148 PART 1 | FROM COLONIZATION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR
As early as the 1820s, songwriters had begun adapting the courtship song
for an American setting, taking separation, not medieval romance, as their
main subject. Male lovers and their ladies might be separated by shyness (the
love might be secret), the social code, physical distance (journeys often sparked
love songs), or death, the ultimate separation. Almost all of these songs have
a male persona and dwell on the pain of separation. Elevated speech, Ital-
ianate melody, and an image of pure, nonphysical love became standard ways
to express a yearning for the beloved. The songs do not show lovers coming
together, touching, freely conversing, or developing an erotic attachment.
Stephen Foster was a leading master of the courtly love song. His fi rst pub-
lished composition, “Open Thy Lattice, Love” (1844), for example, is a serenade,
a song type originating in the Middle Ages. The melody traces a graceful curve in
compound meter, and the rhythm, as in some Italian arias, invites the singer to
take a fl exible tempo. The accompaniment suggests the strumming of a guitar.
In the text, the man camps at the woman’s window while she stays protected
inside. And that tension feeds the singer’s romantic fantasy. He pictures a night-
time seaside scene with the two lovers sailing off into the sunrise, the stars keep-
ing vigil just for her.
One of Foster’s classic songs of courtship, “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”
(LG 6.3), deals with permanent separation. In the text, which Foster himself
wrote, Jeanie has either gone away for good or died; her admirer is left with only
memories of the look, the grace, and the sound of Jeanie to sustain him. The
lover goes on to recall Jeanie’s smile, but he reports nothing that she ever said
or thought. Jeanie trips through meadows singing, dancing, and plaiting fl owers,
apparently all but oblivious to her suitor’s presence.
But Foster’s music makes this fl imsy scenario work. The fi rst section (lines 1
and 2 of the text) is strong enough to bear plenty of repetition. And Foster takes
advantage of it, using a well-worn principle of musical form: statement, restate-
ment, contrast, and return, or aaba form. The tune begins high in the singer’s
range, with “I dream” capturing in one stroke the sense of fantasy
that the song portrays. The accompaniment’s repeated chords
act as a rhythmic foil for the vocal line, which, after emphasiz-
ing “dream,” pushes ahead in quicker notes, then falls into phase
with the accompaniment on “light brown hair.” Foster’s next ges-
ture neatly matches music and words: the upward leap on “vapor”
encourages the singer to try for a lighter-than-air sound while
reinforcing the dreaming mode of the fi rst line.
The song’s first four bars show a grace that Foster at his best
could command. By starting measure 3 on the downbeat, Fos-
ter gives “borne” the emphasis due the song’s first active verb—
an emphasis he supports with the first chord change since the
voice entered. That chord begins a harmonic progression that
moves away from the tonic, just as the summer air carries the
dream of Jeanie. And the phrase-ending melodic cadence (“on
the summer air”) is sung to harmonies that change on every
beat. Thus, in just four bars of singing, Foster has taken a
familiar premise—a suitor dreaming of his absent lover—and
set it to music so memorable that listeners are eager to learn
what will happen next.K Cover art such as
the winsome portrait on
Stephen Foster’s “Jeanie
with the Light Brown Hair”
(1851) was rare before the
1830s, but by midcentury
it was a regular feature of
sheet music.LG 6.3172028_06_132-161_r3_ko.indd 148 23/01/13 8:19 PM