Stephen Collins Foster: A Biography or America's Folk-Song Composer (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Stephen Collins Foster: A Biography or America's Folk-Song Composer The record Of scientific and material progress in America has been fairly well established, but in the fine arts we are just beginning to find ourselves, and it is important that the story of our beginnings along these lines should be gathered together and preserved. Stephen Foster occupies a unique position in the history of music, not only Of this country, but of the world. NO other single individual produced so many of those songs which are called folk-songs, by which is meant songs that so perfectly express the mood and spirit of the people that they become a part of the life of all the folk and speak as the voice, not of an indi vidual, but Of all. SO completely do the folk absorb these songs and adapt them to their own uses, that the individuality and frequently even the name of the originator is completely lost, thus giving rise to the erroneous idea that a folk-song is a song created not by an individual but by a community. It is obvious that all things must have a beginning, however Obscure, and every folk-song is first born in the heart and brain Of some one person, whose spirit is so finely attuned to the voice Of that inward struggle which is the history of the soul of man, that when he seeks for his own self °expression, he at the same time gives a voice to that vast mute multitude who die and give no sign. Such a one was Stephen Foster, more fortunate in his fate than that glorious company of nameless poet-souls, whose aspiration after the fair face of Beauty, haunting all the world, is preserved in the folk-songs of the world. Surely his name is worthy Of at least one volume upon the shelf of history! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.