Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832 – June 8, 1884) was an American composer and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

known for the songs

Kingdom Coming "Kingdom Coming", also known as "The Year of Jubilo", is an American Civil War song, written and composed by Henry C. Work in 1862, prior to the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The song is pro- Unioni ...

Marching Through Georgia "Marching Through Georgia" (sometimes spelled as "Marching Thru' Georgia" or "Marching Thro Georgia") is a marching song written by Henry Clay Work at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The title and lyrics of the song refer to U.S. Ar ...

, The Ship That Never Returned and My Grandfather's Clock.

Early life and education

Work was born in Middletown, Connecticut, to Alanson and Aurelia (née Forbes) Work. His father opposed slavery, and Work was himself an active

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and Union supporter. His family's home became a stop on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

, assisting runaway slaves to freedom in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, for which his father was once imprisoned. Work was self-taught in music. By the time he was 23, he worked as a printer in Chicago, specializing in setting musical type. He allegedly composed in his head as he worked, without a piano, using the noise of the machinery as an inspiration. His first published song was "We Are Coming, Sister Mary", which eventually became a staple in

Christy's Minstrels Christy's Minstrels, sometimes referred to as the Christy Minstrels, were a blackface group formed by Edwin Pearce Christy, a well-known ballad singer, in 1843, in Buffalo, New York. They were instrumental in the solidification of the minstrel s ...

shows.

Career

Our national war songs by Henry Clay Work

Work produced much of his best material during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. He captured the deeply-felt emotions of that conflict and was more popular even than

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...

. Work shares much of the credit for the development of the carefully refined Verse-Chorus structure of late 19th century popular song. In 1862 he published "

" using his own lyrics based upon snippets of

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

speech he had heard. This use of slave dialect (

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

too was a favourite) tended to limit the appeal of Work's works and make them frowned upon today. However, "Kingdom Coming" appeared in the Jerome Kern show "Good Morning, Dearie" on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

in 1921, and was heard in the background in the 1944

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

film "

Meet Me in St. Louis ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...

". 1862 also saw his novelty song "Grafted Into the Army", followed in 1863 by "Babylon is Fallen" ("Don't you see the black clouds risin' ober yonder"), "The Song of a Thousand Years", and "God Save the Nation". His 1864 effort "Wake Nicodemus" was popular in

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...

s. In 1865 he wrote his greatest hit, "

", inspired by Sherman's march to the sea at the end of the previous year. Thanks to its lively melody, the song was immensely popular, its million sheet-music sales being unprecedented. It is a cheerful

marching song A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's ...

and has since been pressed into service many times, including by

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

as a football fight song. Timothy Shay Arthur's play ''Ten Nights in a Barroom'', had Work's 1864 " Come Home, Father", a dirgesome song bemoaning the demon drink: too mawkish for modern tastes, but always sung at Temperance Meetings. An unhappy marriage seems to have affected his postwar output. Settling into sentimental balladry, Work had significant post-Civil War success with "The Lost Letter", and " The Ship That Never Returned"—a tune reused in the " Wreck of the Old 97" and " MTA". A massive hit was " My Grandfather's Clock", published in 1876, which was introduced by

Sam Lucas Sam Lucas (August 7, 1840 – January 10, 1916) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and songwriter. Sam Lucas's exact date of birth is disputed. Lucas's year of birth, to freed former slaves, has also been cited as 1839, 1841, 1848 and 1850 ...

in Hartford, Connecticut, and again secured more than a million sales of the sheet music, along with popularizing the phrase "grandfather clock" to describe a longcase clock." HenryClayWorkBust

By 1880 Work was living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, giving his occupation as a musician. He died in Hartford two years later at the age of 51. He was survived by his wife, Sarah Parker Work, and one of their four children. Henry Clay Work was inducted into the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work, represent, and maintain, the her ...

in 1970. He was a distant cousin to Frances Work, a great-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Songs

Among the best-known of Henry Clay Work's 75 compositions are: *"

" (c. 1863) *" Come Home, Father" (1864) *"Wake Nicodemus" (1864) *"

" (1865) *" The Ship That Never Returned" (1868) *"Crossing the Grand Sierras" (1870) *" My Grandfather's Clock" (1876)

References

External links

The Music of Henry Work
* *
Henry Clay Work
Find A Grave memorial *

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20050316070223/http://www.hierarchypedia.com/~hierarch/wiki/index.php/Henry_Clay_Work His page on HierarchyPedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Work, Henry Clay 1832 births 1884 deaths American male composers American lyricists Songwriters from Connecticut People of the American Civil War Underground Railroad people 19th-century American composers Songwriters from New York (state) 19th-century American male musicians American male songwriters