AMERICAN POPULAR SONG- STEPHAN FOSTER - WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

American Popular Song-Stephan Foster - Where It All Began:  Stephan Foster has been properly identified as the Father of American Music. Born in 1826 and died in 1864, Foster wrote  lovely ballads with striking melodic characteristics ( Beautiful Dreamer, My Old Kentucky Home ,Old Folks at Home and Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair. He also wrote songs in a  style that Alec Wilder has described as " A peculiarly native quality borrowed from Negro music and his unique sensitivity and ability to transmute it into the forms and requirements of white popular song." Songs like " Oh Susannah, De Camptown Races, and Old Black Joe, are still sung 150 years later.

I am focusing on the ballads which have such a natural melodic charm, sometimes described as" pure" melodies, or also as " A singing line", a feature of  songs included  in The Great American Songbook tradition.
In particular, I have a very personal reason for talking about " I Dream of Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair."  My father, a fine singer and guitarist was born in Austria and brought with him to Canada, a fondness for Shubert lieder , songs that demonstrated Shubert's supreme mastery of elegant melodies. Once in Canada, he learned some of Foster's ballads and was particularly fond of " I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair." For my father, making the transition from Shubert to Stephan Foster was effortless because of the supreme melodic styles of both composers.( As an aside, Stephan Sondheim who knows more about American Popular song traditions than anyone alive describes Jerome Kern as the American Shubert because of his own ability to create fine melodies like " Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and " Look For the Silver Lining.")

Both the music and lyrics for" I Dream of Jeannie"  were created by Stephan Foster.  I am somewhat emotionally overcome remembering the then strong, clear tenor voice of my father as he sang his favorite Foster song as I accompanied him on old Heintzmann upright piano purchased for $50 dollars in 1943.
I offer two versions , one instrumental: violinist Isaac Stern with orchestra that lets you hear the flowing melodic contour of the song without lyrics.

LINK  STERN:
http://youtu.be/qiFWsNVw-sY

The second is by Kate Smith, a beloved American singer and a personal favorite of Irving Berlin.

LINK  SMITH:
Smith Link: http://youtu.be/emI-Gu6aI5w