Russell’s musical sensibilities were influenced by an Italian style at an early age. He sang professionally with a children’s opera company in Italy and also claimed to have studied under the famous Italian composers Rossini and Bellini. Given these influences, his compositions were Italianate combined with a sacred music sensibility gained from his work in church music, as well as his later position at the Rochester Academy of Sacred Music in New York. This style is seen in this exhibit’s featured piece, "Woodman! Spare That Tree!" While not religious, it has the reverent tone and strophic form that are often attributed to hymns. This style also supported his broad publication of his "parlor songs," which were simple songs ideal for small and private performance venues, and which were particularly popular in the United States during the nineteenth century.
Traveling as a singer and songwriter of popular parlor songs and ballads was particularly significant as it reflected the changes of the time in how music was consumed, and thus written, as music became more accessible to the public. In addition to "Woodman! Spare That Tree!," several of Russell’s songs became popular across nineteenth-century America, including “A Life on the Ocean Wave.” While Russell claimed to have written around 800 songs, scholars have only accounted for about 300. His songs dealt often in touching themes that would be endearing to the general public and addressed social issues such as abolition, immigration, family unity, and mental asylums. Some of these sentimental themes are present in the Freedman Collection, which contains four of his pieces, including two tree-related songs: “Woodman! Spare That Tree!” and “The Brave Old Oak.” Also included in the collection are “My Heart’s In The Highlands” and “Some Love to Roam o'er the Dark Sea Foam.”
Title page of "Woodman! Spare That Tree!" from the Freedman Collection