George Frederick Root, The Battle Cry of Freedom

With the Fourth of July upon us, we should listen to something patriotic. America has produced numerous patriotic songs, but “The Battle Cry of Freedom” (also known as “Rally Round the Flag”) strikes me as one of the best. George Frederick Root wrote the song in 1862 during the Civil War explicitly in support of the Union cause. But the tune was so successful that the Confederates put their own lyrics to it. The American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk so liked the tune that he thought it should be the national anthem. The song’s popularity also spread to England.

Root composed numerous Civil War “hits,” including “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching” and “Just Before the Battle, Mother.” He co-wrote many secular songs with the famed American hymnist Fanny Crosby.

I don’t keep up with all the latest technological gadgets, so I had to do a little exploration of the Hauptwerk organ. This particular performance features the sampled sound of the organ at Salisbury Cathedral. Hauptwerk has sampled other famous organs, and you can buy the software for your PC or Mac. There are some relatively modest ways to solve the console problem. You just need a MIDI keyboard for input. Apparently some people have reconfigured old electronic organs for that purpose. If you’re handy and blessed with some degree of patience (neither applies to me), you could pursue that. The console in this performance is top of the line (now we’re talkin’), although even with four manuals and a full pedal board, it seems you can fit it in your bedroom. I want one.