Foster: Foster for Brass
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Stephen FOSTER (1826-1864) Nineteenth Century Brass Band Music based on the Songs of Stephen Foster Race relations! Industrialization! Pop culture!...
Stephen FOSTER (1826-1864)
Nineteenth Century Brass Band Music based on the Songs of Stephen Foster
Race relations! Industrialization! Pop culture!
Accelerating pace of change! While these could be
topics shouted from the nightly news, they were issues
initially confronted by American society during the life
of the country's first great song-writer, Stephen Collins
Foster. In Foster's America the issue of slavery was
slowly wrenching the nation toward Civil War and the
slow pace of agrarian life was giving way to the
Industrial Revolution and an exodus from countryside
to cities. The leisure time and disposable income of the
growing middle class created the first stirrings of a
"music industry" and this in turn made it possible for a
young man such as Stephen Foster to consider a
previously unimaginable career, that of professional
song-writer.
Though Foster can be considered the father of
American popular music, his life was rather modest by
the frenzied standards of today's pop stars. Born on the
United States' fiftieth birthday, 4th July, 1826, he spent
the greater part of his life in Western Pennsylvania and
Ohio, well away from the cultural and entertainment
centres on the East coast, moving to New York only
when his career was already in decline. Known for
celebrating the Deep South, he travelled there only
once, and briefly, during his life.
From an early age music was one of the few
constants in Foster's life. His entrepreneurial father
made risky ventures in both politics and business, and
though middle class his large and musically inclined
family was in recurring financial distress. They lost
their beloved home the "White Cottage" in Foster's
infancy and rarely had a settled home life after that
time. A childhood spent moving from place to place
conferred upon Foster a life-long sense of displacement
and nostalgia, which would resonate with a nation of the
uprooted immigrants and settlers pining for a peaceful
home and Arcadian past even as they bustled toward an
urban and industrial future.
Foster's education was as uneven as his home life.
Largely self-taught in music, he received some
guidance from family members and from Henry Kleber,
one of the many fine German immigrant musicians who
graced American cities during the nineteenth century.
His first known composition was written when he was
fourteen. His first published song Open Thy Lattice
Love dates from his eighteenth year and is typical of the
period's genteel parlour ballads appropriate for the
young ladies and gentlemen of the bourgeoisie. His first
success as a song-writer, however, came with a much
earthier style of music, the 'Ethiopian' or 'Plantation'
songs associated with minstrel shows. The issue of
slavery had been left unresolved with the writing of the
United States Constitution, and while abolished in the
industrial Northern states, it was pervasive in the
agricultural South. Minstrel shows, in which white
performers darkened their faces with burnt cork and
both mocked and sentimentalised the enslaved African-
American population, were a subconscious attempt on a
national scale to expiate collective social guilt by
reducing the humanity of slavery's victims. The
minstrel performers also began a long tradition of
whites borrowing from indigenous black music, which
continued through jazz and rock-and-roll to the "white
rappers" of today.
While working as a bookkeeper in 1847 at his
brother's shipping business in Cincinnati, Foster wrote
his first great success, the Ethiopian song Oh! Susanna.
Sold to the publisher W.C. Peters for a mere $100, the
song soon became a national craze and made Peters a
small fortune. Though Foster profited little monetarily
from the song it gave him the confidence to return to
Pittsburgh and begin his career as America's first full
time song-writer. More minstrel hits soon followed,
including the rambunctious Camptown Races. The
nostalgic Old Folks At Home or Swanee River, launched
a long tradition of longing-for-the-South songs, from
Irving Berlin's When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves
for Alabam', to Sweet Home Alabama made famous by
the country-rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Though
Foster's traditional songs initially failed to achieve the
success of his minstrel numbers, he was gradually able
to reconcile the two threads of his work, wonderfully
described by his biographer Ken Emerson as 'possum
fat and flowerets', into a single cohesive style.
The 1850s were productive for Foster and he
achieved fame and relative financial success. In 1850 he
married Jane (Jennie) McDowell and their only child,
daughter Marion, was born in 1851. Foster, the former
accountant, set up an innovative and profitable
arrangement with the New York publishing house of
Firth, Pond & Co., which paid a royalty for each copy of
his songs sold rather than the single purchase fee
standard at that time. A similar set-up made Irving
Berlin a rich man decades later and might be one of the
reasons Berlin kept a portrait of Foster on his office
wall.
Foster composed prolifically making use of a wide
variety of styles and subjects, including ballads and
genre and comic songs. Though part of the confused
political middle ground regarding the abolition of
slavery (he composed campaign songs for the similarly
indecisive President James Buchanan whose brother
was married to Foster's sister), he largely jettisoned
condescending dialect from his plantation songs, which
achieved a greater gentleness and humanity. Though the
sentiments of many of these songs are questionable by
today's standards, the great black abolitionist firebrand
Frederick Douglas acknowledged at the time that
Foster's plantation songs '...awaken the sympathies for
the slave, in which anti-slavery principles take root and
flourish'.
In 1860 Foster moved with his family to New York
City, but in a nation on the verge of a long and bloody
Civil War tastes were changing and Foster's popularity
was on the wane. Sales declined and he was often in
debt both to his family and to his publisher for
advances. The relationship between the dreamy, poetic
Foster and his pragmatic wife had always been difficult
and Jennie and Marion soon went back to Pennsylvania
for good. Everything, from his career to his personal life
to his country itself, was coming apart. Alcoholism and
depression, possibly present in Foster's life before this
time, took hold and the remainder of his life was spent
in increasing poverty and squalor, though he still
produced a number of songs, both on his own and in
collaboration with a young friend, George Cooper. Late
Foster compositions include the Civil War songs We
Are Coming Father Abraam, When This Cruel War Is
Over and the comic song My Wife Is A Most Knowing
Woman.
In January 1864, Stephen Foster fell in his rented
room and gashed his throat. His weakened constitution
prevented a recovery, and he died at New York's
Bellevue Hospital at the age of 38. Though out of
fashion at his death, Foster's work was never forgotten.
His works have achieved the status of folk-song, and
many listeners are surprised to find that his songs have
an actual composer at all, for it is hard to imagine a time
that they were not part of America's music.
In addition to touring troupes and performances on
parlor pianos, much of Foster's music circulated during
his lifetime in versions for brass bands. Adolphe Sax,
best known today as the inventor of the saxophone, had
perfected "saxhorns" in the 1840s, a matched family of
conical bore brasses using the recently developed valve
system, and their powerful yet sweet sound quickly
came to dominate public music throughout mid-19thcentury
America. As an adventure in musical time
travel the sounds that listeners in Foster's time would
have heard are duplicated on this recording by a quintet
of authentic period instruments. Their unique sound is
strikingly different from that of modern brasses.
Additionally, at a time when the distinctions between
classical and popular music were less marked than
today, their performers would have blended elements of
classical, popular and folk traditions. Though Foster
wrote few instrumental pieces himself, his sturdy
melodies were regularly adapted as marches, quick
steps and dance pieces by other composers, a typical
practice of the time.
Nineteenth-century American musicians were
usually involved in many aspects of music and two
names appear on this recording in multiple rôles. D.C.
Hall (1822-1890) was a noted keyed bugle soloist and
bandleader in New England. His Bronze Bob Tail Horse
Quick Step is based on two Foster songs, Camptown
Races and Oh! Boys Carry Me 'Long. Its title pokes fun
at Auber's Le Cheval de bronze, then a brass-band
staple. The E flat contrabass saxhorn used on this
recording was built by Hall & Quinby, an instrument
manufactory he established in Boston during the 1860s.
The dynamic musical entrepreneur John F. Stratton
(1832-1912) published the Stratton Military Band
Journal from which Why, No One To Love is included
here and established a thriving business which made
instruments for both sides during the Civil War,
including the E flat soprano saxhorn heard on this
recording.
American military bands in the mid-nineteenthcentury
usually depended on arrangements crafted by
their leaders. John P. King was stationed in Port Royal,
South Carolina as leader of the 6th Connecticut
Volunteer Infantry band, under the command of
Colonel Lorenzo Meeker. King's bittersweet Col.
Meeker's Quick Step uses two poignant melodies,
Loving Hearts At Home by John Rodgers Thomas and
Why Have My Loved Ones Gone? by Foster to evoke
the loneliness of soldiers far from home. Also stationed
in Port Royal was the 4th New Hampshire Volunteer
Infantry band, formerly the Manchester Cornet Band.
From their band books comes George Hart's Quick
Step by the Spanish-born conductor and composer
Claudio Grafulla (1810-1880). Grafulla is also
represented here by the Dolly Day Quick Step, based on
Foster's minstrel tune Dolly Day and his parlour ballad
Molly Do You Love Me?. From the Southern, or
Confederate, side of the Civil War, settings of Foster's
companion-piece songs Lulu Is Gone and Where Has
Lula Gone? come from the manuscript books of the
26th North Carolina Regimental Band which originated
in the highly musical Moravian community of Salem,
N.C.
The tremendous demand for live music in this era
before recorded media led publishers regularly to issue
collections and "journals" for brass bands. Foster's
Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming, originally
written in four a cappella voice parts, is heard in
contrasting versions, a ballad version featuring solo alto
saxhorn, and a quick step version from Squire's Cornet
Band Olio published in Cincinnati by the English
emigre Alfred Squire. The Brass Band Journal issued in
1855 by Foster's publishers Firth, Pond & Co. provides
the largest single source for the music on this recording.
The identity of its writer, G.W.E. Friedrich, remains a
mystery, though it may be a pseudonym for the
American composer George F. Root who at that time
worked through Foster's publisher. The arrangements
are elegant and sophisticated and show the influence of
Italian opera in the United States. The March. My Old
Kentucky Home starts out sounding like one of the lost
brass band marches by Verdi, then is transformed
surprisingly into Foster's familiar tune.
Septimus Winner (1827-1902) is best remembered
today as the composer of Listen to the Mocking Bird,
based in part on a song by a young black employee at
his music store. His Willie Schottische is based on
Foster's song Willie We Have Missed You. William
Ratel, composer of the Camptown Quick Step and
James Bellak, whose Hard Times Waltz is based on
Foster's Hard Times Come Again No More are both
survived by numerous piano compositions. Edward
White, whose California Quick Step features Foster's
Ethiopian tune Uncle Ned, was noted for composing
hymns and religious music.
Jay Krush
Ellen Bayne Quick Step (more info)
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Ellen Bayne Quick Step - 1:31
Bronze Bob Tail Horse Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Bronze Bob Tail Horse Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) - 3:26
No One to Love (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Why, No One to Love (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 1:37
California Quick Step (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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California Quick Step (arr. J. Krush) - 2:16
Beautiful Dreamer (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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Beautiful Dreamer (arr. J. Krush) - 2:44
Dolly Day Quick Step (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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Dolly Day Quick Step (arr. J. Krush) - 2:39
Hard Times Waltz (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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Hard Times Waltz (arr. J. Krush) - 1:58
We are coming, Father Abraam, 300,000 more (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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We are Coming Father Abraam, 300,000 More (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 1:30
Colonel Meeker's Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Colonel Meeker's Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) - 3:26
March. My Old Kentucky Home (more info)
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March. My Old Kentucky Home - 2:40
My wife is a most knowing woman (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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My Wife is a Most Knowing Woman (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 1:28
Maggie By My Side Grand March (more info)
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Maggie By My Side Grand March - 3:16
Santa Anna's Retreat from Buena Vista (arr. W.R. Baccus) (more info)
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Santa Anna's Retreat from Buena Vista (arr. W.R. Baccus) - 1:58
Willie Schottisch (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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Willie Schottisch (arr. J. Krush) - 1:56
George Hart's Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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George Hart's Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) - 2:34
Some Folks (arr. W.R. Baccus) (more info)
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Some Folks (arr. W.R. Baccus) - 1:11
Open thy lattice love (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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Open Thy Lattice Love (arr. J. Krush) - 2:41
Old Dog Tray March (arr. B. Barrie) (more info)
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Old Dog Tray March (arr. B. Barrie) - 2:41
Camptown Quick Step (arr. J. Krush) (more info)
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Camptown Quick Step (arr. J. Krush) - 2:26
Massa's in the Cold Ground (more info)
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Massa's in the Cold Ground - 3:32
When This Dreadful War Is Ended (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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When This Dreadful War is Over (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 1:57
Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming (arr. B. Barrie) (more info)
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Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming (arr. B. Barrie) - 3:40
Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming Quick Step (arr. T.L. Cornett) - 4:40
Gentle Annie (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Gentle Annie (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 2:28
Lulu is Gone (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Lulu is Gone (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 3:18
Where has Lula gone? (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) (more info)
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Where has Lula Gone (arr. W.R. Baccus and T.L. Cornett) - 3:06
Farewell My Lily Dear Quick Step (more info)
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Farewell My Lily Dear Quick Step - 2:13