Haven Morning Journal and Courier. June 10, 1884. p. 2. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Herald Notes". The Morning Herald. November 4, 1878. p. 3. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Musical Affair". The Manitowoc Tribune. May 9, 1867. p. 2. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "My Grandfather's Clock: A Song that was Suddenly Made Popular—Henry C. Work's Melodies". San Marcos Free Press. January 25, 1879. p. 3. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Old Favorites: Grandfather's Clock". Grant County Herald. December 27, 1905. p. 7. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Page 2". Evening Capital. July 18, 1884. p. 2. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Stories Of Old Songs: Marching Through Georgia". Washington Standard. August 13, 1920. p. 6. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Songs for the Million". The Saturday Evening Post. April 12, 1862. p. 4. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The Chicago Fire". Mineral Point Tribune. October 19, 1871. p. 4. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The City: Corporal Schnapps". Chicago Tribune. April 17, 1864. p. 4. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The City: Geo. F. Root". Chicago Tribune. May 10, 1864. p. 4. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The Evening Star Disaster". Baton Rouge Tri-Weekly Gazette & Comet. October 18, 1866. p. 2. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The Loss of the Evening Star: Only Sixteen Persons Known to be Saved". The Conservative. October 12, 1866. p. 2. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Websites
- "African-American Soldiers During the Civil War". Library of Congress. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Webster, Ian. "CPI Inflation Calculator". officialdata.org. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Crossing the Grand Sierras". Song of America. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Henry C. Work". Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Henry Clay Work". Song of America. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Grandfather clock". Oxford English Dictionary. September 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The Emancipation Proclamation". National Archives. January 28, 2022. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "The Upshot Family, a Serio-comic Poem (Paperback)". Walmart. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Song manuscripts
- Foster, Stephen C. (1852). Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground. New York City, New York: Firth, Pond & Co. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Google Books.
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: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Work, Henry C. (1861). Brave Boys are They!. Chicago, Illinois: H. M. Higgins. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1861). Our Captain's Last Words. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C.; Tilton, Thomas (1862). God Save the Nation!. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1862). Grafted into the Army. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1862). Uncle Joe's Hail Columbia!. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1863). Babylon is Fallen!. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1863). Sleeping for the Flag. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1863). Song of a Thousand Years. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1864). Wake Nicodemus!. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1864). Washington and Lincoln. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1865). Ring the Bell, Watchman!. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 16, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1865). 'Tis Finished!, or Sing Hallelujah. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 16, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
- Work, Henry C. (1866). Andy Veto. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved July 16, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
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: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Work, Henry C. (1878). Sequel to Grandfather's Clock. New York City, New York: C. M. Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
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: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
External links
General
- Work's profile on Song of America
- Sheet music of Work's compositions in his nephew's biography
- Newspaper archives courtesy of the Library of Congress featuring content on Work
- His poem The Upshot Family on the Library of Congress
Recordings of Work's songs
- "Kingdom Coming" by the 2nd South Carolina String Band on their 2000 album Hard Road
- "Grafted into the Army" by Craig Duncan on his 2013 album Civil War: Songs of the North
- "God Save the Nation" by Bobby Horton on his 1991 album Homespun Songs of the Union Army, Volume 3
- "Babylon is Fallen" by the 97th Regimental String Band on their 1999 album Brass Mounted Army: Civil War Era Songs, Vol. VII
- "Come Home, Father" by Jerry Silverman on the 1990 album The Songs of the American Civil War (1861-1865: Chants de la Guerre Sécession)
- "Marching Through Georgia" by Tennessee Ernie Ford on his 1961 album Songs of the Civil War
- "The Ship That Never Returned" by Sara and Maybelle Carter on their 1966 album An Historic Union
- "Grandfather's Clock" by Johnny Cash on his 1959 album Songs of Our Soil
- "Sequel to Grandfather's Clock" by Tom Roush on his album Americana