1. MUH 3633 - Music in the United States
6/22/2018
Chapter Six
“The Ethiopian Business” : Minstrelsy and Popular Song through the Civil War
DAY 14 (2 Oct 17)

2. Minstrelsy (defined) Uniquely US popular form
Widespread from 1840s to 1880s (& beyond)
Origins in NYC (& elsewhere)
“Variety show” format - song & dance - jokes & comic dialogue/monologues
Blackface (“covers”)

3. George Washington Dixon (1801?-1861)
First (?) important US blackface performer
Working class background (NYC)
Circus act – singer & reciter of poems
“Ethiopian songs”
1829 – “Coal Black Rose” (NYC, Bowery) - Coal Black Rose – YouTube (solo banjo) - Coal Black Rose [364] (274) (vocal)
Political satire & commentary
1834 – “Long Tail Blue” (see following slide) - Long Tail Blue.wmv – YouTube (solo banjo) - Long Tail Blue (banjo w/ voice)

4. Dixon as “Zip Coon”
Music Example: Zip Coon Music Example: The Skillet Lickers-Turkey In The Straw Music Example: Tennessee Mafia Jug Band "Turkey In The Straw"

5. Thomas “Daddy” Rice (1808-1860)
b. NYC (Lower East Side) - the Bowery
Traveling performer by 1827
Mimics black/southern speech - travels Ohio Valley & South
“Jim Crow” – observations of black workers/slaves
1830s - “Jump Jim Crow”
Music Examples - Jump Jim Crow – YouTube - Melvin Wine - Jump Jim Crow

6. Virginia Minstrels 1843 – 1st performances in the Bowery
Dan Emmett (fiddle) and three co-performers
GROUP performance in blackface & costume
Extended “concert” w/ songs, dialect, etc.
“Jimmy Crack Corn” - Jimmy crack Corn played by Brad Sondahl - YouTube
“Old Dan Tucker” - The Skillet Lickers-Old Dan Tucker - Grandpa Jones - Old Dan Tucker – YouTube (start c. 0:30) - Bruce Springsteen - Old Dan Tucker (Live 2006)
“The Boatman Dance” (LG – p ) - "The Boatman Dance" with banjo & fiddle – YouTube - Boatman Dance. – YouTube - De Boatman's Dance (1843, credited to Dan Emmett)

7. “END MEN” “Mr. Tambo” [Dick Pelham] Fiddle (Violin) [Dan Emmett]
Banjo [Billy Whitlock]
“Mr. Bones” [Frank Brower]

8. MUH 3633 - Music in the United States
6/22/2018
Minstrel Instruments
Banjo
Fiddle (violin)
Animal Bones “Mr. Bones” How to Play Bones with Dom Flemons - YouTube
Tambourine “Mr. Tambo”
DAY 14 (2 Oct 17)

9. The Minstrel Show
“Mr. Interlocutor” and the “End Men” - M.C. and jokes - dialect (“stump speech”) [see online resources]
Original Two-Part Structure (1840s) - Northern Black characters - “Plantation” sketch
Later Three-Part Format (1850s & later) - sentimental songs, genteel tradition (“white”) - Olio – “variety show” (music, dance, stories, jokes) - “walk-around” (“Cakewalk”) Exs. (both c. 1900, i.e., recreations after the era passed) - Minstrel Cakewalk Cake Walk Dancing – YouTube - Uncle Tom's Cabin - Group and Solo Cakewalk dance (1903) - YouTube

10. Stephen Foster (1826-1864) b. Pittsburgh, d. NYC (never in the South)
MUH 2019 (FALL 2015)
Stephen Foster ( )
6/22/2018
b. Pittsburgh, d. NYC (never in the South)
1st US professional song composer (“popular”)
Over 200 songs
Sold outright (no royalties)
Hardworking “craftsman”
Incredibly popular
Marginally successful
Stephen Foster (Memorial at U of Pitt )
DAY 14 (2 Oct 17)

11. “Old Folks at Home” (or “Way down upon the Swannee River….”)
Stephen Foster's Sketchbook: Old Folks at Home
Original lyrics: Florida State Song
Revised: State Song - Florida Dept. of State
Pee Dee River (South Carolina)
Suwannee River (Florida)

12. Foster’s Songs Multiple audiences
6/22/2018
Foster’s Songs
Multiple audiences
Minstrelsy - work w/ Christy’s Minstrels - “Ethiopian Melodies” - “Plantation Songs” - "Old Folks at Home“ (original lyrics) - "Old Folks At Home" (Ponselle)
Comic Songs - "De Camptown Races" (LG 6.2) - Johnny Cash - Camptown Races – YouTube - "Oh Susanna" as performed by Al Jolson – YouTube
“Genteel” tradition (sentimental) - Parlor songs for home use - Marilyn Horne sings Beautiful Dreamer (vaimusic.com) – YouTube
Sheet Music Examples - Oh! Susanna [sheet music] - Jim Crow Jubilee [sheet music]
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