Introduction

Biography

George was the son of Fred­er­ick F. Root and Sar­ah Flint, hus­band of Ma­ry Ol­ive Wood­man, and fa­ther of Fred­er­ick Wood­man Root.

His mu­sic­al tal­ents were evi­dent at an ear­ly age, and by the time he was 13, he was proud that he could play a tune on as ma­ny in­stru­ments as his age.

In 1838, Root moved to Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, where he stu­died un­der George Webb. In 1845, he moved to New York Ci­ty, play­ing the or­gan at the Church of the Stran­gers, and teach­ing mu­sic at the Ab­bott In­sti­tute for Young La­dies.

In 1850, he toured Eur­ope for a year. Af­ter­ward, he start­ed work­ing with Lo­well Ma­son, at Bos­ton’s Aca­de­my of Mu­sic.

In 1851, Root be­gan com­pos­ing. In 1859, he be­gan work at his broth­er’s com­pany, Root and Ca­dy, in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois. In 1872, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chi­ca­go award­ed him an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Mu­sic de­gree.

Some of Root’s best known se­cu­lar songs are The Bat­tle Cry of Free­dom; Just Be­fore the Bat­tle, Moth­er; The Old Folks Are Gone; A Hun­dred Years Ago; Old Po­to­mac Shore; Ros­a­lie, the Prair­ie Flow­er; The Va­cant Chair; Ha­zel Dell and There’s Mu­sic in the Air.

Works

• The Young La­dies Choir, 1846
• Academy Vo­cal­ist, 1848
• Flower Queen, can­ta­ta (words by Fan­ny Cros­by), 1848
• A Col­lect­ion of Church Mu­sic, with Jo­seph Sweet­ser (New York: John Wi­ley, 1849)
• Daniel, can­ta­ta, 1852
• The Pil­grim Fa­thers, can­ta­ta, 1854
• Belshazzar’s Feast, can­ta­ta
• Festival Glee Book, 1856
• Haymakers, can­ta­ta, 1856
• Sabbath Bell, 1856
• The Hay­mak­ers, 1857
• Diapason, 1860
• The Silver Chime (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: He­nry Tol­man, 1862)
• Cabinet Or­gan School, 1863
• Musical Cur­ri­cu­lum, 1864
• Silver Lute, 1865
• The Co­ro­net (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1865)
• The Snow-Bird, with Ben­ja­min Han­by (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1865)
• The Dove, with Ben­ja­min Han­by (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1866)
• The Tri­umph (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1869)
• The Prize (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1870)
• Forest Choir, 1871
• The Hour of Praise (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio & Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: John Church & George F. Root, 1872)
• Model Or­gan Meth­od, 1872
• Glory, 1872
• Choir and Cong­re­ga­tion, 1875
• First Years in Song Land, 1879
• Palace of Song, 1879
• Song Tour­na­ment, 1879
• The Cho­rus Cas­tle (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1880)
• Under the Palms, a Sun­day school can­ta­ta, 1880
• David, the Shep­herd Boy, a Sun­day school can­ta­ta, 1881
• The Realm of Song, 1882
• The Choic­est Gift, a Sun­day school can­ta­ta, 1883
• Pure De­light!, with Charles Case (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1883)
• Wondrous Love, with Charles Case (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1885)
• The Story of a Mu­sic­al Life, 1891, an au­to­bi­og­ra­phy