Camptown Races
Stephen Foster song (1850) created specifically for use on the minstrel stage for solo voice and singing group in response and on chorus.
Videos
Sweetly She Sleeps, My Alice Fair
Stephen Foster parlor song (1851) performed by Leslie Gunn, baritone and Gilbert Kalish, piano.
Music In the Air – George F. Root
This recording of Root’s 1857 song is by the Renaissance Voices, directed by Harold Stover. This song displays the “gentile” feel of early parlor songs, influenced more by hymnody than by minstrel songs.
My Grandfather’s Clock
The most popular song by Henry Clay Work, this 1876 parlor song is heard here in an 1905 Edison Quartet cylinder recording.
All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight
Though Henry Clay Work was a contemporary of Foster, composing this Civil War parlor song in 1863, his songs never had the lasting impact of Foster, the “Father of American Popular Music”.
Home, Sweet Home
This 1823 parlor song by Henry Rowley Bishop is reflective in both the melody and piano accompaniment to some of the more simpler lieder songs of German composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828).
A Life On the Ocean Wave
Early popular song by English composer/American transplant Henry Russell (1838). Though his songwriting career in America only lasted three years, Russell made a small fortune (over $10,000) before returning to England.
Woodman! Spare That Tree!
Perhaps the first example (1837) of a 19th century parlor song. This written by English composer/American transplant Henry Russell. Though this predated Stephen Foster’s first efforts by twenty years, it lacked the melodic genius and lyric creativity of Foster.
Crowded Table – The Highwomen
Performing in quarantine for “The Tonight Show”, these four solo artists work together as “The Highwomen”.
