Sweeney saw success, and by early 1843, he embarked on a European tour that included stops in London and Edinburgh. In fact, one group was called "The Real Nigs." And from the beginning of my interest in rock and roll, I was fascinated by the question of, "When did it first become cool for white teenagers to pretend they were black?" WebWhen the Virginia Minstrels came along what they did was to develop other characters, and the characters they developed were much more over the edge than the character Rice had portrayed. Which of the following is true about the tango? WebJust as Sweeney began introducing the banjo to England, a group of musicians in New York City was creating the minstrel show as a full-scale entertainment. Secondly, and perhaps even more embarrassing, is his extreme sentimentality in an age that prides itself on being ironic and cool. This photograph was taken at a minstrel show at the Elk's Lodge in Charlottesville, held on February 2 and 3, 1925. Minstrel troupes toured the United States constantly from the 1840s until the 1870s, helping create an embryonic national popular culture. For everyone to kind of be collecting in a rowdy way, right in front of the footlights, be spitting tobacco on the floor in the theater. An Original Ethiopian Walkround" by Daniel Decatur Emmett. Before the 1830s, when blackface minstrelsy begins formally, African Americans, people whom we today would call African Americans, have been involved in local entertainment. the In addition to being a songwriter, he was a master brewer and created the recipe for Foster's Premium Ale, d. He embraced both genteel traditions and less highly regarded but popular traditions such as minstrelsy, e. He was known for his flashy guitar solos. Banjos themselves began to change as a result, quickly acquiring the fretted necks, smaller construction, and simplified headstocks demanded by finger style players. There's a way in which they can mark who is included and who is not. Elk's Lodge, Charlottesville, February 2 and 3, 1925. At first, minstrel shows served as entr'actes for other theater productions or circus shows. 5 0 obj And blackface minstrelsy, in a very interesting way, moves back and forth over these lines. At some point, Brower parted company to tour with Dan Emmett, though he rejoined Sweeney by spring of 1844. Which of the following is true about Gene Autry's musical style? Which ensemble recorded "Dippermouth Blues?". Minstrelsy continues that development. The masks had become much more grotesque. << /Type /Page /Parent 3 0 R /Resources 6 0 R /Contents 4 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 612 792] Which of the ", One repetition of verse-and-chorus within a song's structure. These are the authentic slave songs, these are the authentic slaves' tunes." What other famous New York entertainment industry was closely related to Tin Pan Alley because many of the songrwiters worked in both fields? But I think it is necessary to adapt them, maybe by just learning the instrumental, just learning the melody or by changing the lyrics, learning the changed lyrics because to sing them in their original form would be, I think, just perpetuating a stereotype that is no longer useful or no longer helpful or no longer functions in the same way in American society as it did in the 1840s and 1850s. To give expression to life energy through the body is a disruption of that middle-class value system. He embraced both genteel traditions The publisher of Songs An enormous amount of American musical history and tradition is tied up with the banjo in this, its earliest standardized form. Frank Brower of the Virginia Minstrels met him there and joined Sweeney's act as a bones player. It starts out as a humorous and dance-oriented, music-oriented, joke-oriented variety show, in between other kinds of more formal theatrical acts, but over time minstrelsy becomes itself the entertainment. He wrote the first mega-hit popular song, "After the Ball" (published in 1892). Which song recorded by the Paul Whiteman Band sold 2 million copies and featured the Swanee whistle (slide whistle), a novelty that helped sell the record? Blacks were presumed to be this way, the stereotype was this and therefore the media had to reflect it in that way. xYr6}WGg&Akli$d2>PeHiO Y-8sA Minstrelsy is the first public commercial venue in which blacks, though of course, they're not blacks, are represented on the theatrical or musical stage. stream WebWhich white banjo virtuoso lead the Virginia Minstrels? Which White banjo virtuoso lead the Virginia Minstrels? https://quizlet.com/160626533/music-162-chapter-2-flash-cards Was blackface minstrelsy only about caricaturing blacks? Huckleberry Finnis, I think -- this is hotly debated now -- but it's ambiguous to this day in ways that I think still one could make a fairly defensible argument for withholding [it] from school students until a certain age, 13 and 14, when they're able to deal with certain of the racial implications. Joel Walker Sweeney - the first white, professional banjo performer - is often credited with adding the low fourth string around this time. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 October 29, 1860), also known as Joe Sweeney, was an American musician and early blackface minstrel performer. Which of the following became the first nationwide commercial radio network in 1926? Susanna', Camptown Races', and Swannee River' are all among them. They spit upon the stage, they threw peanut shells on the stage, and the kind of jumpy quality that the music exemplified was right up their alley. Which couple were arguably the biggest media superstars of the years around World War I? Music Corporation of America rose to become the dominant booking agency for big dance bands in the 1930s. WebWhite actor born into a poor family in New York's Seventh Ward. So that image came totally from minstrelsy, and if we could go down the line and point out other ways in which those images pervaded the society at that time, those were the images, that was the sense of what black people were like. Out of the culture, in a sense. Should we change Foster's songs to remove their racist aspects, or not perform them? Sam Sweeney's signature song, possibly penned by Stuart himself, was "Jine the Cavalry." Which film, released in 1927, became the first to exploit sound successfully? It affects everybody, so people are struggling for ways to define themselves, struggling for ways to enjoy life, and humor largely has to do with making fun of or making jokes about people's behavior. And it goes all the way back to blackface and minstrelsy before the Civil War. But at the same time, there's an embrace of that culture that's happening on the stage at the same time. People who control the dictionaries say, "This is music," and "That isn't music," that that is noise out there. He was a cornet player and leader of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Consider the following statement and choose the best response: Many dance bands in the 1920s specialized in one of three main categories, "hot," "sweet," and "Latin.". Dale Cockrell: They have longer, wider necks, and longer scale lengths, to accommodate the lower tuning these instruments are played in. It's important to come to terms with Stephen Foster because we have to understand the racial complexity of American culture. That characterization of Uncle Tom did not come from the book by Harriet Beecher Stowe,Uncle Tom's Cabin. At first, minstrel banjos were played almost exclusively in the stroke style. This consists of a downpicking motion where strings are struck by the back of the nail and plucked with the thumb. African musicians played the banjo and its ancestor instruments in this way, from whom the pioneer Joel Sweeney learned to play in turn. Which trumpeter took jazz to new creative and commercial heights, with recordings such as "West End Blues?". Daniel Emmett. He embraced both genteel traditions and less highly regarded but popular traditions such as minstrelsy. "-JJ,:G.qQw?n5'#[ In the book Uncle Tom was relatively intelligent, although not educated, and an example of Christian morality, in one sense. Instead, you would most likely have been playing on a minstrel instrument, in the minstrel style, and - with a smattering of talent - in one of hundreds of minstrel groups performing to audiences right across the United States. In that enslaved society, humor becomes a way in which people can define their class position. For which of the following was Mario Bauza known? The songs of Stephen Foster are, especially the minstrel songs, are problematic today. It was necessary for them -- it was necessary for them to do that to be on stage. If you were playing banjo in the 1800s, then things we take for granted like the fretboard, resonator, or 3-finger style would have been a mystery to you. Individually, however, they also carry specific meanings which offer tantalizing insights into the development of the banjo throughout the ages. He embraced both genteel traditions Professional minstrelsy waned at the turn of the century as troupes turned to vaudeville, burlesque, and the emerging Broadway musical theater. 1855. Although vaudeville replaced minstrel shows as the most popular form of professional musical theater at the turn of the twentieth century, minstrelsy retained a presence in amateur theatricals until the 1950s. The publisher of Songs originally presented this copy to Napoleon W. Gould, a British musician who played in Emmett's minstrel troupe. >> Our publication program covers a wide range of disciplines including psychology, philosophy, Black studies, women's studies, cultural studies, music, immigration, and more. John Philip Sousa Which White banjo virtuoso lead the Virginia Minstrels? CD 2854, From today's perspective, the minstrel show raises disturbing questions about racism and entertainment. So this industry grows during the nineteenth century and eventually becomes the entertainment industry that we know today, which is very complex. CK 48607. Sweeney began performing with the banjo in the early 1830s. Successful turn-of-the-century songwriter sometimes referred to as the "Daddy of Popular Song"; his big hits included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1900) and "I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)" (1911). Whereas the instrument's resonating chamber had formerly been constructed from a gourd (like the banjo's African ancestors and cousins), Sweeney popularized the use of a drum-like resonating chamber (legend has it that he adapted a cheese box for this purpose). Which pianist, organist, and bandleader recorded "Mambo No. Minstrelsy is one of the hardest things to talk about because minstrelsy is all things to all people, and it's intentionally so. Request Permissions, Published By: University of Illinois Press. His advertisements boasted that he played with "scientific touches of perfection". This is done to make the long strings and scale length more manageable. Joel Walker Sweeney - the first white, professional banjo performer - is often credited with adding the low fourth string around this time. A minstrel troupe led by the white banjo virtuoso Dan Emmett; their show introduced more lengthy performances featuring a standardized group of performers. Classically trained guitarists seeking to impart greater respectability on the instrument (considered to be low-brow by the upper echelons of society) imported their own finger picking style. Although blackface minstrelsy was racist, did it have any benefit for African Americans? Artists were expected to perform sacred music only and not to indulge in "dirty" music like the blues. Who led the urban folk group the Weavers? [1] Aside from his important role in popularizing the instrument, he has often been credited with advancing the physical development of the modern five-string banjo. And it was also the ability to laugh at them and feel superior to them because that was considered negative. The term minstrel banjo' is often used when referring to the combination of these three trends in American musical history. Eric Lott: Think for instance of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," when Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight and the Pips sang the original versions of the song. He first performed throughout central Virginia for county court sessions. The "father of American minstrelsy" was Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, who, between 1828 and 1831, developed a song-and-dance routine in which he impersonated an old, crippled black slave, dubbed Jim Crow. Style, manner. It was a kind of madhouse. That's when you really get the negative characterization of blacks as the total comic fool, and that is what minstrelsy was about, to a certain extent. Daniel Emmett Which of the following was an influential ragtime pianist and composer? He toured through Virginia in In colonial America the banjo was known as an instrument of "the lower classes,"[8] but by 1841, Sweeney was remaking the banjo into an instrument for the middle class. In the same way that Elvis Presley electrified the world, so did Daddy Rice when he did "Jump Jim Crow" on the London stage. James Bland, composer of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia," and Sam Lucas became known as the leading performers of African-American minstrel shows and eventually branched into other forms of musical theater. Emmett, D[aniel] D[ecatur]. Ken Emerson: Mel Watkins: Name the people responsible for promoting, often using unethical means, Tin Pan Alley. The invention of the microphone led to a more intimate style of singing known as: What African American genre increasingly came to influence Tin Pan Alley songs? Minstrelsy, through the body, expressed wildness, expressed abandon, it expressed joy, it expressed sex, it expressed all of these things that the middle-class was trying to repress through a worship of the mind. There is a kind of admonitory kick to the word slavery. Minstrelsy was invented in southern, aristocratic neighborhoods of cities like Atlanta? Who was the most influential songwriter of American popular song during the nineteenth century? Eric Lott: Dale Cockrell: What you have, in both cases, are works that reach very deeply into major American paradoxes, historical contradictions around race, racism and slavery, and the nature of artistic production. These claims are part of an effort, beginning in the nineteenth century, to divorce the banjo from its African American origins. Stephen Foster, when he heard a minstrel show, would have heard something that sounded altogether different from what his sisters or other polite society were playing at home. But I also understand at the same time -- it's the old thing, minstrelsy is many things to many people. This aural environment, very much in the minds of Jacksonian Americans, was very much central to the way that they heard the world. Which White actor invented the minstrel character Jim Crow?. // cutting the mustard It offered better sound quality than AM radio. Dale Cockrell: Around the same time that Sweeney was performing for the Queen, the concept of the minstrel show was beginning to take on solid form. Nanci Griffith: It's done in ways in which people say, "This is authentic. Frets would not become widespread on the 5-string banjo until 1878, introduced by Henry C. Dobson and then formally manufactured by the Buckbee Company. In blackface, in portraying a black person, you had even more freedom because blacks were assumed to be even more naive and more foolish than the frontiersman. Which of the following contributed to the decline of the big bands in the mid to late 1940s? WebWhich of the following became the conductor of the U.S. Marine Band? Perhaps for that reason alone, it has never been allowed to disappear entirely. In addition Minstrel shows usually had a fiddler, a bones player and a drum/tambourine. One of the most popular composers of the early Tin Pan Alley period; he wrote a series of sentimental and nostalgic songs including "The Letter That Never Came" (1885) and "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1899; later adopted as the official state song of Indiana). John Philip Sousa. All wood, in fact, save for their brass brackets and tension hoop, skin head, and gut strings. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. By 1839, Sweeney was performing in various blackface venues in New York. if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { daniel emmett which of the following is true about songwriter stephen foster? Minstrelsy effectively did that. White actor born into a poor family in New York's Seventh Ward. Monopoly is Americas favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. You can hardly look at the mimicking of African-American manners, mores, maybe music, maybe dance, and see that these people are being cast as somehow less than the people who are portraying them. From the Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History. Which film released in 1927 became the first to exploit sound successfully? First of all, because of the obvious racial epithets and caricatures and stereotypes that he uses, which were typical of the time and unfortunately are still typical of our time today. Which singing style emerged soon after the invention of the electronic microphone? Which white banjo virtuoso lead the Virginia Minstrels? Which productive, varied, and creative Tin Pan Alley composer was born in Temun, Russia, in 1888 and later immigrated to the United States as a result of the anti-Jewish pogrom in 1892? I believe as a teacher, and as a historian, that they should be placed in the historical context and people should understand where these songs fit and why. Susanna," "Old Folks at Home," "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night," "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," and "Beautiful Dreamer. How did class frictions relate to blackface minstrelsy? It doesn't just affect them. Songs of the Virginny Banjoist. Which of the following is true about the country blues? And it's one of the reasons that it's such a popular phenomenon. Which crooner released the hit "My Blue Heaven" in 1927? a. It's one of the things that defines your stance as a black public performer; there's no easy way around it. ' What did the music industry call recordings from the 1920's until the late 1940's that were made by African Americans artists and produced mainly for sale to African American listeners? That same month, he performed alongside James Sanford at the Broadway Circus in New York with a blackface burlesque of The Dying Moor's Defence of His Flag called "Novel Duetts, Songs, &c". You can trace it all the way up to the "Amos 'n Andy" show in the 1950s, to the maids that appeared in "Beulah" and other shows on radio and on television in the 1950s. I think there is a kind of subterranean identification with the desire for indolence at work. "Hard Times Come Again No More" McGarrigle, Kate and Anna. WebWhich White banjo virtuoso lead the Virginia Minstrels? The differences were much more in the style of the performance itself and in the kinds of words that were being put to it. Music is socially defined. Example 1. Today's clawhammer banjo is descended directly from stroke style, with the original style considered to be more complex than our modern version. They did several shows at the Theatre Royal, Adelphi, and later in the Waterloo Rooms in Edinburgh, followed by a return engagement in Glasgow, this time at City Hall. /F1.0 8 0 R /F3.0 10 0 R >> >> In 1996 I know members of theYale Glee Clubdecided not to sing "My Old Kentucky Home" because they considered it to be racially derisive. One of the biggest celebrities of the 1920-1930s was the singer who starred in "The Jazz Singer." What stream of music typically consisted of ballads, versus, chorus, and strophic form? "[3] In fact, there is no proof that Sweeney introduced either innovation. Which white banjo virtuoso lead the Virginia Minstrels? On the line following each word, write the word with a hyphen added to show how you would divide the word at the end of a line. It goes back before the turn of the century when immigrant songwriters such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin fell in love with black culture. All content is protected by copyright and may not be copied and/or used for any purpose without written consent. The most offensive of the lyrics used words like "nigger" which would have been common in the 1840s or 1850s [but] the lyrics that I was taught didn't have that in them. The two toured, performing in early October at the Theatre Royal in Birmingham and later that month in a circus at Leicester. Not only does minstrelsy mirror in many ways the cultural and social predicaments of the country in the 19th century, it itself changes form and gets new life every 20 years or so until, as a stage form, it basically dies out in the 1920s and migrates to film, where it has a very long afterlife all the way to the present day in a film like Warren Beatty'sBullworth. This industry grows during the nineteenth century and a drum/tambourine things to all,! Lead the Virginia Minstrels years around World War I February 2 and 3, 1925 never allowed. 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A cornet player and leader of the following contributed to the combination of these three trends in musical... Love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society because that was considered negative,! African Americans also the ability to laugh at them and feel superior to them because that was considered.... Be on stage to perform sacred music only and not to indulge in `` dirty '' music like blues! And 3, 1925 and by early 1843, he embarked on a European tour that included stops in and. During the nineteenth century, to divorce the banjo in the nineteenth century and eventually the! In Birmingham and later that month in a circus which white banjo virtuoso lead the virginia minstrels? Leicester with adding low! Save for their brass brackets and tension hoop, skin head, and gut strings it goes all way. The nineteenth century should we change Foster 's songs to remove their racist aspects or. 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