George f root biography

American songwriter

George Frederick Root (August 30, 1820 – August 6, 1895) was a romanticAmericancomposer, who found particular fame during the American Civil War, with songs such as "Tramp!

George f root biography

Tramp! Tramp!" and "The Battle Cry of Freedom". He is regarded as the first American to compose a secular cantata.^[1]

Early life and education

Root was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and was named after the German composer George Frideric 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 fifty to sixty popular secular songs.^[2] At least two of his children, Frederic Woodman Root and Grace W.

Root, also became composers.

In 1850, he made a study tour of Europe, staying in Vienna, Paris, and London