Swanee River (1939)

Andrea Leeds: Jane McDowell Foster

Photos 

Quotes 

• Stephen Foster : [he whistles a version of Oh! Susanna]  That ending isn't right yet.

  Jane McDowell Foster : You know, I think the Negroes would finish it like this

  [she whistles the tune] 

  Stephen Foster : Why, that's right! How did you know?

  Jane McDowell Foster : You forget, I was brought up on Negro music.

  Stephen Foster : I wish I'd been. As I boy in Pittsburgh, I heard just enough of it to want to hear more. I'd a colored nurse you know. Sometimes, she'd take me down to their little church by the river, I heard "Sweet Chariot", "Roll Jordan", all the rest.

  Jane McDowell Foster : There's nothing like them, is there?

  Stephen Foster : No. They have something all their own. It's... well, it's music from the heart. From the heart of a simple people. That's why it moves you like it does. And by jingo, it's the only real American contribution to music. I wonder...

  Jane McDowell Foster : Wonder what?

  Stephen Foster : Why no one's taken the trouble to write it down; to develop the material and compose original music in the same mood.

  Jane McDowell Foster : Well, why don't you, Stephen?

  Stephen Foster : Why don't I? Well, why don't I?

  Jane McDowell Foster : You can, I'm sure. You have a wonderful feeling for it.

  Stephen Foster : If I do, it'll be your fault. You'll have to take the blame for it. Because you'll be the music. You'll be all the songs I'll ever write. Without you, I don't think I could write them. I think they'd just, well they'd just die.

  Jane McDowell Foster : Then we mustn't let them die.