Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster was born in 1826. He was the first American composer to be regarded as a professional songwriter in the United States of America. The songs written by him are among the most popular songs that were ever written.

Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. He studied with Lawrenceville's best and most famous music teacher, Henry Kleber. Foster’s talent developed pretty early. His first famous piece was composed before he became a professional songwriter. That piece was called “Oh! Susanna.” Later in Foster’s life many of his early songs became very popular.

From 1850 to 1860, a lot of Foster’s best songs were composed, including “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”, “Old Folks at Home”, and “Old Black Joe”.

Although Foster wrote many popular and well-known music pieces, he did not earn a lot of money from his work.

From 1861 Foster lived in New York City by himself, and then he died after he got a serious fever.

Most of Foster's songs are lyrics and consist of simple melodies and harmonies. Lyrics are short poems that relieve people’s strained feelings and thought. Foster’s lyrics are usually about tragic things of life. Together Stephen Foster wrote 285 songs, a few hymns, and many other works.

Many of his songs still remain popular today. At the University of Pittsburgh, there is a Stephen Foster Memorial that has a huge collection of some of Foster's first songs and other things that are related to his life and his great effect on American music and world music. By Andy Chen

By Andy Chen
Canada