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There's
Music in the Air
(1857)
Composer:
George F. Root (1820 – 1895)
Lyricist:
Frances Jane Crosby
(1820 – 1915)
Arranged
by Ruth Randle
Although he wrote over 500 compositions in his
lifetime, relatively few folks in the world of music
today are familiar with the music of George F. Root. He
wrote about various topics of contemporary interest,
with emphasis on hymns, classical cantatas, Victorian
tearjerkers, Civil War tunes, and even several
“minstrel songs” and presidential campaign tunes.
His minstrel melodies were apparently written under his
pseudonym of Wurzel, German for “Root”. “There’s
Music In the Air” is unusual among his
compositions, and one of his most popular. It is happy
and has a sprightly tempo, unlike most of his music.
The greatest impetus for supply and demand of popular
music in America really began about 1890 with the era of
Tin Pan Alley and the proliferation of publishing
houses. This was about five years before George Root
died, so he can be described as “a man slightly before
his time”. Further details of his life and music can
be read from the link listed below.
♫♫♫
Frances Jane
"Fanny" Crosby (1820-1915) was an American
hymn writer and poetess who wrote over 8000 hymns during
her life, including such favorites as “Blessed
Assurance”. Blinded at the age of 6 weeks by a
“quack” physician who prescribed hot mustard
poultices when her eyes became inflamed from a simple
cold, as she grew up she accepted her lot
cheerfully as a part of God’s will for her life.
In 1851, George F. Root, a music teacher in the New York
Institute for the Blind, and important in the
development of music in America, wrote an air for which
he needed words. Fanny supplied them so acceptably that
they collaborated in about sixty songs. All had a wide
circulation; some became the most successful songs of
the period. Among them were “There's Music in the
Air,” “Hazel Dell,” “Rosalie,
the Prairie Flower” and
“Bird of the North.”
In this piece, note that the last two lines of music for
each verse are repeated (as shown by the “repeat
symbol” at the beginning of measure 9). As indicated
in the old sheet music from which she arranged it, Ruth
suggests the repeat be played softly, “like an
echo”. (You can hear this in the MIDI file.) This
music really begs to be sung.
♫♫
Download
links to files:
Music in the
Air PDF file - music and lyrics
Music
In The Air.tef TablEdit file - music
Music in the Air.MID
MIDI file, created from tablature
Music
in the Air PD.mid NOT from tablature, this MIDI-sequenced
piano version of the tune demonstrates the haunting,
"echo-like" repeat of the chorus.
There’s Music In the
Air text rev1.doc
Links to history:
http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf.html
http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorpcrosby.html
http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=83
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