Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster was one of the most influential composers of the pre-Civil war era. He composed some of the most famous American songs ever. Among these are "Oh! Susanna", "De Camp Town Races", and "I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". Unfortunately, he sold the rights to some of his best songs. Stephen Collins Foster, the ninth of William B. and Eliza T. Foster's ten children (plus a son fathered by William before the marriage and later raised as their oldest child), was born July 4, 1826, in a small cottage on the hillside above the Allegheny River in Lawrenceville, east of Pittsburgh. The tenth child died as an infant, leaving Stephen as the "baby" of the family to be indulged by older brothers and sisters. Fosters music was a unique blend of minstrel and plantation melodies. The form in most of Foster's songs is Strophic.
Foster's songs set the style for the patriotic songs of the civil war. His songs were written in the mid 1800's, prior to the civil war. Ironically, Foster felt shamed by some of his most popular and recognizable songs, such as "Oh! Susanna" and "De Camptown Races. The Quadruple form has four beats per measure. " He found the songs to be crude and vulgar, but to the rest of the world, they were quite popular. Although they were less popular, Foster's serious and sentimental songs such as "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home" were Foster's favorites. The repetition of the melody is necessary to keep the rhyme scheme alive. This is even more shocking when considering the fact that Foster was totally untrained in any form of music. The absurdity of Foster's lyrics in his song "Oh! Susanna" was ground breaking for the time period in which it was written. It has even been said that Stephen Foster has made one of the most important contributions to the music of the world by an American. Also, lines 2 and 4 and the second line of the chorus are practically the same. Foster also sometimes uses the Quadruple meter form. Usually a simple piano or guitar was used to compliment the tone. Towards the end, Foster became emotionally unstable and his wife left him. Most of Fosters songs also include the accompaniment of anther instrument.
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