Songs Of Bygone Days

Track Listings

1. I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard

2. Take Back Your Gold

3. She May Have Seen Better Days

4. Just Tell Them That You Saw Me

5. In the Baggage Coach Ahead

6. Piano Sextet: Movement 1

7. Piano Sextet: Movement 2

8. Piano Sextet: Movement 3

9. Piano Sextet: Movement 4

Tracks:

Opening Solo Violin
Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair
Hard Times Come Again No More
The Voice Of Bygone Days
Foster Favorites Medley (Ring, Ring The Banjo (1851) Oh! Susanna (1848) Camptown Races (1850)
Open Thy Lattice, Love (1844)
Beautiful Dreamer (1864)
That's What's The Matter
Old Home Medley (Old Folks at Home (1851) My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night (1853)
Molly! Do You Love Me? (1850)
Sweetly She Sleeps, My Alice Fair (1851)
Comrades, Fill No Glass For Me (1855)
Dancing On The River (Nelly Bly (1850) The Glendy Burk (1860) Angelina Baker (1850)
My Wife Is A Most Knowing Woman (1863)
Gentle Annie (1856)
Linger In Blissful Repose (1858)
Ah! May The Red Rose Live Alway (1850)

Customer Reviews:

It's Dreamy.......2007-01-10

This is a very wonderful recording of Stephen Foster by a master singer.
Foster's songs are of a more innocent and naive time in the American psyche, a time that it would not hurt us to remember, given the wretched brutality of American culture today (something you'll appreciate after listening to this recording).

The songs are beautifully sung by Mr. Hamspon, and the musical accompaniment with piano, mandolin, tuba, banjo, etc. seems a perfect setting for this period music. I enjoyed the musical interludes of Foster songs (not sung by Mr. Hampson), such as "Oh, Suzanna", "My Old Kentucky Home", and "Camptown Races." They are foot-stompin' and finger-snappin' good in a non-syncopated way.

Mr. Hampson's voice is so beautiful, and he has done such a wonderful job with these song's you'll just have to hear it, and when you do, tell me that you're not dreaming.

I remember reading a quote by John Phillip Sousa that decried the use of syncopation in American popular music. I never understood it until listening to this recording. The richness and intensity of American popular music (as experienced in the work of Stephen Foster) has been lost.
Everything has to be so cool today, thanks to syncopation, and "cool" really means no emotion.

If emotion is what you want, emotion is what you'll get with Stephen Foster's songs. It was a time when the death of loved ones (especially those who died in their youth) was experienced more often (see "I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" and "Gentle Annie"). And we were not protected from the vicissitudes of fate by myriad government programs, modern medicine and universal prosperity (see "Hard Times").
Husbands and wives had their differences then, as today, (see the amusing song "My Wife is a Most Knowin' Woman") The passion of the Civil War (Foster was a Unionist),is reflected in a wonderful, fun song, "That's What's the Matter."

If you love good music, and you have heart which can be stirred, and you love your country, this is for you.

I love this recording. It has opened up the door to my "beautiful dreams," dreams of bygone days, lost love, and whatever else we pine for.

I wanted to buy several copies for my friends, but somehow I felt that the impact of this recording was so personal, that it could not be shared with others. Not that they couldn't enjoy it, but that I could not begin to share the intense emotion and reverie stirred in my heart by these beautiful songs.

My Favorite Composer of all time.......2006-08-20

Growing up playing his stuff on piano, I love the instrumentality of this CD..the violins give off that wail that he speaks of..I am not sure what it is about Stephen Foster but these verses..grab me like no other..there is so much sensitivity to it..

I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair
Born like a vapor on the summer air
I see her tripping where the bright streams play
Happy as the daisies that dance on her way
Many were the wild notes her merry voice would pour

but the violins in this CD make this CD the best out there..
FYI should you be into astrology Stephen Foster is definition of Cancer...Sun and Moon conjunct in Cancer with mars in Scorpio..i love his lyrics..almost to the point of obsession..

An American classic from Hampson that brings smiles and tears.......2006-07-17

Stephen Foster was the greatest American composer of sentimental parlor ballads--he so perfectly imitated folk songs that his music wound up turning into them. In an age of home music-making and later of families sitting around the radio, Foster's songs were a staple, often performed by crossover artists from opera like Lawrence Tibbett. Those were plump, ripe styles of singing, highly flavored by church hymns.

In this 1992 collection of 17 Foster favorites, plus a few rareties, Hampson drops the platform manner and goes straight for heartfelt sincerity. His tone is plain yet sweet, his expression intimate. He is accompanied by instruments redolent of the Victorian drawing room (guitar, fiddle, upright piano), and the mood they create brings tears and smiles of remembrance. This music is embedded in America's genes, and it's wonderful to realize that every note is still alive and throbbing with feeling.

OMG!!! More than 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 stars, one of the best album in the world!!!.......2005-11-25

Simply one word, WOW!!!
Thomas Hampson's voice is simply fantasic. His voice is very different from regular operatic baritone voice, very sweet, and rich. I really cant believe an operatic baritone can sing folk song like THIS good, in my opinion he sounds even better than his opera works in this album. His voice and the background music matches perfectly, the outcome would move u to tears, and u can feel the origin of MUSIC. This album really shows what the word MUSIC means, and the songs simply just ALL beautiful. I like his "beautiful dreamer", "my life is well knowing woman", and "jeanie with the light brown hair" the most. When I listen the songs I would just imagine that I am in the world of past USA, and I can feel the life of the ppl in the past USA~ just like watching an old classic movie, it would touch ur heart and fall in love with this album.

It's simply lovely.......2004-12-14

I didn't know Stephen Foster (I thought): wrong: Oh Susanna, etc, I knew, but had no idea who the composer was.

This CD is a revelation. The melodies are so beautiful, as are the poems, and Thomas Hampson just brings them to life as wonderfully as ever. I especially love "Beautiful Dreamer" - it gives me butterflies - and "My wife is a most knowing woman" - the way he makes the voices and the indignation is just brilliant. If one needed reminding what a brilliant singer Mr Hampson is - this disk does it.

Average customer rating:

Beware! These are NOT the well-known tunes...

Songs Of Bygone Days

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000049MA
Release Date: 1995-08-10

Tracks:

I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard
Take Back Your Gold
She May Have Seen Better Days
Just Tell Them That You Saw Me
In the Baggage Coach Ahead
Piano Sextet: Movement 1
Piano Sextet: Movement 2
Piano Sextet: Movement 3
Piano Sextet: Movement 4

Customer Reviews:

Beware! These are NOT the well-known tunes..........2004-11-24

Probably no one associated with this album set out to cheat or deceive anyone, but these are NOT the well-known 19th century popular tunes that their names suggest. A current composer has written new versions of these songs based on the original lyrics. Why? Beats me. He explains in the liner notes, "The idea of composing new music to popular song lyrics nearly one hundred years old intrigued me..." I guess it's an art project of some sort.

I can't even blame Amazon for the confusion, since there is absolutely nothing visible on the outside of the packaging that would indicate that these are not the original songs. You have to open up the CD package and read the booklet before this fact is revealed.

I've given this two stars since the people who made the album seem to have been sincere. But if you are looking for recordings of these old standards, the post-modern, oddly dissonant, quasi-classical melodies presented here will only puzzle you.

They could at least have said something on the front or back of the package to indicate that these are not the original tunes.

In Bygone Days; Songs Of The Boston School

Average customer rating:

In Bygone Days; Songs Of The Boston School

Manufacturer: Premier Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Danse Macabre Remixes

Lotte Lehmann with Kiepura/Tauber

Marquee Moon [Import] [Original recording remastered]

Black Sheep/Hammer

Death Party [Import]

Innervision [Import]

Gypsy [Cast Recording]

Sentimentale

If It Shines, We Have It

Handel: Water Music; Suite from "Il Pastor Fido"

Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 2

Lo Quiero a Morir

La Academia 2, Vol. 1

Chicago's Young Blues Generation

The Phat Pack

1. I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard
2. Take Back Your Gold
3. She May Have Seen Better Days
4. Just Tell Them That You Saw Me
5. In the Baggage Coach Ahead
6. Piano Sextet: Movement 1
7. Piano Sextet: Movement 2
8. Piano Sextet: Movement 3
9. Piano Sextet: Movement 4