George Frederick Root (Aug. 30, 1820–Aug. 6, 1895), was an American songwriter who found particular fame during the American Civil War. He is regarded as the first American to compose a secular cantata.
Root was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and was named after the German composer George Frederick 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 50 to 60 popular secular songs.
In 1850, he made a study-tour of Europe, staying at Vienna, Paris, and London. 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.
From 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. From 1855 on, Root would spend most of the summer traveling and teaching at music education conventions throughout New England. 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 Emmanuel Swedenborg.
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”
and others, which were, according to Root’s New York Times obituary, known throughout the country in the Antebellum period. 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.
Besides 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. 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 . The cantata was a collection between Root and Bradbury musically, with text by Fanny Crosby and C. M. Caddy. 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 throughout the 19th century. 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. The “Flower Queen” has been regarded as the first secular cantata written by an American.
Building 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. 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”. 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 had at least 35 wartime hits in tone from the bellicose to the ethereal. His songs were played and sung at the home front and the real front.
After the war, he was elected as a 3rd Class Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U. S.
Root was awarded the degree of Musical Doctor by the First University of Chicago in 1872. He died at his summer home in Bailey Island Maine, at the age of 74 and is buried in Harmonyvale Cemetery in N. Reading, MA.
Root was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Psalms 33:11 The counsel of Jehovah stands forever; The intentions of His heart stand from generation to generation.
Rev. 1:14 footnote of white wool as snow says; White wool issues from the nature of life and white snow comes from the sky, from heaven. Hence, white wool here and in Dan. 7:9 signifies that the ancientness of Christ is out of His nature, not out of His becoming old, while white snow signifies that His ancientness is heavenly, not earthly.
Isaiah 43:19 Indeed, I am doing a new thing; / It will now spring forth; / Do you not know it? / I will even make a way in the wilderness, / Rivers in the desert.
Revelation 21:5 And He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new
Anything that is without God is old, but anything in which God is added is new. [... ] To say that all things have become new means that they have become divine, and to say that all things have become new means that all things have become God since God is new and since God is newness. (God's New Testament Economy, Chapter 27, Section 1)
O Father, Thou art ever new,
And all is new in Thee;
We sing the new eternal song,
New praise we give to Thee.
All is new in Thee Abba Father
Amen
All old renewed
Third, we know that our spirit is regenerated because the spirit of a regenerated person is fresh, is vital, and manifests the newness of life (Rom. 6:4). Dead branches are different from living grass and flowers. Sometimes when I pray with the brothers and sisters, I sense that they are dead and old. The tone and flavor of their prayers are lifeless and old. This indicates that their spirit is ill and has problems. The spirit of a saved and regenerated person should be lively, fresh, and full of light. Hymns, #16 says, "O Thou art God, and Thou art new; / Without Thee all is worn." God is new, so our spirit should be new. The same prayer or message may be fresh when it is uttered by one person but old when it is uttered by another. Such oldness shows that the condition of the spirit of the latter person is abnormal.
Question: How can we remain in the freshness of the Lord while carrying out our repetitive tasks in our daily living?
Answer: First Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Unceasingly pray." To pray is not merely to bring many things to the Lord; it is to take the Lord in by calling on His name. Only the Lord Himself is fresh. Apart from Him we can never be fresh. In Hosea 14:8 Jehovah said, "I am like a green fir tree," indicating that He is evergreen, ever fresh, and ever new. Hymns, #16, which was composed based on Hosea 14:8, says, Our Father, as the evergreen, Thou art forever new; Thou art the ever living Lord, Thy freshness as the dew. O Father, Thou art unchanging, Thou never hast grown old; Thru countless ages, ever fresh, Thy newness doth unfold.
Every day and every moment we should contact the Lord so that we may be as new as He is. As soon as we cease contacting Him, we become old. We can easily become old; thus, we need to maintain our contact with the Lord.
Because God wants us to be a new creation, He must dispense Himself as the newness into our being to renew us. In the sixty-six books of the Bible, only one verse tells us that God is always new, like an evergreen. In Hosea 14:8 our God is likened to an evergreen tree, a green fir tree. Because He is evergreen, He Himself becomes the evergreen element. Now He is dispensing Himself into our being as such an element to renew us. I do have the sense that every day I am newer. I am not older; I am newer. I am not old, because I am being renewed. Something of God as the "evergreen tree" is being dispensed into my being.