Oh Stephen, who was that Susanna a dedication to whom made you the first fully professional songwriter in America? It is common to think that the name actually referred to Stephen’s sister Charlotte – “Susannah” being her middle name. But there is no accurate version. Who cares anyway – for what we have as a result is a unique song that embodies a few cultures at once and is one of the most popular American songs EVER written, since 1848 when it was first published.
“Oh! Susanna” is a minstrel song that incorporates American, European and African cultures all at once. The lyrics and music itself were influenced by such cultural elements as African banjo, European polka and US ‘Afro-Americans’ culture' – that’s one of the few song where the author openly uses the word ‘nigger’. Although the lyrics are somewhat ‘nonsense’ as some say, the wordplay actually makes a truly vivid picture. The popularity of Susanna is reflected in the numerous recordings, for example those by The Singing Dogs, James Taylor, Neil Young. Here is one more lovely arrangement of the song for a mixed-level cello quartet (all the score explanations in the description attached). The fun fact about the song itself is that all in all it was copyrighted and published 21 times! Everyone longed the fame of the author of this unique work. And it would be totally worth it – even most popular songs sold no more than 5000 copies while “Oh! Susanna” sold more than 100.000! Though Stephen himself earned a relatively small sum for his creation at the very beginning.
