One of the very few 78 sets I have transcribed to CD just so I can enjoy it in my car is the Stephen Foster album by Nathenial Shilkret, (not likely to ever be released on commercial CD). Not only does it contain well thoughtout arrangements of Foster songs, ("My old Kentucky Home" and "Old Black Joe", are very delightfully involved production numbers), but the engineering of the set is remarkable for its day. I have a couple of copies of the set in very fine condition and processed my best copy through CEDAR so there's little if any surface noise.
db
On Monday, April 27, 2015 11:38 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi David:
This is the politically "correct" thought police at work. It's a cancer on American society, created
and nurtured in academia. It's disgusting to me, because it's dishonest and anti-truth. It's
straight out of George Orwell, as are most far-left academic notions. Totally agree about Stephen
Foster. He was a major part of American musical and cultural history, whether his lyrics "offend"
people whose default stance is moral "outrage" or not.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "DAVID BURNHAM" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster Memorial Museum
>I think one of the sadest developments in American musical history is the ostracizing of Stephen
>Foster's music because he is described as being "racist". Stephen Foster wrote prolifically about a
>period in history which was cruel to African Americans, (although, of course, he never used that
>expression), but he always described them as honest, God fearing, family oriented, loving people.
>Sure, some of his songs containg the "N" word, but he lived in a time when that word wasn't used as
>offensively as it is today.
> Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan was a very morally upright person who would not knowingly offend
> anyone, but he used the "N" word twice in "Mikado", (which is occasionally described as offensive
> to the Japanese).
> "Showboat" is often described as racist. When it was to be shown in Toronto to open a new concert
> venue over 20 years ago, there were huge outcries from protesters who obviously didn't understand
> the work at all. "Showboat" was a curageous statement AGAINST racism at a time when racist
> sentiments were quite acceptable, (late '20s). The very first word in "Showboat" is the "N" word,
> (I'm not spelling it out because I don't want to offend anybody and if there is automatic
> monitoring of ARSC posts, the presence of the word would cause the post to be rejected), and that
> word is used throughout "Showboat", but anyone who knows "Showboat" knows it's anything but
> racist. Paul Robeson was a very outspoken critic of anything racist and would not participate in
> anything which was offensive to anyone, yet he was proud to appear in "Showboat" and "Old Man
> River" almost became his theme song.
> db
>
>
> On Monday, April 27, 2015 10:56 AM, "Williams, Tim" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> Though not as big or eccentric as the Bayernhof Museum, Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster Memorial
> Museum is much more accessible and quick to tour:
>
>
> http://www.pitt.edu/~amerimus/Museum.htm
>
>
> It's on Forbes Avenue (lots of buses go from Downtown up Forbes) in Oakland, at the foot of the
> University of Pittburgh's gigantic Cathedral of Learning and across the street from the Carnegie
> Museums and Library and the Dippy the Dinosaur statue.
>
>
>
> See lots of you folks a month from now!
>
> Tim
>
>
> Timothy R. Williams
>
> Librarian
>
> Music, Film & Audio Department
>
> Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
>
>
>
> Check out this list of Pittsburgh jazz musicians:
>
> http://carnegielibrary.org/research/music/pittsburgh/pittsburghjazzmusicians.html
>
>
>
>
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