The music of celebrated composer Stephen Foster--whose two hundred songs include 'Camptown Races' and 'My Old Kentucky Home' as well as 'Susanna, ' 'Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, ' and 'The Old Folks at Home'--has influenced such famous composers and popular singers as Antonin Dvorak, Charles Ives, George Gershwin, Pete Seeger, and Ray Charles. Now, more than one hundred years after they were written, these songs are still popular. William Austin shows how generations of Americans have kept them alive, weaving them into the changing fabric of American life.

Amadeus . . . Yankee Doodle Dandy . . . Swanee River . . . Rhapsody in Blue. Even before movies had sound, filmmakers dramatized the lives of composers. Movie biographies—or biopics—have depicted composers as diverse as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George M. Cohan, Stephen Foster, and George Gershwin. In this enticing book, the first devoted entirely to such films, John C. Tibbetts surveys different styles and periods from the Hollywood of the 1920s and 1930s to the international cinema of today, exploring the role that film biographies play in our understanding of history and culture. Tibbetts delves into such questions as: How historically accurate are composer biopics? How and why have inaccuracies and distortions been perpetrated? What strategies have been used to represent visually the creative process? The book examines the films in several contexts and considers their role in commodifying and popularizing music. Extensive archival research, dozens of illustrations, and numerous interviews make this an appealing book for film and music enthusiasts at all levels.

In the first biography of Foster in more than sixty years, Ken Emerson makes the man as well as his music come alive.

W. C. Handy's blues—“Memphis Blues," "Beale Street Blues," "St. Louis Blues"—changed America's music forever. In Father of the Blues, Handy presents his own story: a vivid picture of American life now vanished. W. C. Handy (1873–1958) was a sensitive child who loved nature and music; but not until he had won a reputation did his father, a preacher of stern Calvinist faith, forgive him for following the "devilish" calling of black music and theater. Here Handy tells of this and other struggles: the lot of a black musician with entertainment groups in the turn-of-the-century South; his days in minstrel shows, and then in his own band; how he made his first 100 from "Memphis Blues"; how his orchestra came to grief with the First World War; his successful career in New York as publisher and song writer; his association with the literati of the Harlem Renaissance.Handy's remarkable tale—pervaded with his unique personality and humor—reveals not only the career of the man who brought the blues to the world's attention, but the whole scope of American music, from the days of the old popular songs of the South, through ragtime to the great era of jazz.

This first complete critical edition of the works of Stephen Foster (1826-1864) includes reproductions of not only Foster's songs, but also his children's hymns, piano pieces, and instrumental music--the full range of his compositional activity. The compositions appear in the order Foster wrote them. A critical report by the editors accompanies every piece, and introductory chapters discuss the composer's place in American cultural history, the sources for the edition, performing the music, and musical style. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

This is the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins—now the basis of a major motion picture starring Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep! She was a woman with a dream. Nobody believed in her talent. But nothing could stop her. . . She had no pitch, no rhythm, and no tone. Still, Florence Foster Jenkins (Streep) became one of America’s best-known sopranos. Born in 1868, Florence was a talented young pianist whose wealthy father refused to let her continue her musical studies in Europe. In retaliation, Florence eloped with Dr. Frank Jenkins, a man twice her age, and moved to New York. But when her father died and left her a large sum of money, Florence finally had a chance to pursue her one true passion: Singing. But first she would have to learn how to become a great singer. Years of lessons and a chance meeting with St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), who would become her manager and common-law husband, would help launch Florence’s career and entry into New York’s prestigious classical musical societies, culminating in her giving a recital, at the age of seventy-six, at Carnegie Hall. This is story of a woman who was not afraid to recreate herself into the person she wished to become—and achieve her own version of the American Dream.

This first complete critical edition of the works of Stephen Foster (1826-1864) includes reproductions of not only Foster's songs, but also his children's hymns, piano pieces, and instrumental music--the full range of his compositional activity. The compositions appear in the order Foster wrote them. A critical report by the editors accompanies every piece, and introductory chapters discuss the composer's place in American cultural history, the sources for the edition, performing the music, and musical style. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.