Product Description
Oh! Susanna
Camptown Races
Gentle Annie
If You've Only Got A Mustache
This collection is assembled on the occasion of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2015 International Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Stephen Foster. The “Bridge to Harmony” theme reflects both the host city’s pride in its bridges (nearly as many as Venice, Italy!) and a concerted effort by the Barbershop Harmony Society to extend its musical collaborations across many styles, organizations, and fellow travelers.
Working with the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh, the principal repository for materials pertaining to Foster, this collection reflects but a small portion of the work of America’s first full-time commercial songwriter. Stephen Collins Foster (b. July 4, 1826; d. January 13, 1864) penned a prodigious body of work that reflects the American themes of home, transportation, war, plantation, and slave life.
In many ways, Foster is a joiner, not a divider. Foster’s music evolves past the era’s pervasive cultural stereotypes into songs that humanize his African-American characters by eschewing offensive dialect in his songs, and portraying his protagonists as loving husbands and wives, as people longing for home, family, and happiness.
Truly, Foster’s music represented a bridge to harmony in a time when that was difficult to find. The Stephen Foster Songbook attempts, in its small way, to reclaim traditional American music as a means of uniting people in song. Its simple, singable melodies, rich in implied, natural harmonies, beckons us all to make music together -- whether silly novelties like If You’ve Only Got A Mustache or sing-along favorites like Oh! Susanna.
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