Morton Gould made his reputation as a composer who incorporated American into his music. One of his most important early premieres was Leopold Stokowski's conducting of his Chorale and fugue in Jazz in 1934, when Gould was twenty-one. He continued in this vein with three works called American Symphonettes. These pieces used original material with the feeling of American pop and jazz. Here, though, Gould began his frequent use of pre-existing popular music, orchestrating a number of songs by Stephen Collins Foster, who is credited by some writers as having invented American popular music.

Most often Gould's piece is played in the form of a sixteen minute, six-movement suite. The Foster songs set for orchestra are "Camptown Races," "Old Black Joe," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair," and "Oh, Susannah." There is also a movement called "Village Festival," and another movement is in the form of variations on "Comrades Fill No Glass for Me," and "Kitty Blue."

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