Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1864)

Back in the nineteenth century, the leading way of distributing songs was little books called "songsters" -- texts without tunes, because most people could read but few could understand a musical score. If they had heard a song enough, they would know a tune, and so could sing it if they only had the words. And, because the books could be printed in small format, they could be quite cheap.

So we had "dime song books," and "Merchant's Gargling Oil songsters" (given away for advertising show more purposes), and edition after edition of "The Forget-Me-Not Songster" and others. Many of the books used safely traditional songs, but others ripped off popular copyrighted works, safe in the knowledge that no one really enforced legal protections, plus the infringers probably couldn't be caught anyway.

Songsters were a useful device at the time -- many a church had songster-like books for hymnals, and many was the home that had no books except a Bible and a few practical guides and a songster or two.

This book is a sort of a modern-day songster. Texts only, no music. No information about the songs, either, except for a few words in the chapter headings. Authors and dates of publication are listed, no more.

There is nothing wrong with the idea; there are still plenty of people who can't read sheet music, after all, so all they need is song texts. A book like this with the right set of nineteenth century songs would be a useful thing to have.

But note those words "the right set of nineteenth century songs." As in, songs people have heard of. A completely obscure song with no tune is completely useless. And -- let's face it -- a lot of the songs in here are completely obscure. Author Ken Emerson has written a book about Stephen Foster, and having spent all that time with Foster's works, apparently he thinks people have heard trash like "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!" and "The Little Ballad Girl." But there is a reason Foster ended up dying in squalor: It's because he lost the ability to write! Just because a hairball was coughed up by Stephen Foster doesn't change the fact that it was a hairball. There are about eighty songs here. I count only fifty that were genuinely popular or made their way into oral tradition. So about 40% of this book is waste. If you're willing to accept that much waste paper -- go for it. But the ideal songster would have fewer Foster failures and more genuinely singable songs. show less

Being a very fine collection of the great man's songs. It has an old-fashioned binding which doesn't work too well at the keyboard, though.

Being facsimiles of period editions of Foster sheet music. It's a good selection which is easy to use except that the book doesn't lie flat on a keyboard prop very well.

From Stephen Foster: Darkies, People and Great Music
http://wp.me/14mpp

An invitation to attend “An Evening with Stephen Foster” had me searching my library for a book I last remember reading 50 years ago. Incredibly, I found it in a stack of music on the bottom shelf of a cabinet—A Treasury of Stephen Foster, illustrated with preface, historical notes, and arrangements.

Stephen Foster was born on the Fourth of July in 1826, slavery was the law of the land and California was still part show more of Mexico. Foster died 38 years later in 1864. He was dead broke with 38 cents in his pocket.

In his short life he left a grand musical legacy that includes such standards as: “Oh! Susanna”, “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Hard Times Come Again No More”.

This book, if you can find it, is a great introduction to Foster, his times and his works—illustrated and with the music.

Carto
### show less