The song “The Rosary,” by Ethelbert Nevin, was published in 1898. 

“There’s a Good Time Coming” was copyrighted on October 9, 1846, by Peters & Field of Cincinnati. The text was by poet Charles McKay. Foster was not the only one to set this poem to music. Henry Russell wrote a version prior to Foster that Foster was most likely familiar with and the Hutchinson Family also wrote a version that came out after Foster’s.

The first score linked below was used for the Foster Hall Reproduction.

This piece originally had a text by Charles H. Pace and Benjamin F. Smith, but Pace later removed the text to turn it into a piece for solo piano. The negative photographs reveal how Pace cropped out the lyrics of the original and made new printing plates of just the piano music.