Stephen Collins Foster, known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer", and many of his compositions remain popular today.
Foster circa 1860
Foster's parents, Eliza Tomlinson Foster and William Barclay Foster
House in Hoboken, New Jersey where Foster is believed to have written "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" in 1854
A Pittsburgh Press illustration of the original headstone on Stephen Foster's grave
Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a result of a steady increase in the number of households with enough resources to purchase musical instruments and instruction in music, and with the leisure time and cultural motivation to engage in recreational music-making. Its popularity faded in the 20th century as the phonograph record and radio replaced sheet music as the most common means for the spread of popular music.
Front cover of "Just Awearyin' for You" (1901), a widely selling parlor song. The lyrics were by Frank Lebby Stanton. Composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond thought they were anonymous but later provided royalties to Stanton. The song typifies the sentimentality of the Victorian and post-Victorian era.
Ah May the Red Rose Live Alway