Origins: My Grandfather's Clock melody

Subject: Origins: My Grandfather's Clock; Garryowen melody
From: GUEST,Gabe
Date: 10 Oct 23 - 11:17 AM

I often hear this tune played by fife and drum bands at living history events. Wikipedia says the lyrics date from 1876, but as it's played at 18th-Century-type events, I'm assuming that the tune comes from an earlier era. Likewise, the 7th Cavalry's adopted theme song "Garryowen" is said to date to the LATE 1700s, which doesn't quite match the Seven Years War era events I go to, so I'm thinking the tune is older than the lyrics. But who knows? Re-enactors have been known to make mistakes. What's the story? I was unable to do a Mudcat search, so this has probably been covered already.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Grandfather's Clock melody
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 23 - 07:31 PM

Work noted that the composition was dedicated to his sister Lizzie.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Grandfather's Clock melody
From: Helen
Date: 10 Oct 23 - 01:15 PM

To search the Forum I type the song name in the filter (just to the right of the Create A Thread link) and change the Age to "All". (A note of caution: a bawdy version also shows in the filtered results.)

I found this discussion topic which has been combined from a number of different discussions:

Discuss: My Grandfather's Clock (Henry Clay Work)

Subject: RE: Origins: My Grandfather's Clock melody
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Oct 23 - 02:28 PM

And yes, so far as anyone knows, the tune "Garryowen" first appeared in the 1780s, and it probably wasn't very well known for some years after that.

Much more info:

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Garryowen

Subject: RE: Origins: My Grandfather's Clock melody
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 10 Oct 23 - 01:39 PM

I really don't think there is the slightest doubt that Henry Clay Work wrote both text and tune of "Grandfather's Clock." Work was a brilliant composer of tunes:
Kingdom Coming/Year of Jubilo
Marching Through Georgia
Ring the Bell, Watchman (=Click go the Shears)
The Ship That Never Returned (THe Wreck of Old 97/M.T.A/The Flying Colonel)
What's more, every description of Work was of a very quiet, moral, honest man (an abolitionist, e.g.). There are no other reports of him borrowing a tune.

There wasn't any reason to, either, since "Grandfather's Clock" was something that he didn't try to sell at the time he wrote it -- songwriting wasn't paying well enough to bother with it; he only published it because Chauncy M. Cady asked Work to write some songs to help Cady re-establish his business which had burned down. (That is verified not only by Cady but by George F. Root.)