Adam Geibel

Composer, songwriter, conductor, organist, teacher, and publisher (born: August 14, 1855 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany — died: August 3, 1933 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA). Geibel was blind­ed by an eye in­fect­ion at age eight. He came to the United States in 1862 and stu­died at the Penn­syl­van­ia In­sti­tu­tion for the Instruction of the Blind in Phil­a­del­phia until 1874. There, he studied organ playing under D. D. Wood. Starting in 1873, he performed publicly as an organist in Philadelphia. Between 1887 and 1906 he was part-owner of the music publisher Geibel and Lehmann, then found­ed the Adam Gei­bel Mu­sic Com­pany that lat­er evolved into the Hall-Mack Com­pa­ny and even later merged to become the Ro­de­heav­er Hall-Mack Com­pa­ny. Geibel con­duct­ed the Stet­son Chor­us of Phil­a­del­phia, and from 1884 to 1901 was a music in­struct­or at his alma mater, the Penn­syl­van­ia In­sti­tu­tion for the Instruction of the Blind. Starting in 1875, Geibel wrote a number of Gos­pel songs, an­thems, and can­ta­tas. His most pop­u­lar songs in­clude "My Ken­tucky Babe," "Over The Hills At Break Of Day," and "Sleep, Sleep, Sleep."