978-0393639032 Chapter 38

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CHAPTERfi38 Marketing Music: Foster and Early

“Popu lar” Song

1. composer, born outside Pittsburgh

2. composed for Christy Minstrels, blackface

minstrel show

3. first American to make living as professional

songwriter, little profit

4. hit songs include: Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races,

Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home

5. accidental death, died a penniless alcoholic

D. A Song by Foster: Jeanie with the Light Brown

Hair

1. love song, written for his wife, Jane Denny

McDowell

2. two- verse poem by Foster, Anglo- Irish folk song

influence

3. not popu lar during his lifetime

a. pop u lar ized in 1941, older music broadcast

4. themes of lost youth and happiness

E. LG 29: Foster: Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

(1854)

1. strophic parlor song; solo voice and piano

2. moderate tempo, qua dru ple meter, major key

3. homophonic texture, simple accompaniment

4. free cadenza in each verse

5. bittersweet tone, wishing for days gone by

OVERVIEW

This chapter draws on the songs of Stephen Foster to intro–

duce the larger repertory of popu lar song in nineteenth-

century Amer i ca. Foster and his music are placed within the

context of minstrelsy and the economics of sheet- music

publishing.

OUTLINE

I. Music in Early North Amer i ca: Cultivated and

Vernacular

A. Cultivated repertoires: “high art”

1. Eu ro pean immigrants brought cultivated

repertoire

a. operas, chamber music, and symphonies

B. Vernacular: “American popu lar identity”

1. lighter music: dancing, singing at home, public

events, parades

2. popu lar: belonging “to the people,” great finan–

cial profit

C. “Classical” and “popu lar”

1. no clear distinction in 19th century

2. mutually influential traditions

3. cultivated and vernacular encountered in same

spaces

II. Stephen Foster, Parlor Song, and Minstrelsy

A. Foster songs: intersection between American ver–

nacular and Eu ro pean art tradition

1. parlor songs: sweet, sentimental

2. blend two traditions:

a. Italian operas, popu lar among upper classes

b. financial success of nostalgic “folk songs”

3. intended for amateur per for mance, parlor of

middle class homes

4. several pop u lar ized through minstrel shows

B. Minstrelsy: theatrical variety shows

1. stereotyping of African American culture

2. featured white performers in blackface

3. widespread popularity in 1800s

4. plantation songs: most of Foster’s income

C. Stephen Foster (1826–1864)

Marketing Music: Foster and Early “Popu lar” Song | 159

pose do these songs serve? What do you think motivates

people to create these songs?

2. As the textbook mentions, the song “Happy Birthday”

is protected under copyright law, which requires that in

certain circumstances anyone who wants to perform the

song legally must compensate the copyright holder(s).

What is the purpose of copyright law? Who or what is

protected under law in the case of “Happy Birthday”?

Do you agree that a com pany, or person, should be able

to own the rights of a song whose author is no longer liv–

ing? Why or why not?

TEACHING CHALLENGES

Minstrelsy, with its unsettling racial narratives, may be the

most challenging subject from the textbook to teach. Although

it is impossible to sidestep the difficult history of nineteenth-

century minstrelsy, class discussions on the subject are an

opportunity to reflect on the intersections between race (or

racial constructions) and music, and can be easily extended

to today’s popu lar music.

SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY

SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emerson, Ken. Doo– Dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of Ameri-

Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Ameri-

can Working Class. New York and Oxford: Oxford University

YOUR TURN TO EXPLORE

What can you find out about the economic networks that sup–

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. To understand American popu lar song in the nineteenth

century as incorporating ele ments from Eu ro pean culti-

vated repertories and native vernacular– music traditions

2. To understand the popularity of nineteenth- century

American song within the contexts of minstrelsy and the

economics of sheet- music publishing

3. To understand Stephen Foster’s songs as emblematic of

the nineteenth- century American popular– song tradition

LECTURE SUGGESTIONS

1. Discuss with your students the definitions and meanings

of vernacular and cultivated. Consider the following

questions to spark class discussion: How are the catego-

ries of vernacular and cultivated applicable to music?

What are some examples? Can we speak of competing

cultivated and vernacular musical styles? How are the

categories of cultivated and vernacular particularly use-

ful for characterizing American musical traditions, both

past and pres ent?

its ability to communicate to whites—in a misinformed

and ste reo typed way— the experiences of black slaves.

When Camptown Races was published in 1850, the

slaves had not yet been emancipated. What is this song

3. Before listening to Foster’s Jeanie with the Light Brown

Hair, ask students to consider how the song bridges the

ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS

1. Before and for many years after the Civil War (1861–65),

minstrel shows featured white performers in blackface,

acting out scenes and singing songs that supposedly por–

160 | Chapterfi38

(Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, etc.). The Vevo model creates a

dous influence on the creative choices of and opportunities

for commercial music artists, somewhat reminiscent of opera,

film music, or the “first wave” of pop music videos during

the 1980s.

MODEL RESPONSE

nel on YouTube (https:// www . youtube . com / user / VEVO

/ featured) is an incredibly popu lar and successful music video

streaming platform. Vevo is unique in that music videos com–

prise its media products, as opposed to the audio- only tracks

for formats like radio and audio streaming music ser vices