Henry Clay Work

Biography

Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832, Middletown, Connecticut – June 8, 1884, Hartford, Connecticut) was an American songwriter and composer. He is best remembered for his musical contributions to the Union in the Civil War: songs documenting the afflictions of slavery, the hardships of army life, and Northern triumphs in the conflict. Besides patriotic pieces, he wrote sentimental ballads and songs supporting the growing temperance movement. Many of Work's compositions were performed at minstrel shows.

Work's father, Alanson, was an abolitionist who strove to free fugitive slaves. While a youth, Henry initiated a career in printing, one that lasted his entire life. Although lacking formal music training, his penchant for song showed itself clearly as he wrote poems for newspapers and set them to music. Work first published a complete musical piece in 1853, and his career came of age at the Civil War's outbreak. Work collaborated with the Chicagoan publishing firm Root & Cady to compose twenty-seven Unionist tunes, some of which, such as "Kingdom Coming" (1862) and "Marching Through Georgia" (1865), were among the most popular of the war.

After the war, Work ventured in often somber balladry, but familial and financial woes and Root & Cady's closure would drain his motivation. He quit songwriting altogether for a few years. After deciding to work with Chauncey M. Cady in 1876, his output briefly resurged; this yielded a single major hit, "Grandfather's Clock" (1876), the best-selling song of his career and possibly the best-known American song of the decade. Nonetheless, Work could not resurrect his wartime fame and fortune, and he died nearly forgotten at age 51.

Work was one of the most successful American musicians of the 1860s and 1870s. Sometimes crowned the bard of Union song alongside George F. Root, he expressed deftness in African-American dialect, comedy, melody, and social consciousness. His work built on the popular verse-chorus form, and the music historian Kent A. Bowman argues that his minstrel pieces written in dialect, along with those of other writers, influenced ragtime and jazz.

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