stephen Foster and Time; dear friends and gentle hearts/draft 1

Stephen Foster and time; dear friends and gentle hearts/draft 1

fiction
edward w Pritchard

Reader please listen to the song as you read the story, lyrics below for reference

No song captures times past like  "Beautiful Dreamer " by Stephen Foster, but in addition to capturing past times, the song "Beautiful Dreamer" captures the ephemeral essence of time itself. Stephen Foster's melody and lyric seem anciently familiar but modern and timeless in the love song " Beautiful Dreamer".

Few songs accommodate the subtlety of  the quiet serenity of accompaniment offered by the piano as hauntingly and effectively as the song " Beautiful Dreamer". Even the non-musician can discern the subtle intimacy between the performers voice and the intricacy of the timing of the notes played on a piano during a rendition  of " Beautiful Dreamer". The melody is repetitive but peaceful; is the sleeping lover deep in dreams or dead?

Stephen Foster uses the Moon, the stars and the Sea in the lyrics of "Beautiful Dreamer" to set the tone for the love song. One's lover is deep asleep, daily life is hard, but the lover must awaken from sleep and dreams to experience love and the release from life's daily throng by hearing the Lover's serenade. The sleeper is the Queen which is serenaded in Foster's song written in 1862; the Queen' s serenade sounds like music from the still and distant past, the music of our ancient relatives, yet the music sounds modern as well and could certainly be re-released today and be popular.

But what of the song " Beautiful Dreamer" enables the song to capture the ephemeral essence of time itself? Maybe it's the unusual 9/8 timing. Difficult to understand intellectually but the ear likes it, the music of dreams, or perhaps death.

Is Stephen Foster's Queen he serenades himself; a part of himself he is trying to awaken? When Foster wrote the song" Beautiful Dreamer" he was two years or less from his untimely death at 37, broke, having sold his songs for pittance and his wife and daughter had left him again. Foster calls to the Queen of his past to put together his life anew; Beautiful dreamer awake onto me. Too late however, his past has overtaken him and now haunts him nightly in his dreams.  Life is leaving Stephen Foster behind as it does us all in the end, we become the ghost that the people of the future intuit late at night or when they are tired.

Stephen Foster calls to us from the past; greeting us as dear friends. In answer surrender to Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer" and hear the soft voice and gentle heart serenade us as we struggle in pain with the cares of life's ephemeral sorrows. When will all sorrow depart?

Lyrics/ all copyrights expired

Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster 1862

1.
Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world, heard in the day,
Lull'd by the moonlight have all pass'd away!
Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life's busy throng,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

2.
Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chanting the wild lorelei;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.
Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E'en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!