PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Stephen Foster

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -October 20, 2002: Stephen Foster 1

By Shelley Gollust

(Photo - University of
Pittsburgh)
VOICE 1:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE 2:

And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we
tell about Stephen Foster, America's first popular professional songwriter.

(music Bridge)

VOICE 1:

You may have heard the old traditional American songs "Oh! Susanna," "Camptown Races"
and "My Old Kentucky Home. " But, do you know who wrote them. Stephen Foster. He
wrote those and more than two hundred other songs during the eighteen-forties and eighteen-
fifties.

His best songs have become part of America's cultural history. They have become American folk songs. Many
people in America learned 3 to sing these songs when they were children. Most Americans can sing these songs
today.

VOICE 2:

Stephen Collins Foster was born on July fourth, eighteen-twenty-six, in what is now part of the city of Pittsburgh,
in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. He was the ninth child of William and Eliza Foster. He did not have
much musical training. But he had a great natural ability for music. He taught himself to play several musical
instruments. He could play any music just by listening to it.

Stephen Foster began writing songs when he was fourteen. In eighteen-forty-seven, he wrote his first successful
song, "Oh! Susanna. "

Ken 2 Emerson wrote a book about Stephen Foster. It is called "Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the rise of American
popular culture. " Mr. Emerson says "Oh! Susanna" was the first internationally popular song written by an
American that everyone can still recognize and sing today.

(MUSIC)

VOICE 1:

Stephen Foster married Jane McDowell in eighteen-fifty. He wrote many new songs. Some of them were about
love. One of the best known is "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair " He wrote it for his wife when they were
separated.

(MUSIC)

VOICE 2:

Stephen Foster wrote almost thirty songs for minstrel shows. Minstrel shows became popular in the United States
in the eighteen-forties. White entertainers blackened their faces and performed as if they were black entertainers.
Minstrel shows included music, dance and comedy. The shows were performed in almost every major American
city, especially in the northeast. One of Foster's songs written for minstrel shows is "Camptown Races." Today, it
is a popular song for children.


(MUSIC)

VOICE 1:

Minstrel songs described the culture of black American slaves in the southern states. Yet Foster did not really
know anything about this subject. He lived in Pittsburgh for most of his life. He visited the south only once.

However, some experts say Foster's minstrel songs showed he did understand how black people in the south lived
before the Civil War. The people in Foster's songs love their families and work hard. Now, however, some of his
songs are judged insulting 4 to African-Americans. So, music publishers have changed some of the words. And a
few of his songs are no longer sung.

VOICE 2:

In eighteen-fifty, Foster made an agreement with the leader of a successful minstrel group, E.P. Christy. The
agreement meant that Christy's minstrels had the right to perform every new song Foster wrote. Foster also
permitted Christy to name himself as the writer of the song "Old Folks at Home. " This became one of most
successful songs written by Stephen Foster. It became the official song of the state of Florida in nineteen-thirtyfive. It also is known as "Way Down Upon the Swanee River. "

(MUSIC)

VOICE 1:

Stephen Foster wrote other songs about home and memories of times past. In his book, ken Emerson says Foster
wrote songs about home in part because he almost never lived in one home for long. His father lost all his money
when Stephen was a boy. So Stephen was forced to live with many different family members. Although Foster
lived in the north, some of his songs suggest a desire to be back home in the American south.

VOICE 2:

"My Old Kentucky Home" is an example. Mr. Emerson says Foster wrote the song in honor 5 of Harriet Beecher
Stowe's anti-slavery book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin 6." "My Old Kentucky Home" expresses great sympathy for
enslaved African Americans. The black anti-slavery activist 7 Frederick Douglass praised the song. It later became
the official song of the state of Kentucky.

(MUSIC)

VOICE 1:

Stephen Foster was America's first full-time 8 professional songwriter. He was a good songwriter. But he was a
poor businessman. He sold many of his most famous songs for very little money. He was not able to support his
wife and daughter.

In eighteen-sixty, he moved to New York City. His songs were not as popular as they had been. His marriage had
ended. He had no money. For most of his life, he drank large amounts of alcohol 9. He died on January thirteenth,
eighteen-sixty-four. He was only thirty-seven years old.

VOICE 2:

Stephen Foster was honored 10 in several ways after his death. He was the first musician to be nominated 11 to the hall
of fame for great Americans. And he was the first American composer whose complete works 12 were published
together. Each year, on the anniversary 13 of his death, people in Pittsburgh gather to remember Stephen Foster.
They go to the church he attended as a child. They attend a show that honors 14 him. Then they visit his burial place.

The end of Stephen Foster's life was sad. But his songs have brought happiness to many people. One of his last
songs was one of the most beautiful. It is called "Beautiful Dreamer. "

(MUSIC)


VOICE 1:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley
Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

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