• Name: Stephen Foster
• Birthday: 07/04/1826
• Birth Place: Lawrenceville, PA
• Died: 01/13/1864
• Place of Death: NY
• Period: Romantic
• Genre: Classical

Title	Release
(18) Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway for voice & piano (or orchestra)	1991
(4) Anadolia
(2) Beautiful Child of Song for voice & piano	2008
(74) Beautiful Dreamer, for voice & piano	2008
Better Times Are Coming for voice & piano	1976
(2) Byerly's Waltz	1996
Bygone Days	1991
(37) Camptown Races, for voice & piano W
(3) Camptown Races; Merry Little Birds Are We; While the Bowl Goes Round; Some Folks	1943
(19) Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming for vocal quartet
(2) Come with Thy Sweet voice again W	1994
(2) Comrades Fill My Glass No More for voice & piano WA	1992
Dancing on the River Medley for ensemble WA	1992
(2) Dolcy Jones, for voice & piano	1958
Don't Bet Your Money on the Shanghai	1995
Down among the Canebrakes WA	1995
(3) Ellen Bayne for voice & piano
(3) Eulalie for voice & piano WA	1994
Farewell! Mother Dear I Go	1998
(2) For the Dear Old Flag I Die
Gem from Lucia No. 1, for voice & piano (after Donizetti)
Gems from Lucia, Nos. 2 & 3, for voice & piano (after Donizetti)
(31) Gentle Annie, song for voice & piano or guitar
(3) Gentle Lena Clare WA	1995
Good Times Medley
Great Baby Show for voice & piano
Great Baby Show-or-the Abolition Show; the White House Chair; Little Mac! Little Mac!
(21) Hard Times Come Again No More for voice & piano	2008
(2) I'll Be a Soldier for voice & piano
(5) I'm Nothing But a Plain Old Soldier	1972
(15) If You've Only Got a Moustache, for voice & piano	2008
(2) Introduction - Opening Solo Violin WA	1992
(102) Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, for voice & piano	2008
(6) Jennie's Own Schottische, song	1986
(2) Jenny June for voice & piano
(3) Katy Bell for voice & piano	1976
(5) Laura Lee WA	1995
(4) Linger in Blissful Repose for voice & piano	1976
(2) Little Ella for voice & piano
Little Liza Jane
(2) Little Mac! Little Mac! You're the Very Man for voice & piano
(2) Lula is gone, song for voice & piano WA	2001
(5) Maggie by My Side	1996
(2) Majvise. Se det summer (May Song. It is buzzing), for voice & piano	1938
(6) Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground WA
Melinda May
Merry Little Birds Are We for voice & piano
(2) Molly Do You Love Me? for voice & piano WA	1992
(4) Mr. and Mrs. Brown for voices & piano	1972
(6) My Old Kentucky Home medley	1958

Stephen Foster stands as the first great American composer of popular songs. It is often difficult to classify his style, as it contains folk , popular, and classical elements, yet remains a product of none of these entirely. My Old Kentucky Home, Oh! Susanna, Old Folks at Home, and many of his other songs have become so popular and familiar they are often viewed as folk music. Foster's instrumental music, which included Santa Anna's Retreat from Buena Vista (1848) and The Social Orchestra (1854), was far less successful. He also wrote hymns and Sunday school songs for children. Foster was probably the first American composer who attempted to support himself by writing songs. In this endeavor he failed, earning $15,000 over his 11-year career and turning increasingly to alcohol. One cannot help but notice the similarities between his tragically short life and that of his near contemporary in American literature, Edgar Allan Poe.

Foster was born on July 4, 1826, a fateful independence day -- the fiftieth -- that some will say cursed him, since this was the very same day on which Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. Foster was the youngest of nine surviving children -- ten, actually, since a son fathered by Foster's father also lived with the family. Young Stephen's education was varied, coming from both tutors and private schools. It is generally believed that he received instruction in music from Henry Kleber, a German-born musician who was a merchant, impresario, composer, and performer, and also a prominent figure on the Pittsburgh cultural scene.

While in his teens, Foster formed a club with his brother Morrison and a friend, whose activities included singing. It is thought that Oh! Susanna may have been composed for this group. Foster published his first song, Open Thy Lattice Love, when he was just 18.

Two years later, he took a bookkeeping position with his brother Dunning's Cincinnati-based steamship business. Shortly afterward, he sold Oh! Susanna to a Cincinnati publisher for a mere $100. After its appearance, over twenty other editions were issued by other publishers, yielding not a dime to Foster owing to the lack of strong copyright laws. In about 1849 he signed a contract with the Firth, Pond, & Co. publishing house of New York, preparing a career in songwriting.

In 1850 Foster left his brother's employ and married Jane Denny MacDowell. Ironically, his only exposure to the deep South would come in 1852 with a belated honeymoon excursion by steamship to New Orleans.

In 1854, Foster, his wife, and daughter Marion (b. 1852) settled in Pittsburgh, where the composer struggled to support them on his scant royalties. He may have developed ties to the growing abolitionist movement now, owing to his relationship with boyhood friend, Charles Shiras, an abolitionist with whom he collaborated to write a song around this time. When his parents died in 1855, Foster sank into a deep depression from which he never fully recovered.

Foster and his family lived in boarding houses for a time, since their finances were continually scarce. The composer's addiction to alcohol and their mediocre living conditions contributed to the deterioration of the marriage. Foster and his family traveled to New York in 1860, but his wife returned to Pittsburgh with Marion a year later. The composer stayed on in New York and continued to drink heavily. Sick with a fever in January 1864, he fell and struck his head on a wash basin, and died three days later. ~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide