Music
See also: List of songs written by Stephen FosterFoster is acknowledged as "father of American music." He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and he was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.
"My Old Kentucky Home" is the official state song of Kentucky, adopted by the General Assembly on March 19, 1928. "Old Folks at Home" is the official state song of Florida, designated in 1935, but has been replaced as state anthem by Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)
American baritone Nelson Eddy recorded 35 Foster songs over three recording sessions in July, August and September 1947 on Columbia records, in 78 format, 2 songs per record. Columbia Records issued these recordings in 1948, "Nelson Eddy in Songs of Stephen Foster (Volume 1: A-745 and Volume 2: A-795)." In 2005 Jasmine Records compiled all 35 Foster songs in one CD, "Nelson Eddy Sings The Stephen Foster Songbook" JASCD 421. "In these performances, arranger/conducter Robert Armbruster made every attempt to frame Nelson Eddy's voice with a simple, yet colorful, orchestral and choral background - the norm of Stephen Foster's time." (Liner notes by Robert Nickora July 2005).
American classical composer Charles Ives freely quoted a wide variety of Foster's songs in many of his own works.
Poet and producer Jimmy Spice Curry remade the Stephen Foster classic Beautiful Dreamer.
Douglas Jimerson, a tenor from Baltimore who has released CDs of music from the Civil War era, released Stephen Foster's America in 1998. Just before his death in 2004, singer-songwriter Randy Vanwarmer completed an entire album of Stephen Foster songs. It was released posthumously as Sings Stephen Foster.
Eighteen of Foster's compositions were recorded and released on the Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster collection. Among the artists who are featured on the album are John Prine, Ron Sexsmith, Alison Krauss, Yo Yo Ma, Roger McGuinn, Mavis Staples, and Suzy Bogguss. The album won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2005.
Singer/songwriter Syd Straw covered "Hard Times Come Again No More" on her 1989 album "Surprise." The same song (as "Hard Times") appears on Bob Dylan's 1992 album Good as I Been to You.
Performer/Educator Jonathan Guyot Smith, who taught a college course devoted exclusively to the study of Foster's music, recorded a cd of Foster songs, performed in the style of a 19th Century parlor performance, rather than in the manner of a formal concert. "Stephen Foster Melodies and Serenades for the American Parlor" was released in 2012, and contains several seldom-heard Foster songs.
A Squirrel Nut Zippers song titled "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" features references to his most famous works, including Camptown Races.
Read more about this topic: Stephen Foster, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Orpheus with his lute made trees
And the mountain tops that freeze
Bow themselves when he did sing.
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung, as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Good music is very close to primitive language.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)