Introduction

Biography

Charles was the son of Or­as­mus Case and Nan­cy So­phron­ia Fitch, and husband of An­nie Will­iams. His fa­ther was an ac­comp­lished vio­lin­ist, and his grand­fa­ther, an Am­eri­can re­vo­lu­tion­ary war vet­er­an, taught vo­cal mu­sic.

When Case was about four years old, his fa­mi­ly moved to Gus­ta­vus, Ohio, where he lived the rest of his life. By the time he was nine years old, a neigh­bor gave him a small vio­lin which he mas­tered long be­fore he could read mu­sic. At age 16, he be­gan at­tend­ing sing­ing school (with­out his par­ents’ con­sent), bor­row­ing the mon­ey from a neigh­bor.

His first vo­cal mu­sic in­struc­tor was a Mr. C. A. Bent­ley, a prom­in­ent con­duc­tor of the day. Will­iam Brad­bu­ry’s Ju­bi­lee was the school text­book. For three win­ters in a row, Case at­tend­ed Bent­ley’s sing­ing school, work­ing on his fa­ther’s farm in the sum­mer.

In 1866, Case, be­gan stu­dy­ing with Ben­ja­min Bak­er in Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts. He al­so stu­died un­der George Root, Carl Zer­rahn, Will­iam Ma­son, Car­lo Ba­ss­ini, Ho­ra­tio Pal­mer, Phil­ip Bliss, Lu­ther Em­er­son, George Webb, and others.

Soon af­ter Case be­gan teach­ing, the par­ents of James Mc­Gra­na­han moved to a house two miles from the Case home, so the two young men be­came friends.

Works

• Pure De­light!, with George Root (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1883)
• Wondrous Love, with George Root (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1885)
• The Port­fo­lio of Sun­day School Songs, with Will­iam Sher­win (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1887)
• Uplifting Songs, New and Old, with James Mur­ray (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church, 1896)
• Choice Songs (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Am­eri­can Bap­tist Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­ety, 1902)
• Spirit of Praise, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Ja­cob Hall (Day­ton, Vir­gin­ia: Rue­bush-Kief­fer, 1911)
• Church An­thems
• Harvest Song
• Case’s Chor­us Col­lect­ion