biography
| name: |
Foster, Stephen (Collins)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1826–64)
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| biography:
| Composer and lyricist, born in Lawrenceville (now part of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, USA. By the time he was eight he was teaching himself piano and flute. He learned African-American spirituals from Olivia Pise, a household slave, and at age nine put on minstrel shows for family and friends. After only a week in college, he quit to devote himself to music, and published his first song in 1844. He wrote some of his first songs for a men's club that met at his home (1845), including ‘Oh, Susanna’, (1848) later popularized by blackface minstrel shows and pioneers heading West during the gold rush of 1849. Back in Pittsburgh (1848), after having abandoned a book-keeping job his father wanted him to take, he signed a contract with a prominent New York publishing house and within a year began living on royalties (although, due to his poor business sense, he would never profit much). The well-known blackface troupe, the Christy Minstrels, began performing such songs as ‘Camptown Races’ (1850) and ‘Old Folks at Home’ (also called ‘Swanee River’) (1851), one of the most popular songs ever published (although it was 1879 before he was acknowledged on the sheet music). He also wrote such non-minstrel songs as ‘Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair’ (1854), dedicated to his wife, even though she had little liking for his heavy drinking and bohemian ways. Songs such as ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ (1853) and ‘Old Black Joe’ (1860) brought him further popularity and some financial reward, but during the Civil War his popularity waned, despite his steady output of sentimental and war songs. In 1860 he moved his family to New York City and was soon reduced to writing imitative songs. When he began drinking heavily, his wife and daughter returned to Pittsburgh and he died alone and in squalor in 1864. |
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