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And he also wrote some very beautiful songs. "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair", as done by Bjoerling on an RCA recital LP is absolutely stunning. Steve Smolian -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 11:38 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster Memorial Museum 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 > > > >