This book discusses Stephen Foster's life and music, and how the two are related. The story of his life is told through Foster's own works. The book contains the musical notation for forty-two of Foster's songs, as well as the accompanying commentary. A list of the included songs and an excerpt from the book's introduction are included below.
Information about ordering the book may be found on the purchasing page. A double-volume set of compact discs containing many of these songs is also available for purchase.
Included Works
Open Thy Lattice, Love (Listen!)
Willy My Brave
Oh! Susanna (Listen!)
Away Down Souf (Listen!)
Lou’siana Belle (Listen!)
Old Uncle Ned
My Brudder Gum
Nelly was a Lady
Oh! Boys, Carry Me Along
Hard Times Come Again No More
Gentle Annie
Oh! Lemuel
Camptown Races
Angelina Baker
Laura Lee
Nelly Bly
Ring de Banjo
Once I Loved Thee, Mary Dear
My Hopes Have Departed Forever
I Would Not Die in Springtime
Sweetly She Sleeps, My Alice Fair
Old Folks at Home
Massa’a in de Cold Ground
My Old Kentucky Home
Old Dog Tray
Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair
I Will be True to Thee
Willie We Have Missed You
Willie has Gone to War
Comrades, Fill No Glass for Me
Ellen Bayne
Some Folks
The Village Maiden
Old Black Joe
Down among the Cane Brakes
Under the Willow She's Sleeping
The Glendy Burk
Why, No One to Love?
Why have My Loved Ones Gone?
Our Bright Summer Days are Gone
Little Jenny Dow
Beautiful Dreamer
Introduction
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which city is also the birthplace of Stephen Collins Foster. This coincidence afforded me the opportunity to visit regularly the Oakland area where the Stephen Foster Memorial was located. My parents had gifted to me a guitar when I was fourteen years old causing my interest in folk music that began much earlier to take on a new dimension. With the acquisition of a collection of songs edited by Burl Ives and original songs of Stephen Foster, I began to understand the difference between imitation and creativity. Later, when I studied the Affective Disorders and Limbic System as a neuro-psychiatrist I was impressed by the association of these disorders with creativity and genius. Both with the patients I treated in my psychiatric practice and in the study of the lives of great authors and composers I began to realize that the proportion of these creative people afflicted with the affective disorders was higher than expected by chance. They suffered and agonized internally as a result of this illness yet they enjoyed the benefit of this paradoxical disorder which intensified their perception of reality thus enhancing their imagination, perfecting and augmenting their creativity. Their minds at times worked in overdrive when the mood was upon them. The cognitive process raced beyond comprehension enabling them to create images, which the ordinarily functioning brain would not allow. Alicia de la Rocha, concert pianist from Spain, Ernest Hemmingway, author from the United States, Charles Dickens, author from England, Leo Tolstoy, novelist of
Russia, Sara Teasdale poet of the US, and Robert Burns, poet and song
writer of Scotland, come to my mind. There are many more, too numerous to list. As this became clearer to me my interest focused and began to crystallize on the poets and musicians whose works tell the story of their
lives expressing their inner turmoil and their see-saw battle between self
destruction and self actualization. This drama presented either in words or in music is an extraordinary portrayal of their creativity and of their desolation. Many of these individuals killed themselves directly or indirectly.
I have chosen several of these authors and composers developing recitals around their lives and their works. These include Stephen Collins Foster, Robert Bums, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Frost. Perhaps because I was
born in Pittsburgh, as was Stephen Foster, one of my favorites is the story of the life and songs of this first original American composer. "Stephen Foster, His Life And His Songs" is a book about the life of Stephen Foster developed around the songs he created. He reveals his autobiographical turmoil in some of his songs to anyone willing to listen and attentive enough to perceive it in the words and pattern of the songs created by him. The story of his life, which I relate in this book, is also available as a cultural enrichment program live on stage or on compact discs and tapes. I tell this story while singing the songs accompanied with my guitar. I try to explain how his life drama is autobiographically expressed in his songs created during the mood cycles as he experienced them during his life. Stephen Foster created his autobiography utilizing his songs through which he pours out his soul, clearly revealing the inner struggle he suffered as he lived his
life under the influence of the cyclic mood disorder and the consequences of
his attempt to self medicate with alcohol This disorder was constantly influencing his short, inspiring, and tragic life. These mood cycles affected his style of song, his human relationships and his ability to manage his personal affairs. I present this story as I sing his songs showing how his life and his songs intertwine and interconnect moving forward toward his final self-destruction at age 37 years and 6 months. The misunderstanding that so many refer to concerning Stephen Foster is this. They mistakenly referred to his dual diagnosis of cyclic affective disorder and alcoholism as his weakness of character rather than his disease. The period was 1860 and it is in explanation rather than judgment that this is presented.
His creativity can be seen mirrored and enhanced by the moods he "suffered-enjoyed" during his life. This inner struggle and agony of the mind plagued with up and down mood cycles, racing thoughts and erratic
behavior is what gave his mind the ability to rise above the usual level of
perception and description. That creative genius which so many of these authors experienced was empowered by the brain “suffering-enjoying” cyclic mood disorders. Their mind took on a new dimension and entered a state of psychic overdrive caused by the imbalance of brain chemistry enabling them to perceive reality on a higher level and describe it accordingly. This cyclic psychic pattern can be seen in the work of Stephen Foster as it appears in his two types of songs. Silly Nonsense Songs and the Melancholy Class dealing with death and separation from loved ones. His mood cycles constantly influenced his approach to creating. While in the manic hyperactive phase of overdrive he turned out exquisitely formed silly nonsense songs and his depressive periods allowed the melancholy pieces dealing with death, destruction and separation from loved ones to take on a heart rending character.
One of his biographers makes an observation that Stephen Foster had a fondness for the works of Edgar Allan Poe who had just died in 1849 at the age of 40. Stephen was 23 years old. The author makes a point that Foster was "temperamentally akin" to Poe. At the time of the printing of his book in 1934, psychiatric research and treatment of the affective disorders were
just beginning. This author was a musician and his perusal of the family letters to which he had access did not contribute to his understanding the severity of the Cyclic Mood Disorder that Foster suffered during his life because he was not trained to look for nor evaluate this evidence. Stephen Foster also read and had in his possession works of Charles Dickens who created novels as the moods came over him. Dickens referred to it as the muse as did Robert Bums. In Foster's record book of expenses he placed an item as a favorite book. "Bleak House" $.60. The biographer observed similarities between these artists, however, he merely referred to the situation, as did Stephen's brother, Morrison, as Stephen's weakness. This disorder as we know it today is a mental dysfunction or suprafunction of the chemical transmitters in the central nervous system about which there is
ongoing research. It is expressed as an imbalance in the neurochemistry of
the brain thus resulting in problems with personal relationships, and
judgment as well as augmenting the person's creative ability. This imbalance in Stephen Foster caused an inability to manage his financial situation; it produced restlessness leading to an inability to stay in one place; and it resulted in poor judgment about who his true friends were during his life. This story of inner turmoil is traced through the songs of Stephen
Collins Foster and is developed in the following pages of this book as well
as during the live concert on stage and in the compact disc 2 volume set.
