| The most
popular songs during the Civil War Lyrics provided
by Fraser and Midi by Benjumin Tubb. Thanks!
Aura Lea
"Aura Lea' (1861) was published in Cincinnati as a song
for the minstrel stage. George Poulton, who came with his family to New York from England
at the age of seven, was a composer, violinist, pianist, singer and conductor. He
dedicated this composition to Campbell of Hooley and Campbell's Minstrels. The poetry by
William Fosdick would prove to be less successful than the modern lyrics for the tune -
Elvis Presley and Vera Matson's 1956 version was one of the best sellers of all time with
the lyrics known as "Love Me Tender."
[View and Listen]
Beautiful Dreamer
"Beautiful Dreamer" is among Foster's most
memorable sentimental ballads. It was written in 1862, just two years before Foster's
death. It comes the closest to the classical song tradition of any of Foster's popular
ballads and appears to represent the culmination of an effort to develop a unique style
distinct from earlier influences.
[View and Listen]
Camptown Races
"Camptown Races" depicts the typical community
that sprang up around horse races on the outskirts of frontier cities in Foster's day.
Laborers and transients lived in shanties and tents - a camptown. Foster may have visited
such places around Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
[View and Listen]
Gentle Annie
"Gentle Annie" was among the favorite songs of
Stephen Foster and his family and was fondly remembered in a letter from Stephen's brother
Henry to his sister Ann shortly after Stephen's death. Stephen Foster's grand nephew,
Richard K. Foster, recently recounted how the song captured the hearts of the Foster
family "when Uncle Stephen wrote the songs shortly after the loss of a dear family
friend-Annie." It was also among Abraham Lincoln's favorite sentimental songs.
[View and Listen]
Hard Times, Come Again No More
"Hard Times Come Again No More" was based upon a
spiritual that Stephen Foster heard as a child. Stephen Foster's brother, Morrison,
described in detail the origins of this song in his biography of Stephen:
When Stephen was a child, my father had a mulatto bound girl
named Olivia Pise, the illegitimate daughter of a West Indian Frenchman, who taught
dancing to the upper circles of Pittsburgh society early in the [nineteenth] century.
"Lieve," as she was called, was a devout Christian and a member of a church of
shouting colored people. The little boy was fond of their singing and boisterous
devotions. She was permitted to often take Stephen to church with her…A number of
strains heard there, and which, he said to me, were too good to be lost, have been
preserved by him, short scraps of which were incorporated in two of his songs, "Hard
Times Come Again No More," and "Oh, Boys, Carry Me Long." (Morrison Foster,
MY BROTHER STEPHEN, Indianapolis, privately published, 1932, pp 49-50)
[View and Listen]
Home, Sweet Home
"Home Sweet Home" was likely the most popular
song of the nineteenth century around the world. It was written as part of the operetta
"Clari" in 1823 in a collaboration between Henry R. Bishop of England and John
H. Payne of the United States. During the Civil War this was a nostalgic favorite of the
soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Civil War accounts document an occasion when the
opposing armies were encamped along opposite banks of the Potomac River and singing
martial songs, patriotic songs, and sentimental songs. One of the armies took up the
refrain of "Home, Sweet Home" and suddenly the melody rose from both sides of
the Potomac-the two armies sharing a common emotion.
[View and Listen]
Kathleen, Mavourneen
Another ballad that Abe heard as a child was the Irish song,
"Kathleen Mavourneen." It remained widely popular throughout the 19th century
and was generally recognized as one of Lincoln's favorites.
[View and
Listen]
Massa's in De Cold Ground
"Massa's in de Cold Ground" was one of Foster's
most popular songs during his lifetime. Foster earned over $900 on the song within five
years of its publication; since Foster received only a two-cent royalty on each copy, this
means total sales in five years of 45,000 printed copies! Foster wrote this song at the
time of his father's death. Stephen Foster may have been writing about workmen's reaction
to his father's death or just adapting the actual circumstances to a plantation story.
Needless to say, the emotions that Foster felt at the passing of his father are evident in
this moving song.
[View
and Listen]
My Old Kentucky Home
"My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" is probably the
most famous of Stephen Foster's songs because of its annual playing before a standing
audience at the Kentucky Derby each May. It is the state song of Kentucky. The home
described in song may be Federal Hill, the Bardstown, Kentucky former summer home of Judge
John Rowan, cousin of Stephen's mother and the first Senator of Kentucky.
[View and
Listen]
Oh! Susanna
"Oh! Susanna" was one of the earliest hits of the
Christy Minstrels, one of the many minstrel groups that dominated the performing stage of
nineteenth century America. Minstrel songs have proven to be among the most popular of all
American songs. What made the minstrel groups and their songs unique was their innovative
blend of Afro-American and European melodic and rhythmic influences. The musical
instrumentation of minstrel performances featured the violin, the concertina or accordion,
and the early banjo (minstrel banjo), which had quickly evolved from an African instrument
made with a gourd into the quintessential American instrument. While the fashion of whites
dressing up as blacks and performing a style of songs heard around southern plantations is
frowned upon today, it did result in the popularization of many famous American folk songs
such as "Turkey in the Straw," "Pop Goes the Weasel," and "Oh!
Susanna."
Actually "Oh! Susanna" was first performed at
Andrew's Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh. Stephen Foster apparently wrote the song
for informal use by a men's social group of which he and his brother Morrison were
members. Whatever the early forum, the song was adopted by America's frontier people,
especially the gold-hungry 49er's. Although this is one of Stephen Foster's most popular
songs, Foster is remembered for many other songs, some of which are state songs-such as
the state song of Kentucky, "My Old Kentucky Home." Stephen Foster is the only
musician in the world for whom there is a national holiday, Stephen Foster Memorial Day,
on January 13, as enacted by Congress in 1951.
[View and Listen]
Old Folks at Home
"Old Folks at Home" has been state song of Florida,
thanks to its reference to the Suwannee River. Actually, the original draft of the song
used the name, Pedee River. Both names were apparently picked from an atlas with the help
of Stephen Foster's brother, Morrison. The fame of "Old Folks" was rapid and
widespread. It quickly became popular throughout the United States and Europe. The song
has proven irresistible for later composers, who have written adaptations or variations on
the theme; for example, Antonin Dvorak and George Gershwin.
[View and Listen]
Wait for the Wagon
"Wait for the Wagon" was a great campfire
favorite of both Union and Confederate troops during the Civil War. The song is believed
to have been composed by R. Bishop Buckley in the 1840's. An early edition of the song
presented it "as sung by Buckley's Minstrels." The song was reworked many times
during the 1850's and the 1860's with various political lyrics, including those presented
here to describe the sentiments of the North and the South during the Civil War.
[View and Listen] |
