MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 77

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

A. GREAT SONG-WRITER'S LIFE TRAGEDY. It not infrequently happens that the life of the writers of popular songs involves a tragedy. Such was the case qf Stephen Collins Foster, probably the most gifted composer of popular songs. Hi# genkts' in this direction — for it certainly amounted to genius — is now being recogniped 'by serious writers on music, and the mar whose body barely was saved from burial in the Potter's Field is now spoken of as occupying "a unique position among American composevfc." Most familiar of all his songs is, of course, his "Old folks at home," but .among the others are "My old Kentucky home," "Old dog Tray," "Massa's in de cold, cold ground," ''Nelly Bly," "Nelly was a lady," "Willis, we have missed you," "Old Uncle Ned," "Old Black Joe," "0, boys, carry me 'long," and "Come where my love lie- 5 ! dreaming." Little has been written of Foster personally, and even that little is scattered. His father, a prosperous merchant (according to the New York Herald), came from Virginia to the neighbourhood of Pitteburg and bought a tract of land, which he laid out and intended to call Fosterville. But instead he named it Lawrenceville after Captain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake. It is now part of PittsOurg. Stephen's mother was Elizabeth Clay land Tomlinson, of Maryland, a woman of culture and of poetic temperament. His love for her was akin to idolatry. r Stephen Foster was born at Lawrenceviilc on July 4, 1826. He has beeu described as "a sweet, gentle, lovable boy." ' Hid father played the violin, but in music the | izA was wholly self-taught. In 1352 his first ecng, "Open thy lattice, 'ove." was pjib'ished. It is the only one of hh numerous songs to which the words are not his own. Dining the jears 1845 and 1846 a group > of young men met at hi* iiause to study I

with him, and for these meetings he composed several eongs. A min6trel troupe chanced to hear his "0 Susannah," sang it, and made an immediate hit with it. From that time most of his songs were composed with a view to being first sung from the minstrel stage. They had the effect of considerably raising the standard of minstrel performances and giving to them a distinctive character. At least onoe Foster endeavoured to become a business man, for he was bookkeepei for his brother in Cincinnati. But he coon devoted himself wholly to writing and composing songs. Twice he removed from Pittsburg to New York, and at tinges he walked the streets almost like a tramp. He would write a song in the morning, sell it literally "for a song" at noon, and by night have the proceeds spent. He still kept up a correspondence with his wife, and on one occasion when he opened a letter from her containing a picture cf their little girl he burst into tears in th<: street. In January, 1C64-, he was ill with fever at a choap hotel. On the night of January 10, while standing near the washstand in his room, he was overcome by weakness, fell, #nd in'his fall severed an "artery on c broken* pices of china. Being tco weak: to rise or call loudly, he lay long -without assistance. At last he was discovered, and taken to a hospital, where he died in the common ward on January 13. ~ Unidentified in a city where his music was being siing- and played on every side, where publishers were selling thousands of copies of his songs and growing wealthy from the proceeds, his body was- sent to the morgue. There it lay until almost the time for it to be consigned to a pauper's grave, when it was claimed by friends and taken to Pittsburg, where he wiis buried beside his parents to the strains of ''Old folks at home" and "Come where my love lies dreaming." It is only ju«t to state that one of Foster's! direct descendants denies all weaknesses of"' character that have been imputed to him. MUSIC-HALL SOXGS. —How They Are Turned Out: What The; Bring. — A story which illustrates the occasional failure of even the best judges to '-spot* a successful music-hall 6ong beforehand can bo cited from the annals of musical comedy. In a- work of this character that was highly popular in its day— not so long ago,— and" is still occasionally heard with pleasure, there was a concerted number at which the managers gravely shook their heads. ThC number, they said, would never "take"; it must bs exeked. Otherwise thought tha composer. It was, if anything, his pet number in the whole work. The managers did all they could to have the item deleted", but the composer, fortunately for himself, was strong enough to enforce his will, and^ the number was retained. It turned out to be positively the most popular number in the work, and had nightly to bo repeated again and again. So is it often with songe of music-hall artistes. NeV numbers, which they may in their hearts rate lowly, and to which they may only be giving a sort of half-hearted trial run, have been known to prove insranfc successes. Exactly the opposite fate has often befallen many a successful song transferred to "the halls" from some popular musical' comedy or musical play. A typical case which occurs to the memory was that of a song which made a great hit during th© run of a light musical piece at a Londor 1 theatre gome few years ago. The song in. question was, without doubt, the song of the piece, and brought down the house each evening. Encouraged by the ability of the singer ( and the popularity of the 6ong, the management of one of the leading music balls in the metropolis offeredthe artiste £15 per week to sing it nightly at their establishment. He went, and thfii number proved to be an utter failure. "I hadn't as muc!i applause as would take me off the stage," said the aruste. "You %c, the. change of environment made all the difference." 'Artistes have sometimes paid very small amounts for songs that ultimately proved to be worth thousands of pounds to them. One of the most striking examples of this sort of thing concerns a song of a stronglymarkrd martial character which, on its introduction to the public some years ago, became the rage all over the English> speaking world. It was heard everywhere ; the public bought it in thousands, and to the fortunate owner of the copyright royalties flowed in in a continuous golden, stream. A handsome royalty was even said to have been paid nightly for the right to include it in a musical comedy that was then running merrily at one of the London theatres. And the sum for which the composer parted with his rights in the song ia question is said to have been just £2. Not so readily, however, do authors, or, at all events, the "upper ten" among them, part with their rights nowadays. Frequently, too, a composer has the courage to stand out against what might seem ft tempting offer on the part of a publishing firm. There is a 6tory of a composer, not quite 6o popular at the moment as he subsequently became, who wrote a song fof which a firm of publishers offered him £400. He consulted a friend, and th*t friend's advice was this: "If it's worth £400 to them, it's worth £400 to yoai Stick to it." And etiok to it he did. Thd eong became popular all the Empire overj and he lived to earn more thou«?ands out' of it than the publishers had offered him hundreds. In the more humble walks of the songwriting and instrumental-scoring business the fees paid for work are often incredibly low. Cases have been known in which ths fee paid f or scoring a song for an orchestni of 15 instruments has -been exactly 3s 6dl Very surprising, too, is the rapidity witH which new songs can be turned out under pressure. "Within a few hours," said a' music-hall "star" recently, "I could pn& cure a topical song — words and music — pa} any subject you could mention. Thers would be the words, fcbe melody, and thql pianoforte accompaniments: and a coupUJ of houw more, at the outside, would sufftca fcr the orchestral arrangement and th« copying out of all the band parts." — Tele*