Never Forget The Dear Ones: A Song History

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"Never Forget the Dear Ones," subtitled "A Home Song," came out in Boston in 1858 from Russell & Tolman, set for solo voice with a four-part chorus and piano and dedicated to the Western Vermont Musical Association.[1] The sheet music credits the music to "Wurzel (Geo. F. Root)," a pen name taken from the German for root that George F. Root used for some of his earlier compositions.[1][2] In his autobiography Root recalled writing a few songs in that popular vein once Stephen Foster's melodies took hold, admitted with some embarrassment that he had shared the low regard around him for that "grade of music," and signed them Wurzel rather than Root.[3]

Hand-colored print of a snowy log cabin in the woods, with a woman and child by the door and a man leading a horse toward home

Currier & Ives, A Home in the Wilderness, hand-colored lithograph, 1870. Shown for its homecoming subject; it was made years after the song and has no connection to it.

The song thus predates the Civil War; Root moved to Chicago in 1859, joined the publishing house of Root & Cady, and went on to write such Civil War songs as "Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Just Before the Battle, Mother."[2] Root's tune later passed into Sunday-school hymnals, including The Carol (1886) and The Sunday School Hymnary (1906).[4][5] Who wrote the words is less clear: the 1858 edition names Root only as composer, and the 1906 hymnal lists the text as anonymous.[1][5] Maureen Sellers includes it in Songs Of The Civil War, a 60-page book of dulcimer arrangements of songs popular during the American Civil War, all in DAD tuning (this one with a capo at the third fret), published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Never Forget The Dear Ones"

Sources

  1. Johns Hopkins University, Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection: "Never Forget the Dear Ones. A Home Song.".
  2. Encyclopedia.com: "Root, George Frederick".
  3. Traditional Tune Archive: "Rosalie the Prairie Flower".
  4. Hymnary.org: "Never Forget the Dear Ones" (The Carol, 1886).
  5. Hymnary.org: "Never forget the dear ones" (The Sunday School Hymnary, 1906).
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, Songs Of The Civil War".
  7. Image: Currier & Ives, A Home in the Wilderness, hand-colored lithograph, 1870. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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