Biography: Francis Scott Key and Stephan Collins Foster

Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key was born on August 1, 1780. He also died on January 11, 1843. His father was Revolutionary officer, John Ross Key. Key went to St John’s college and studied law in his uncle Philip Barton Key’s office. He began practicing law in Fredrick City, Maryland, but shortly after moved to Washington where he was the dristrict attorney for the District of Columbia. In the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by Colonel John Stuart Skinner, he boared apon the HMS Tonnant to request that the British release prisoners, including Dr. William Beanes. The British did not like this request and held the two men in captive during the bombarding of American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814. When it was all over and the smoke cleared, Francis Scott Key was still able to see the American Flag standing and he told his fellow prisoners held capative on the boat with him. He was so inspired by this moment that he wrote a poem about the experience named, “The Defence of Fort McHenry” which he later published in the Partriot on Septemeber 10, 1814. He worte it with the intentions to put it on top of the sythms of composer John Staffords Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven”. This song is now known as “The Star Spangled Banner” and was made the national anthem in 1916.

"Francis Scott Key -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 09 Dec. 2009. .

Francis Scott Key. Web. 08 Dec. 2009. <http://www.francisscottkey.org/>.

Stephan Collins Foster

Stephan Collins Foster was born July 4, 1826 and died January 13, 1864. He is best knows as the "father of American music.” Stephan Collins Foster was also considered the pre-eminent songwritter in the United States of America during the 19th century. He is well known for his songs that remain popular today like “Oh! Susanna”, “Camptown Races”, “Old Folks at Home” , “Hard Times Come Again No More”, “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Old Black Joe”, and “Beautiful Dreamer”. He was born and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Jeffseron College for a brief time, where his grandfather was once a trustee. It is not know whether he left so abruptly willingly or was forced to leave. Foster lived in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1846 where he became a bookkepper and wrote his first song, “Oh! Sussana.” It became the anthem of the California Gold Rush between 1848 and 1849. In 1854 he wrote, “ Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair,” for his wife Jane Denny McDowell. Many of Stephan Collins Foster’s songs had a Southern theme although he never actually lived in the South and only visited it but once. Some consdier him to be innovative for trying to make a living as a professional songwritter due to the fact that his feild had not yet developed.

"Stephen Foster -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 09 Dec. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster>.

My County 'Tis Of Thee - Samuel Francis Smith

I thought this video was cool because it shows a direct connection between the information I'm find about 19th century music and today. This is video is of Aretha Franklin singing "America", also know as, "My County 'Tis of Thee" at the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. It just goes to show that even though the music I'm learning about is old, it is still relevant and popular today.

Bibliography: Samuel Francis Smith & John Pond Ordway

Samuel Francis Smith

Samuel Francis Smith was born on October 21,1808 in Boston, Massachusetts and died in 1895. His education included five years at the Boston Latin school between 1820 and 1825 and then in 1829 he graduated from Harvard. He received a Doctorate of D. D. from Waterville College in 1854. In 1832 he attended the Andover theological seminary. Smith was also ordained to the ministry of the Baptist church at Waterville, Maine, in 1834. After being ordained he occupied pastorates at Waterville and Newton, Massachusetts between 1834 and 1842. Samuel Francis Smith was also the professor of modern languages from 1842 to 1854 at Waterville college, which is now Colby University. He produced many literary works, mostly hymnologies. His most famous hymn was, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” He wrote the hymn as a theological student studying abroad in Germany in the year 1832. Dr. Smith’s inspiration for the song was the school children in Germany who began easch day by reciting a hymn. He wrote the song with the idea for American childen to do the same thing. The tune of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was taken from the British anthem “God Save the King” he heard playing while composing the lyrics. The sung was sung for the first time on July 4, 1832 at a children’s celebration in the Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

John Pond Ordway

An other American musican in the nineteeth century is John Pond Ordway. He is most well know for composing the song Twinkling Stars Are Laughing, Love. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts on August 1,1824 and died in April 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts. Not only was he a composer, but he was also a doctor, a music entrepreneur, and a politician. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1859 and he was ont of the first ever surgeons to volunteer at the beginning of the Civil War. Ordway severed in the sixth Regiment, which was called the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. John Pond Ordway was one of the few union surgeons sent to help heal the wounded after the Battle of Gettysburg. He also owned his own music shop in Boston. His most well known song Twinkling Stars Are Laughing, Love was recorded by the Hayden Quartet between 1902 and 1904. Around 1845 he organized Ordway’s Aeolians, a blackface minstrel troup which performed at Ordway Hall in Boston moreover nationally to promote Ordway's publishing business. Future bandleader and composer, Patrick Gimore, worked in Ordway's store and appeared with the Aeolians. James Lord Pierpont’s first major composition "The Returned Californian" in 1852 was written expressly for Ordway and his troupe. A number of nineteenth century songs were written for the Aeolians and/or dedicated to Ordway, including Jingle Bells.

Worked Cited:

"Songwriters Hall of Fame - Samuel Francis Smith Exhibit Home." Songwriters Hall of Fame - Virtual Museum Home. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. <http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C200>.

"John P. Ordway -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Ordway>.

websites:

http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/acknowledgements/C200

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Ordway

Online Data Base Search- 19th Century Music

Hanudel. "Baermann Mendelssohn: Concert Pieces." American Record Guide Sept.-Oct. 2009: 62. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Kilpatrick. "Young Composers in Tribute to Chopin." American Record Guide Mar.-Apr. 2009: 221+. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Poesio, Giannandrea. "Captivating oddity." Spectator 24 Jan. 2009: 52. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Parsons. "Dudley Buck." American Record Guide Jan.-Feb. 2009: 251+. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Hartman, Gary. "Music of the Alamo: From 19th Century Ballads to Big-Screen Soundtracks." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 113.2 (2009): 253-254. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Weber, William. "Sounds of the Metropolis: The 19th Century Popular Music Revolution in London." The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.1 (2009): 83-85. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Robson, David. "Heart tissue replacement a beat closer." New Scientist 200.2681 (2008): 26. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Taylor, Benedict. "Musical history and self-consciousness in Mendelssohn's octet, op.20." 19th Century Music 32.2 (2008): 131+. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Blocl, Adrienne Fried. "Matinee mania, or the regendering of nineteenth-ventury audiences in New York city." 19th Century Music 31.3 (2008): 193+. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Fisk, Charles. "Nineteenth-Century music? The case of Rachmaninov." 19th Century Music 31.3 (2008)

Spitzer, John. "The entrepreneur-conductors and their orchestras." Nineteenth-Century Music Review 5.1 (2008): 3-24. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

Skrobonja, Ante, and Amir Muzur. "Dr. Franjo (Franz) Kresnik (1869--1943): a physician and a violin maker." Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 119.3-4 (2007): 132+. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

eBook Search- 19th Century Music

Affron, Mirella J. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: St. James, 2000.

Cook, David A. History of American Cinema. Vol. 9. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2000.

Blackbirch Kid's Visual Reference of the United States. San Diego: Blackbirch, 2003.

Foster, Douglas A. Churches of Christ. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2005.

Griffin, Robert H. Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Holidays. Vol. 3. Detroit: UXL, 2000.

Hiltebeitel, Alf. Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.

Lehman, Jeffrey. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2000.

Stanley, Deborah A. Billy Budd, Sailor: An Inside Narrative. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale, 2000.