My Grandfather's Clock

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"Grand-Father's Clock" was first published in 1876. GrandFathersClockWorkCover.jpg
"Grand-Father's Clock" was first published in 1876.

"Grandfather's Clock" (popularly known as "My Grandfather's Clock") is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music. The Oxford English Dictionary says the song was the origin of the term "grandfather clock" for a longcase clock. [1] In 1905, the earliest known recording of this song was performed by Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet (known then as the "Edison Quartet").

Contents

Storyline

It was in this Piercebridge hotel that the author encountered a remarkable clock that inspired the song. Cliffe George Hotel 3.jpg
It was in this Piercebridge hotel that the author encountered a remarkable clock that inspired the song.

The song, told from a grandchild's point of view, is about his grandfather's clock.

The clock is purchased on the morning of the grandfather's birth and works perfectly for 90 years, requiring only that it be wound at the end of each week.

The clock seems to know the good and bad events in the grandfather's life; it rings 24 chimes when the grandfather brings his new wife into his home, and near his death it rings an alarm, which the family recognizes to mean that the elderly gentleman is near death and gathers by his bed. After the grandfather dies, the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.

Sequel

Work published a sequel to the song two years after, and again the grandson acts as the narrator. The grandson laments the fate of the no-longer-functioning grandfather clock—it was sold to a junk dealer, who sold its parts for scrap and its case for kindling. In the grandfather's house, the clock was replaced by a wall clock, which the grandson disdains (referring to it as "that vain, stuck-up thing on the wall"). [2] However, the sequel never reached the popularity of the original. [3]

The song was covered and translated many times, versions in other languages may vary. For example, in the Czech version, sung by the country band Taxmeni, the song continues with an additional, joyful strophe, narrating further events in the grandson's life: the birth of his son and the purchase of a new clock on the same day, to maintain the family tradition. [4]

Popularity in Japan

"My Grandfather's Clock" became well known in Japan in 1962 when the NHK children's music program, Minna no uta , broadcast the recording by Tachikawa Sumito. It was accompanied by an animated sequence created by Taniuchi Rokurō  [ ja ]. The song became incorporated into educational settings in Japan ever since. A second version was broadcast on Minna no uta in 1972, which utilized the same recording, but with a new animated sequence by Takeguchi Yoshiyuki  [ ja ]. [5]

Original lyrics

The City Green in Union Park of Middletown, Connecticut includes this bust of the author near his birthplace. HenryClayWorkBust.JPG
The City Green in Union Park of Middletown, Connecticut includes this bust of the author near his birthplace.

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 stopp'd 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 stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy.
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp'd 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 stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

My grandfather said that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time, and had but one desire —
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place — not a frown upon its face,
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd 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 stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night —
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight —
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp'd 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 stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died. [6] [7]

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References

  1. ↑ "Oxford English Dictionary" (available online to subscribers, also in print). Retrieved 19 April 2009. Grandfather's clock [suggested by a song which was popular about 1880], a furniture-dealer's name for the kind of weight-and-pendulum eight-day clock in a tall case, formerly in common use; also grandfather clock (now the usual name): [1876 H. C. WORK Grandfather's Clock, My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf, So it stood ninety years on the floor.]
  2. ↑ Henry C. Work (1878). "Sequel To Grandfather's clock". New York: C. M. Cady.
  3. ↑ "Sequel To MY GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK - 1878 - Tom Roush". 21 January 2015. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2019– via YouTube.
  4. ↑ Taxmeni (1977). "Dědečkovy hodiny". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 – via YouTube. Czech cover version of My Grandfather's Clock
  5. ↑ Tomizawa, Mizuo; Satō, Keiji. "みんなのうた《大きな古時計》(1962年）映像再現の試みについて" [On the Attempt to Revive the 1962 Footage of "My Grandfather's Clock" from Minna no uta](PDF). Kyushu University Institutional Repository (in Japanese). p. 23–24. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  6. ↑ Henry C. Work (1876). "Grandfather's clock". New York: C. M. Cady. original publication uses "tick, tick, tick, tick", "tock" was added later
  7. ↑ "History of the Grandfather Clock". The Clock Depot. Archived from the original on 16 March 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2012.


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