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C. M. Cady

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Chauncey Marvin Cady (May 16, 1824, Westport – June 16 1889, Ashville) was an American music publisher, businessman and composer. One of the most eminent men of the trade, his public service to Chicago was pivotal to the advancement of the city's music scene in the mid-19th century. Among the numerous roles of authority he held were as the first music teacher at Illinois State Normal University and the first conductor of the Chicago Musical Union.[1] He was a founder and partner of Root & Cady that dominated Civil War and early Reconstruction-era music publication.

Early life and career

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He was born on May 16, 1824.

Chicago career

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Establishment of Root & Cady

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No firm attained such success in publishing Unionist music as Chicago-based Root & Cady, "the largest of [...] the era"[2] and "most prolific producers of wartime music."[3] It was established in 1858 by Ebenezer T. Root and Chauncey M. Cady and,[4] from 1860 onwards, principally operated by George F. Root.[5] Root was one of the most renowned composers of the Civil War era, with such tunes as "Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" to his name.[6] By the war's opening weeks, his firm was receiving roughly sixty daily submissions; throughout the conflict, it published over a hundred songs.[7] In fact, it issued the very first Unionist composition, "The First Gun is Fired!", in response to the attack on Fort Sumter.[8]

Civil War efforts

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In 1862 Cady hired acclaimed violinist William Lewis, later founder of the William Lewis & Son Co. publishing house, as a Root & Cady salesman. After the firm shut down, following the Great Chicago Fire and Panic of 1873, Lewis formed an alliance with Towner Root to create Root & Lewis, eventually amalgamated into George F. Root's firms owing to poor sales.[9] He served as president of the Hyde Park Board of Trustees from 1868 to 1874.[10]

Postbellum

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The postbellum years were looking bright for Root & Cady. Publications and song anthologies, among them, the temperance song compilation titled The Musical Fountain,[11] were being churned out at a rate surpassing even their wartime production. The Chicagoan music scene was as lively as ever. George F. Root also distinguished himself as a prominent campaigner for Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 presidential election.[12] However, their prospects came crashing down in the fall of 1871 when the firm burnt down in the Great Chicago Fire, incurring $315,000[a] in losses.[13] It raged on from October 8 to October 10, destroying all waterworks, banking houses and railway depots, and caused a minor depression in the national stock market. Every business in the city's south wing was obliterated; it was reported that over 20,000 buildings were demolished, wreaking over $200,000,000[b] in damages.[14]

Root remarked in the Song Messenger: "All is gone, my musical library and the thousand useful things that I have gathered about me in so many busy years, swept in a moment."[15] Unable to continue the business in its former rendition, Root & Cady's music copyrights were all sold to Ohioan publishers S. Brainard Sons and John Church & Co. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1872. Root continued his former teaching profession and Cady left Chicago for New York.[16]

New York career

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After Root & Cady shut down, Root pursued some more ventures in music firms, culminating in the Root & Sons Music Company which bore some success until dissolving in 1880.[17] His business partner Chauncey M. Cady also sought to reinitiate a profitable career as a music publisher. He established a business at 107 Duane Street, New York City, in 1875, lasting five years until shutting it down owing to fatigue from old age.[18] In 1876, while roaming in Broadway, he stumbled across his former employee Henry Clay Work who had quit songwriting, dispirited by financial and familial woes. Cady opportunely invited him to the new business. Eager to pick up songwriting once again, Work accepted; he published nine songs for Cady from 1876 to 1879.[19]

In 1876 he published a book of doxologies compiled by Theodore Wood, The Heavenly Choir.[20] Three years later, he published a compilation of renowned parlor songs incorporating hallmark piano tunes of the classical and romantic eras titled Parlor Gems.[21] He was the librettist of an 1894 cantata, Esther, the Beautiful Queen, narrating the story of the biblical heroine Esther.[22]

"Grandfather's Clock"

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"Grandfather's Clock"
First verse and chorus


My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short never to go again
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)
His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)
It stopped short never to go again
When the old man died.[23]

Work's most profitable hit, also his last, was "Grandfather's Clock," issued by Cady in January 1876 and popularized by African-American entertainer Sam Lucas in New Haven.[24] Inspired by his sympathetic attitude toward disaffected individuals, he anthropomorphizes a clock to signify its owner; it had stood for ninety years throughout the "old man"'s life and accompanied him. When he dies, the clock also stops functioning, a symbol of human mortality and irreplaceable companionship. The song remains most memorable for its onomatopoeic "ticking" chorus and effortlessly inventive rhymes: "Ninety years without slumbering [...] / His life seconds numbering."[25]

Although Work awaited nothing beyond a moderate hit,[26] Cady expected a widespread success.[27] His prophecy was proven correct: the song secured over 800,000 sheet music sales.[28] It also coined the phrase "grandfather clock" to describe a longcase clock.[29] After Work sold the copyright to "Grandfather's Clock," Cady paid him a royalty of $4,000,[c] helping to lift him out of poverty.[30][d] In total, this was the highest bestowed to any American composer at the time, only possibly surpassed by Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home."[26] An 1879 issue of the San Marcos Free Press highlights its ubiquity, claiming that not knowing the song "argues yourself unknown," being "nightly played in theater and concert halls to applauding auditors."[33] American music historian John T. Howard claims that "there is scarcely a school songbook" excluding "Grandfather's Clock."[34]

"Grandfather's Clock" performed by the Edison Quartet in 1905.

In 1878 Work composed a follow-up simply titled "Sequel to Grandfather's Clock," continuing the song's narrative after the grandfather's death. A relative of his returns to the old man's home to encounter his beloved clock being burnt for kindling wood; in its place now stands an unsightly wall ornament.[35]

Legacy

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He formed part of the inaugural executive committee of the Old Republic Life Insurance Company founded by Paul Cornell.[36]

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ Roughly equating to $8.1 million in 2024.
  2. ^ Roughly equating to $5.1 billion in 2024.
  3. ^ Roughly equating to $125,000 in 2024.
  4. ^ Cady paid Work $250 in monthly royalties for "Grandfather's Clock," amounting to $4,000 by 1879.[31] However, an 1884 issue of the Evening Capital claims that Work earned $300 a month, as opposed to $250.[32]

Citations

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  1. ^
  2. ^
  3. ^ quoted in Tribble 1967, p. 425
  4. ^ Toledo Chronicle 1875, p. 2
  5. ^
  6. ^
  7. ^ McWhirter 2012, pp. 15, 17
  8. ^
  9. ^
  10. ^
  11. ^
  12. ^
  13. ^
  14. ^
  15. ^ quoted in Carder 2008, p. 179
  16. ^
  17. ^
  18. ^
  19. ^
  20. ^ Wood 1876
  21. ^ Cady 1879, preface
  22. ^ Bradbury & Cady 1896, synopsis
  23. ^
  24. ^
  25. ^
  26. ^ a b Birdseye 1879b, p. 286
  27. ^ San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
  28. ^
  29. ^
  30. ^
  31. ^
  32. ^ Evening Capital 1884, p. 2
  33. ^ quoted in San Marcos Press 1879, p. 3
  34. ^ quoted in Howard & Bellows 1967, p. 135
  35. ^
  36. ^ Lakeside Monthly 1871, p. 288

Bibliography

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Books

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Primary sources

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  • Bradbury, William B.; Cady, Chauncey M. (1896). Esther, the Beautiful Queen: A Sacred Cantata (2 ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Oliver Ditson Company.
  • Cady, Chauncey M. (1879). Parlor Gems: A Choice Selection of Music, Instrumental and Vocal, by the Best Composers, to Which Is Added Original Charades for Parlor Performance. New York City, New York: C. M. Cady.
  • Root, George F. (1891). The Story of a Musical Life: An Autobiography by Geo F. Root. Cincinnati, Ohio: The John Church Co. ISBN 978-1-4047-8329-4.
  • Root, George F.; Sawyer, Charles C.; Work, Henry C., eds. (1892). Our National War Songs (2 ed.). Chicago, Illinois: The S. Brainard's Sons Co.
  • Wood, Theodore (1876). The Heavenly Choir: A Collection of Hymns and Tunes for All Occasions of Worship, Congregational, Church, Prayer, Praise, Choir, Sunday School, and Social Meetings. New York City, New York: C. M. Cady.
  • Work, Henry C. (1884). Work, Bertram G. (ed.). Songs of Henry Clay Work. New York City, New York: Little & Ives.

Secondary sources

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Studies and journals

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Newspaper articles

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Websites

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Song manuscripts

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  • Work, Henry C. (1877). Mac O'Macorkity. New York City, New York: C. M. Cady. Retrieved July 17, 2024 – via Library of Congress.
  • Work, Henry C. (1878). Sequel to Grandfather's Clock. New York City, New York: C. M. Cady. Retrieved July 15, 2024 – via Library of Congress.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
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