Patriotic Assembly Song of the Week: "You're a Grand Ole Flag" George M. Cohan 1906
Listen to our song of the week here.
Musician of the Week: STEPHEN FOSTER (1826 - 1864) U.S.A.
NOTE: Since Foster's music was written and performed in a period that reflected racial prejudices and stereotypes, background will need to be presented about the time period and minstrels.
MONDAY
Listening Example: Oh! Susanna
Stephen Collins Foster was born in Pennsylvania on the 4th of July. He is known as the “father of American popular music". Foster was a songwriter known for his parlor music and “blackface” minstrel music. In the old days, a parlor was a living room, and minstrels were traveling performers who often blackened their faces with theater makeup. This type of performance continued into the early 1900’s.
Foster wrote over 200 songs. Many of his works remain popular and well-loved more than 150 years after he wrote them, and two have even become state songs. Some are considered folk songs and contain exaggerated, nonsense lyrics. Lyrics are the words to a song. One example is our song for today, Oh! Susanna. The words say: “It rained all night the day I left, the weather, it was dry; the sun so hot, I froze to death, Susanna don’t you cry.”
"Oh! Susanna" became an anthem of the “forty-niners” of the California Gold Rush in 1848-1849. Like other Foster songs, it became an important part of our American heritage.
MUSIC LISTENING LINK
Note: Some explanation of minstrel's makeup during that period may be needed. (1:15)
TUESDAY
Listening Example: Beautiful Dreamer
Foster didn’t have much formal music training, but he had a great gift for writing good melodies. As a son of a middle-class family, he loved to read and became a literate, well-educated person.
Jeannie Foster
Stephen Foster learned to blend the light-hearted minstrel songs and the more respectful parlor songs of the day, such as Beautiful Dreamer and I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, named for his wife. He lived during the time when our country still had slavery. Since slaves were not allowed to perform on stage, this led white performers to blacken their faces with makeup for some of their acts. Many of his songs are called “plantation melodies”, simple songs that are deeply moving and sentimental, such as My Old Kentucky Home, which became the Kentucky state song.
Performers at Bardstown, KY State Park
In his songs about the south, Foster tried to represent the characters in a kind way, to have them care for one another, and to convey a sense that all kinds of people share the same longings and needs for family and home. "Beautiful Dreamer" was a very popular song for many years, both for its lovely melody and the idea presented in the words.
MUSIC LISTENING LINK
WEDNESDAY
Listening Example: "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair"
In 1846, Foster moved from Pennsylvania to Cincinnati to work for his brother Dunning at the Irwin & Foster Steamboat Agency.
In 1848, Foster realized he could make money writing songs, so he left his brother’s business and started writing professionally. On July 22, 1850, Stephen married the love of his life, Jane Denny McDowell.
(Marion Foster, Stephen's daughter)
Stephen Foster wrote the song, “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair” for his wife, Jane. In the song he sings of his love for her, as well as her beauty.
MUSIC LISTENING LINK
THURSDAY
Listening Example: Camptown Races
Musical theater halls were popular during the mid-1800’s, and Stephen Foster’s songs were great for song and dance routines. Performers did “soft-shoe” dances, which are like tap dancing, but without metal taps on their shoes. They often strutted across the stage with a cane and top-hat. These acts continued to be performed in variety shows and vaudeville acts into the 1900’s.
A favorite song was “Camptown Races”, named after the horse racetrack at Camptown, PA. It contains silly phrases such as, “doo-dah” and “oh-de-doo-dah-day”. This fun, catchy tune is our listening example for today. And on the music culture page, you can watch a short cartoon of the song featuring Mighty Mouse. If you don't know who Mighty Mouse is, he was one of the cartoon superheroes of the mid-1900's.
MUSIC LISTENING LINKS
FRIDAY
Listening Example: Biography Video
Foster wrote over 200 songs. Many of his works remain popular and well-loved more than 150 years after he wrote them, and two have even become state songs.
Because Foster’s songs are deeply rooted in American folk traditions, the best of them have become part of the American cultural heritage, and they are an important part of music education in our schools.
MUSIC LISTENING LINKS
Watch this short Biography of Stephen's life.
Culture Connection: Venice, Italy
Italian folk music has a deep and complex history. National unification came quite late to the Italian peninsula, so its many hundreds of separate cultures remained un-homogenized until quite recently compared to many other European countries. Moreover, Italian folk music reflects Italy's geographic position at the south of Europe and in the center of the Mediterranean Sea: Arabic, African, Celtic, Persian, and Slavic influences are readily apparent in the musical styles of the Italian regions. Italy's rough geography and the historic dominance of small city states has allowed quite diverse musical styles to coexist in close proximity.
Italian folk music. (2016). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 25 October 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_folk_music
