Stephen Collins Foster was born in Lawrenceburg, now a part of Pittsburgh, Pa., on July 4, 1826. By instinct and by inheritance he was a Southerner, for his father had come from Virginia and his mother from Maryland. Foster was not a professional musician; he acted as bookkeeper for his brother, a prosperous merchant of Pittsburgh, and got his inspiration at camp meetings. He taught himself the flageolet, studied Mozart and Weber assiduously, and acquired a knowledge of French and German by his own efforts. He dabbled in composition, turned out a 'Tioga Waltz' for four flutes (!), and in 1842 wrote a song, 'Open thy Lattice, Love,' to words by someone else. He and five friends constituted themselves a little singing club and for this he wrote many songs, including 'Oh, Susanna,' 'Old Uncle Ned,' etc., in the style of the negro folk-song. Though a German musician of Pittsburgh criticized his work for him, he certainly had no real musical training. By the advice of friends he devoted several years to the voice and pianoforte, 'but he was afraid that too much study would impair his originality! Hence, if his harmonies are bald, his accompaniments empirical, and his part writing unskilled, we need not wonder, but only regret that so graceful a flower was not planted in richer soil.'[80]
After submitting 'Oh, Susannah' to a minstrel troupe Foster adopted that style for most of his songs. There are about one hundred and sixty in all, a small number of them true gems, perhaps unsurpassed in their way; many, especially the later ones, mere pot-boilers. 'The Old Folks at Home,' 'My Old Kentucky Home,' 'Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground,' 'Old Black Joe,' are practically immortal. They are to America what Silcher's and Weber's songs are to Germany—they are as simple and beautiful in their expression as they are sincere in their sentiment. They were born of the impulse of creation and it is to be remarked that this applies to the text as well, for Foster wrote nearly all of his own lyrics.
There are besides a number of sentimental ballads—'Nellie Bly,' 'Nancy Tile,' 'Come where My Love Lies Dreaming,' etc.—perhaps somewhat more artificial, rather trivial in sentiment and certainly more German than negro in their substance—and some comic pieces, such as 'The Camptown Races.' His last work was 'The Beautiful Dream,' written in 1864.
Foster had a gentle, sweet nature, but lacking in self-discipline and easily led. He was childlike in his sentiments, possessed of a pathetic affection for his parents and an almost maniacal love for his mother throughout his life. He married at the age of twenty-eight, but soon separated from his wife, became shiftless and addicted to drink. Want drove him to rapid production—he could write a song in the morning, sell it at noon and spend the proceeds at night. Finally, he found himself in New York, penniless, without employment and in 1864 came to a tragic end in a cheap East Side hotel at the age of thirty-three.
His life, with its grim romance, reminds one of the career of that other American genius, Edgar Allan Poe. Both were aristocrats of Southern antecedents and made of the very essence of the American stock. Both spoke in an idiom remarkably attuned to the best of the American genius. Foster's melodies partake essentially of the folk manner—they are volkstümlich—they might have been folk-songs, except that they are individually conceived, that their birth is legitimate, so to speak. In the hearts of the people they rank as folk-songs, and, their appeal being permanent, interesting conclusions might be drawn from them as to the qualities of the American national character.
The other non-minstrel composer whom we desire to mention as a writer of popular tunes of the minstrel type is Henry Clay Work (b. Middletown, Conn., 1832, d. Hartford, Conn., 1882). Work also was not a trained musician in the modern sense, but a musician of earnest endeavor and sincere expression. Louis C. Elson says 'he sounded the most characteristic note of all the American composers of the time, and his songs give almost every note in the gamut of expression, from sarcasm to triumph, from gaiety to military glory.'
The emancipation movement inspired Work in the direction of pseudo-negro songs—'Kingdom Comin’' and 'Babylon is Fallen' being the first of a series of contributions to the music of the Civil War. Work's most lasting success is, of course, 'Marching Through Georgia,' which properly comes under the head of patriotic songs.
VI
A type of folk-song that is as often appropriated as it is indigenous is the patriotic song. It can be called a folk-song only in the sense that the people sing it, though in a measure it must reflect the character of the people—in a measure only, for one nation is very much like the other when fired by patriotism. Almost invariably, however, such songs are created at times of national stress, when feelings run high and poetic outbursts come from unexpected quarters. Such are the circumstances under which nearly all patriotic songs were created, 'Yankee Doodle,' 'Hail Columbia,' 'The Star Spangled Banner,' 'John Brown,' and 'Marching Through Georgia' included. Some, like 'Dixie,' became patriotic unintentionally, so to speak, and some, like 'America,' were simply applications of foreign tunes to native words.
The earliest American patriotic song, dating from colonial days, was a 'Liberty Song,' the words of which were written by Mrs. Mercy Warren, the wife of Mr. James Warren, of Plymouth. The verses were as amateurish as the music is angular and bombastic. It was advertised in the 'Boston Chronicle' in 1768. Both the advertisement and the song are reproduced in Elson's 'History of American Music' (pp. 140 ff.). The patriotism reflected in the song is that of the Colonial: