![]() To help students learn their parts, we have isolated both parts and put them on our web site. This divisi is easily achievable, with step-wise movement. This is one of the most popular Civil War songs. But chorally, it is arranged as a 2-part piece with a further simple divisi at the end. The rallying, patriotic theme of this Civil War era song is as pertinent today as it was over 130 years ago. This boisterously patriotic song was written by George Frederick Root in 1862 in the midst of Americas great Civil War, a terrible few years of our history. This song was as much a military selection as one played and sung around a campfire with whatever instruments were available.Īs a choral piece, this can easily be done in the classroom or in performance in unison singing only part 1. But when it settles into the verse part of the tune, we have added folk instruments of then and now – banjo, guitar, and mandolin. It has a big concert opening and a big ending. Our arrangement captures the feel of an army band expanded to be an orchestra. If you are interested in the original forms, they are readily available on the Internet. Such things were very common, and remain so today as songs are adapted, parodied, and sung rousingly for the polar opposite cause from the original.īecause all sets of original lyrics were not so kid-friendly, we have adapted them for this arrangement. It is interesting to note that while the lyrics were forcefully pro-Union, saying derisive things about the South and its armies, the tune became so popular that people on the Confederate side of the conflict adapted the song with lyrics that were positive for their cause. Selling sheet music was the primary way that composers supported themselves while writing music. Root, The Battle Cry of Freedom was an immediate success in the North after its first public performance on April 24, 1862. If you share this information with your students, discuss the fact that at the time people only experienced music by hearing someone perform it, or by performing it themselves, mostly with sheet music. So much so, that at the peak of its popularity, the publisher was running 14 presses at the same time, all printing the sheet music, and even then they could not keep up with demand. The song quickly caught on with people in the North. This boisterously patriotic song was written by George Frederick Root in 1862 in the midst of America's great Civil War, a terrible few years of our history.
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