1851 edition
Music by Stephen Foster Lyrics by Stephen Foster Published 1851 Language English Form Strophic with chorus "Old Folks at Home" (also known as "Swanee River", "Swanee Ribber" [from the original lyrics] or "Suwannee River") is a minstrel song written by Stephen Foster in 1851. It is the official state song of Florida.
Composition
Written for performance by the New York blackface troupe Christy's Minstrels, the song has E. P. Christy, the troupe's leader, appearing as its creator on early printings of the sheet music. Christy had paid Foster to be credited, something Foster himself had suggested though later regretted.
"Old Folks at Home"
Menu 0:00 Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1918) Problems playing this file? See media help. Foster had composed most of the lyrics but was trying to give a name to the river of the opening line and asked his brother to suggest one. The first suggestion was "Yazoo" (in Mississippi), which despite fitting the melody perfectly, Foster rejected. The second suggestion was "Pee Dee" (in South Carolina), to which Foster said, "Oh pshaw! I won't have that." His brother then consulted an atlas and called out "Suwannee!" Foster said "That's it exactly!" He wrote it in immediately (misspelling it "Swanee" to fit the melody). Foster himself never saw the Suwannee or even visited Florida, but the popularity of the song initiated tourism to Florida to see the river and since 1935 it has been the official state song of Florida, although in 2008 the original lyrics were expurgated. Dvorak's Humoresque Number 7, written in the 1890's, is musically similar and is sometimes played along with "Old Folks at Home". The Library of Congress's National Jukebox presents a version with soprano Alma Gluck and violinist Efrem Zimbalist.
Controversy
Written in the first person from the perspective of a black slave (at a time when slavery was legal in half of the states of the US), the song has its narrator "longing for de old plantation," which has long drawn criticism as romanticizing slavery, although Foster himself supported the North during the American Civil War and supported abolition of slavery. A word now long reckoned an ethnic slur, "darkies", that is used in the lyrics has become such an embarrassment for singers and audiences alike that, for example, the word "brothers" was sung in place of the offensive word at the dedication of the new Florida capitol building in 1978 and, in general, at public performances another word like "lordy," "mama," "darling," "brothers" or "dear ones" is typically substituted. The text is written, as is usual in minstrel songs, in a cross between the dialect generally spoken by African slaves and standard American English — the former being attested to as in use as late as the 1940s in the works of the black Floridian folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, and is an archaic form of contemporary African American Vernacular English — and this is seen by some as racism against black Americans. In practice, the pronunciation as written in dialect has long been disregarded and the corresponding standard American English usage has been sung, as witnessed by the song's performances at the 1955 Florida Folk Festival.
State Song of Florida
As the official state song of Florida, "Old Folks at Home" has traditionally been sung as part of a Florida governor's inauguration ceremony. However, over time, the lyrics were progressively altered to be less offensive; as Diane Roberts observed: Florida got enlightened in 1978; we substituted "brothers" for "darkies." There were subsequent revisions. At Jeb Bush's second inauguration as governor in 2003, a young black woman gave a moving, nondialect rendition of "Old Folks at Home," except "still longing for the old plantation" came out "still longing for my old connection." Perhaps someone confused Stephen Foster's lyrics with a cell phone commercial. In his 2007 inauguration ceremony, Charlie Crist decided to not include the state song, but rather to use in its place, "The Florida Song," a composition written by a black Floridian jazz musician, Charles Atkins. Crist then encouraged state Senator Tony Hill, who was the leader of the legislature's Black Caucus, to find a new song. Hill joined forces with state Representative Ed Homan and the Florida Music Educators Association to sponsor a contest for a new state song; on January 11, 2008, the song "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)" was selected as the winner. The Florida legislature considered the issue and ultimately adopted it as the state anthem while retaining "Old Folks at Home" as the state song, replacing its original lyrics with a bowdlerized version approved by scholars at the Stephen Foster Memorial at the University of Pittsburgh. Governor Crist stated that he was not pleased by the "two songs" decision, but signed the bill, creating a new state anthem and establishing the reworded version of the State Song by state statute, rather than by resolution, like the 1935 decision.
Lyrics
"Old Folks at Home", by Stephen Foster, 1851
Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home.
Chorus
All de world am sad and dreary, Eb-rywhere I roam;
Oh, darkeys, how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home!
2nd verse
All round de little farm I wandered When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder Happy was I;
Oh, take me to my kind old mudder!
Dere let me live and die.
3rd Verse
One little hut among de bushes,
One dat I love Still sadly to my memory rushes,
No matter where I rove.
When will I see de bees a-humming All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home?
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