The Hour for Thee and Me

Somebody’s Coming to See me Tonight

music by Stephen Foster (1826-1864)

The Hour for Thee and Me

Beautiful Dreamer

Gentle Annie

Soirée Polka

Somebody’s Coming to See me Tonight

Linger in Blissful Repose

Wilt thou be gone, Love?

Katy Bell

Come Where my Love Lies Dreaming

If Stephen Foster had not existed America would have had to invent him - although it would surely have avoided having him born on such an obvious date as 4 July 1826, the 50th anniversary of American independence and the day that Thomas Jefferson died. A hero-figure for that other great original of American music, Charles Ives, he enjoyed more life-time success as a composer than Ives did, but not that much: he somehow lost the rights to much of what he had written and when he died, drinking heavily and separated from his wife, he was virtually penniless. It was only after his death that the most successful of his love songs, Beautiful Dreamer, was published and it was only fifty or sixty years ago that Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair became a popular hit.

Although the future of much American popular music is to be found in Foster’s songs, and though some of them - like Old Folks at Home and My Old Kentucky Home - have achieved the status of national monuments, it is nevertheless legitimate to suggest that his musical idiom derives to a large extent from the Anglo-Irish tradition. While he was listening to and learning from the music of black Americans he was also absorbing Thomas Moore’s book of Irish melodies. It was the combination of these influences, and several others, that made him unique.