The great Stephen Collins Foster still remains
the supreme composer of
American music. Few men's work survives their
generation, yet Stephen
Foster's genius is universal and eternal, not
just related to the Civil War era.
In his music he has penetrated the surface of
a people's gaiety, and shared
with them the sorrow beneath. No one knows how
many of these beautiful
ballads Foster wrote. 175 of them have been collected.
Some of my own
personal favorites have been created by me for
Melody Lane in instrumental
MP3 files for singing along, and I find myself
returning to these song pages
again and again, as a bee thirsts insatiably for
nectar to make honey.
Enjoy these beautiful songs! ~ Jill ~ Melody Lane
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Stephen
Foster Medley of Songs From Gone With The Wind
Medley Includes The Old Folks At Home, I Dream
Of Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair,
In My Old Kentucky Home, and Beautiful Dreamer.
These were featured at intermission
during the original release of the classic Hollywood
film Gone With The Wind
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Katy
Bell
(1863)
Utterly charming, delicious, fun, romantic song
for male voice,
with a very catchy melody
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Wilt
Thou Be Gone Love?
(1851)
An exquisitely beautiful duet for male - female
voices
With lyrics taken from Shakespeare
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Sweetly
She Sings, My Alice Fair
(1851)
Words by Charles G. Eastman
A great solo for the baritone voice; such a pretty
melody!
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Ah!
May The Red Rose Live Alway
(1850)
So many songs written about red roses!!
This one is my absolute favorite, the melody is
sublimely beautiful.
"Dedicated to Miss Mary M. Dallas", she must have
been a very special woman.
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Summer
Longings
(1849)
Soprano solo ballad, one can actually feel
the pain of the person singing the lyrics as they
long for
winter's end, and for the glories of summer to
begin.
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Where
Is Thy Spirit, Mary?
(1847)
Beautiful ballad for medium male (tenor) voice
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TWO SONGS ABOUT CHILDREN
Beautiful
Child Of Song
(1860)
This lovely song has a more modern feeling to it,
I think,
than some of Stephen's other ballads. The subject
is the
praise of the charms of young people's voices
lifted in song.
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Slumber,
My Darling
"A Favorite Lullaby"
(1862)
Beautiful melody on this enchanting lullaby.
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Mary
Loves The Flowers
(1850)
Another beautiful Stephen Foster song, with eloquent
lyrics
that conjur up images of a world that has disappeared.
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Gentle
Annie
(1856)
Lovely, bittersweet ballad as only Mr. Foster could
write
I love the way the pre-Civil war song writers
wrote about women;
pre-feminist movement women were elevated onto
pedestals like this;
it was so nice! :)
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Why
No One To Love?
(1862)
Stephen Foster composed this tune as an answer-song
to a mournful ballad
written by Ellen Clementine and M.H. Frank, entitled
"No One to Love."
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If
You've Only Got A Moustache
(1862 Comic Song)
Lyric written by George Cooper
Music written by Stephen Foster
I confess I giggled hysterically while creating
this song page;
It's just a very funny song. My kids love
this one.
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Nothing
But A Plain Old Soldier
(1863)
Lyrics and Music by Stephen Foster
Written during the Civil War, when the outcome
was uncertain,
this fantastic song for the male voice tells the
story of a Revolutionary War
soldier who looks at the current military campaigns
for both North and South
and finds them sadly lacking compared to the great
battles he took part in.
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Oh
Susanna
(1848) - A Timeless, Funny Classic
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