Tag Archives: Old Black Joe

Old Black Joe by Stephen C. Foster

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Old Black Joe is a vocal tune accompanied by piano, which was composed by Stephen C. Foster in 1860. It speaks of an individual by the name of an Old Black Joe and in this tune it touches upon racial topics. This includes mentioning cotton fields, being away from friends. Friends not coming with Joe to where he is now, and the grief of that notion. This became a tune that many of older generations know and when I looked up a recording on Youtube the responses were mixed. Some remembered it as a good old tune that brought them back to older times. Others discussed how it was racist and the channel that it was posted on would actually respond to some of these comments. The cover of the sheet music also depicts that of “Old Black Joe’’. 

The music of the time was much different than today. With that in mind, hearing it now is very odd. Stephen C. Foster was a white man and when doing a simple google search he is labeled The Father Of American Music. The thing is that he was a parlor  and minstrel music performer in the 1800s. Minstrel performance was done by both white individuals and black individuals  as learned in class. Black performers performing minstrel works eventually led to them being able to be themselves in other works and lead to characters being played by black performers becoming a possibility. With all of this combined with Stephen C. Foster being a white minstrel performer. Should this be one of the famous tunes that lives on. When actual black musicians also were making music, those musical works were not performed. I think that this is also tied into the Rhapsody in blue issue of topics, ideas, and musical ideas being taken from these black artists and having white musicians using them. While also truly not embodying the authentic nature of these groups. How is it that this tune was kept alive while others were not. What must we do know to not have that continued trend to occur and create lasting change. That fixes the issues of our past. 

Foster , S. c. (2020). Old black Joe : song with variations. Temple university Libraries . https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p15037coll1/id/6252

https://youtu.be/WYjMlw7uTkc?si=Y_kU7h8FfyE_tptt

 

Are There “Unreal” Slave Songs?

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According to the music review in The Scranton tribune, 1899, with the growing of market of black slave songs and spiritual songs, some composers (non-black) started to produce these kinds of black music. However, the critique pointed out that many of these “new productions” were obvious “fake”, by failing to use “correct” words for pop black culture. Among these new productions, the song “Old Black Joe” was one of the few successful examples that true to African American’s life.

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“Old Black Joe” is a song composed by by Stephen Forster (1826–1864) and it was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1860. Foster wrote it as a synthesis of his ideals for stage and parlour ballads. The lyrics for the song was from first person recount, describing sadness of losing friends “in the cotton fields”, without any use of Black slangs or tones. The oldest version of notated music of “Old Black Joe” that held in Library of Congress showed a solo male voice line (marked as Joe) with chorus of SATB. Audiences can hear “call and response” in the music in a specific Jubilee Singer’s performing style.

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Recording: http://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox.1814/#rights-and-access

However, the “real negro music”, described by the writer of Modern Negro Songs, should be in chorus setting rather than solo and should be sung by men rather than women. As the writer said, “It seems absurd for a female to sing the song of a Negro man, for it is well known that in every age of the Negro song the Negro has prided himself on his bass.” However, evidence from members of The Jubilee Singers and recordings of early work songs can prove he wrong.

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Women sang a work Song:

http://youtu.be/DwKS4PDaEi0

Bibliography:

Evening times-Republican. (Marshalltown, Iowa), 08 Feb. 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85049554/1919-02-08/ed-1/seq-8/>

The Scranton tribune. (Scranton, Pa.), 16 Jan. 1899. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026355/1899-01-16/ed-1/seq-5/>

Deane L. Root. “Foster, Stephen C..” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/10040>.