"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" by Stephen Foster

For this weeks listening blog, I chose to listen to Stephen Foster's "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". As I listened to the song, I was surprised that I heard only a melody on the piano/guitar and vocals without a solid beat. It was surprising in comparison to the past songs we had heard. The other songs had a lot of bass and rhythm involved, but this song doesn't have drums or pounding bass, it just has melody and light instrumental back track. The emotions I would think this song would envoke is love and peace. This is achieved with the poetic and loving lyrics, as well as in the pretty and light flute and guitar (or in other versions it's just the piano). The chord progression is also very positive and resolves pretty quick. This piece fits a lot into the genre of music I like. It reminds me of a lot of the singer/song-writer stuff that I listen to and like to write. It also contains just vocals and a few instruments and that falls into the kind of music I enjoy listening to. My favorite part in the song is the difference in the third line of the song. I like that it breaks away from the other lines and the chord progression pulls you away and then resolves back into the song, that's at least the best way I can describe it.
Here's also a cover of the sheet music I found online!



Comments

  1. Kassidy BoltonJanuary 22, 2021 at 3:12 PM

    Hi Natalie! I also chose "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" for my blog post. I agree that this song evokes love and peace! I felt very calm while listening to this song, and it's so beautifully sung. I love how you compared the contrast from the 3rd verse to the others and how the chord progression changes. Good Job!

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