Christopher Lynch, "Formulating Foster: Stephen C. Foster and the Creation of a National Musical Myth" (Oxford UP, 2025)

Jan 19, 2026

Christopher Lynch, a musicologist and Head of the Theodore M. Finney Music Library, delves into the legacy of Stephen Foster, America's once-celebrated but often misunderstood composer. He discusses how myths surrounding Foster's life and music evolved, revealing the complexities of his songs and their ambiguous meanings. Lynch tackles the impact of family narratives on Foster's reputation and examines archival gaps, including biases in documenting his legacy. His insights challenge traditional biographies, highlighting the intertwined history of race, music, and American identity.

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INSIGHT

Archive Challenged The Textbook Foster

Christopher Lynch discovered archival materials that contradicted the standard textbook Foster narrative.
He realized Foster's remembered image grew from selective preservation, not a single clear truth.

INSIGHT

Four Songs Created A Circular Myth

Lynch avoids a standard biography because biographies can create circular myths linking life to a few famous works.
He argues Foster's four famous songs produced a self-reinforcing myth that muted contradictory evidence.

INSIGHT

Three Periods Of Foster Reception

Lynch divides Foster reception into three periods: immediate post-death confusion, 1890s revival, and post-1914 myth consolidation.
Each period reflects different social forces like public-domain songs and Civil War reunification.

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Stephen C. Foster (1826–1864) was a prolific song composer. A few of his minstrel tunes have become so enmeshed in American musical culture that they are often thought to be folk songs. Although he died in poverty and most of his music was quickly forgotten, by the early twentieth century he was hailed as the “Father of American Music” and had become a symbol of US democracy. In Formulating Foster: Stephen C. Foster and the Creation of a National Musical Myth (Oxford University Press, 2025), Christopher Lynch examines the reception of Foster and his music between the composer’s death and the 1930s. It is an unusual book—part biography, part sourcebook, part scholarly reflection, part reception history, part myth buster. Lynch divides the book into three sections which each contain anywhere from ten to eighteen primary sources that provide evidence for how Foster’s American reception changed over time. He frames these primary documents with five essays that examine the ever-changing myths around Foster, why those myths developed, and how the collecting practices and biases of Foster devotees and his family members influenced the national memory about the composer and his most famous songs.

Christopher Lynch, PhD, is a musicologist and Head of the Theodore M. Finney Music Library in the University of Pittsburgh Library System, where he helps curate the Stephen Foster Memorial museum and archive. His research examines minstrelsy, popular song, and music theater as sites for contesting American ideals. He is co-editor of Listening Across Borders: Musicology in the Global Classroom and his work has been published in numerous journals.

Kristen M. Turner is a lecturer in the music and honors departments at North Carolina State University. Her research centers on race and class in American popular entertainment at the turn of the twentieth century.

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