Foster, S :: Stephen Foster Suite

Musicians Publications presents 'Stephen Foster Suite' for flute and piano; Bill Holcombe's arrangements of classic American songs by Stephen Foster.

Arrangements include 'Camptown Races', 'Jeanie, with the Light Brown Hair', 'Oh Susana', 'Beautiful Dreamer', and 'Swanee River'. This collection comes with a CD enclosed containing performances of this suite along with other Holcombe arrangements!

'A melodic genius with tender, sympathetic lyrics and infectious rhythm, Stephen Foster is often credited as 'America's First Composer' and widely regarded as one of the first who made professional songwriting profitable. Fosters' songs were the first genuinely American in theme, characterizing love of home, American temperament, river life and work, politics, battlefields, slavery and plantation life.

A self-taught musician, his poems and melodies were written in a simple manner with little musical embellishment or complexity. His work mirrored a kind, modest and sympathetic personality. In a sentimental style inspired by the simplicity of southern plantation music, Foster wrote such songs as 'Old Folks At Home', 'My Old Kentucky Home', 'Oh! Susana' and 'Old Black Joe'. These songs, and many others from the Foster catalog, brought recognition and validity to Negro songs.'

- Songwriters Hall of Fame

Contents

• Camptown Races
• Jeanie, with the Light Brown Hair
• Oh Susanna
• Beautiful Dreamer
• Swanee River