Susanna, Jeanie, and the Old Folks at Home: The Songs of Stephen C. Foster from His Time to Ours

William Austin was for many years a professor of American music history at Cornell University. He was an inspiration to many young musicians who took his classes -- I read somewhere that Steve Reich was one of them. Reich was at the time an undergraduate jazz drummer with no formal training in composition, but he wanted to be a composer. He went to Austin and asked for advice. Austin told him, basically, hey, do what you're doing. No one else can do it as well. It was good advice, and Reich apparently took it. Anyway, this book is not some treacly biography of tragic Stephen Foster, who wrote "Jeanie" and "Camptown Races" and whatnot and then died tragically young, blah blah. It is a rather studious volume that investigates how American society and culture USED Foster's music, perceived it, refigured it, long after Foster had left the building. As such, it's fascinating. I used it in my own studies of African American appropriations of Foster's appropriations of African American musical styles. If that makes any sense. (If it doesn't, maybe you need to read Austin's book.) Basically it tells us a lot about Americans' view of themselves, of the South, of myth, and of real history. If you enjoy that sort of thing (i.e., truth dancing its awkward dance with beauty, sentiment, and fantasy amongst Americans great and otherwise), you'll enjoy this.