Stephen Collins Foster, America’s foremost song composer, was born in
Lawrenceville, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1826. He
received no formal musical training. _Tioga Waltz_, in 1841, was his
first piece of music to get performed. About a year after that, Foster
published his first song, “Open Thy Lattice, Love.” His initial success
came with “Oh, Susanna!” for which he received only $100. But “Oh,
Susanna!” became so popular soon after its publication in 1848 that it
became the theme song (with improvised lyrics) of the Forty Niners on
their way to California. Beginning with 1848 he wrote songs for Ed
Christy’s Minstrels—at first allowing some of them to appear as
Christy’s own creations. It was within the context of the minstrel show
that such permanent Foster favorites as “Camptown Races” and “Old Folks
at Home” were first performed. Both songs were outstandingly successful
and, because of a favorable contractual arrangement with a New York
publisher, Foster was earning handsome royalties. Now feeling
financially secure, Foster married Jane Denny McDowell in 1850, a
relationship that was unhappy almost from the beginning. In 1860 Foster
came to New York with the hope of furthering his career as a composer.
But by now he was virtually forgotten by the public, and publishers paid
him only a pittance for his last songs, many of them mostly hack pieces.
Always disposed towards alcohol, Foster now became a habitual drunkard,
living in the most abject poverty in a miserable room on the Bowery. He
died at Bellevue Hospital on January 13, 1864.
Foster was the composer of numerous songs which in various orchestral
arrangements are basic to the repertory of every salon or pop orchestra.
His greatest songs were inspired by the Negro; they are the eloquent
expressions of Northern sentiment about slavery in the South. Foster’s
most famous Negro songs are: “Old Folks at Home” (or “Swanee River”),
“Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” and “Ol’
Black Joe.”
When Foster first wrote “Old Folks at Home” his inspiration was an
obscure Florida River by the name of “Pedee.” But while writing his song
he thought “Pedee” not sufficiently euphonious for his purpose. He went
to a map of Florida to find another river, came upon “Suwanee” which he
contracted to “Swanee.”
Foster was also successful in the writing of sentimental ballads. Here
his most important songs were “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair”
(written for and about his wife), and “Beautiful Dreamer.”
Besides orchestral adaptations of individual songs, Foster’s music is
represented on orchestral programs by skilful suites, or ingenious
symphonic transcriptions of individual songs, by other composers. Arcady
Dubensky’s _Stephen Foster Suite_ is discussed in the section on
Dubensky, and Lucien Caillet’s _Fantasia and Fugue on “Oh, Susanna!”_ in
the Caillet section. Other composers to make symphonic use of Foster’s
melodies are: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (_Humoresques on Foster
Themes_); Morton Guild (_Foster Gallery_); and Alan Shulman (_Oh,
Susanna!_).