Stephen Foster: Information Please

Subject: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: Doctor John
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 05:58 PM

Some of the best USA melodies and lyrics were written by Stephen Foster: things everyone knows. Could anyone supply a brief biography please. Dr John

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: harpgirl
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 06:19 PM

...from a Treasury of Stephen Foster, Random House, 1946 with historical notes by John Tasker Howard...

Stephen Collins Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh, on the Fourth of July, 1826. Young Stephen was the tenth of eleven children. These Fosters were prominent people in western Pennsylvannia; they were active in both political and commerical affairs. His father, William Barclay Foster was at one time the Mayor of Allegheny Pennsylvannia, Stephen was a dreamer. Above all else he loved music. At twenty he sailed down the Ohio, on one of the river-boats he would some day immortalize in song, far more entranced with the singing of the deckhands than with the figures he was to add for three years in his brother's commission business. It was during the first five or six years of his married life that Stephen composed his finest songs. (He married Jane McDowell of Pittsburgh. ) Old Folks at Home, Massa's in de Cold Grown, My Old Kentucky Home and Old Dog Tray, Jeaanie with the Light Brown Hair, Come Where My love Lies Dreaming and Gentle Annie He married July 22, 1850. Thes songs were written from 1851 to 1856. ...when he moved to NY things began to deteriorate for him...He died most probably of tuberculosis , January 13, 1864...

extracted from the forward of this book.

His story sounds like Woody's, and like the many Orpheus'es among us...talented people so often need love and support to manage in the material world, don't they?...harpgirl

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 07:10 PM

This link has a ton of info on him, his family, his instruments, music, etc. Looks pretty extensive. Stephen Foster

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 07:46 PM

There's also been a long thread (or maybe 2) on him. Maybe by the grace of Joe [click & click] this will connect you. Barry

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: Pete Curry
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 09:27 PM

In his book, "America's Favorite Ballads," Pete Seeger points out that SF "had a genius for fitting syllables to tunes" (i.e. melody notes). That was a revelation to me, not unlike when I learned that "Moonlight in Vermont" has no end-rhymes.

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 09:34 PM

Pomeroy, Ohio has NO cross streets (no 4-way intersections).......just trying to help with the "Revelations" Pete!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jul 99 - 09:45 PM

Click here to get to the "Public Domain Music" page, which has terrific information on Foster and other 19th century composers. It's the best Foster page I know of.

-Joe Offer-

bowdlerize, v.t.: what liberals feel compelled to do with Stephen Foster songs.

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 09:34 AM

There is a beautiful album of his songs called "American Dreamer" sung by Thomas Hampson, with accompaniments, by among others, Jay Ungar of Ashokan Farewell fame. Clean, spare, wonderfully sung. I listen to it all the time.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Stephen Foster: Information Please
From: Pete Curry
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 08:26 PM

For Catspaw49: Thanks for the info on Pomeroy, Ohio. Sounds like my kinda place. (Geez, should we start a new thread on revelations? Okay, I won't.)