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JACKSONIAN ERA POPULAR MUSIC*
* Original lyrics, unedited.
Directions: The lyrics and music notes are provided for your better understanding of Jacksonian Music. Read the lyrics as the music is played so you can better understand the songs. Keep in mind the historical events of the time period from 1800 to the Civil War. This will help you understand the place this music holds in American history. Space is provided for your note taking to help your later write up about the music.
Music of the Stage and Concert Hall:
MUSIC NOTE: This type of music was performed for upper-middle class audiences who expected refined entertainment.
The Hunters of Kentucky about 1820
Ye Gentlemen and Ladies fair, who grace this famous city, Just listen, if you've time to spare, while I rehearse a ditty; And for the opportunity conceive yourselves quite lucky, For "its not often that you see A hunter from Kentucky.
Chorus:
0'Kentucky! the Hunters of Kentucky.
We are a hardy free born race, each man to fear a stranger; Wahteer the game, we join in chase, despising toil and danger; And if a daring foe annoys what e'er his strength or force is, We'11 show him that Kentucky boys are alligator horses. (Chorus)
Now Jackson he was wide awake, and wasn't scar'd at trifles,
For well he knew what aim we take with our Kentucky rifles;
So he led us down to Cypress Swamp, the ground was low and mucky;
There stood John Bull in martial pomp; but here was old Kentucky.
(Chorus)
They found at length 'twas vain to fight where lead was all their
booty,
And so they wisely took to flight, and left us all the beauty.
And now if danger e'er annoys, remember what our trade is;
Just send for us Kentucky boys, and we'll protect you, Ladies.
(Chorus)
MUSIC NOTE: "The Hunters of Kentucky- was a vastly popular song of the 1830s. The music Is celebrating the Battle of Hew Orleans.
Student Notes:
Home! Sweet Home! (Aria from Clari, or The Maid of Milan, about 1820)
(Clari:)
/Mid pleasures and Palaces through we may roam,
Be it ever so humble there/s no place like home!
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere!
Chorus:
Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There'd no place like Home!
An Exile from Home, Splendour dazzles in vain!
Oh! give me my lowly thatch'd Cottage again!
The Birds singing gaily that came at my call,
Give me them with the peace of mind dearer than all.
(Chorus;
MUSIC NOTE: "Home! Sweet Hem'1 became the most popular song of the American middle class from the 1820s through the 50s.
Student Notes:
Early Blackface Minstrelsy:
HUS1C NOTE: These songs were generally written by northern urban white men who had wandered the Mississippi valley. They wrote negro musical shows for lower class city people. This music tended to be of ah underground type about taboo subjects including sexual messages which were not allowed on the traditional stage. These songs borrowed from slave music and depicted the South like the happy plantation myth the Southerners were creating in defense of slavery. Blackface minstrelsy was in support of the white slave owners political viewpoint and defended slavery and white supremacy.
Lubly Fan Will You Cum Out To Night? by Cool White, alias John Hodges, 1844
As I was lumb'ring down de street A pretty gal I chanc'd to meet
0 she was fair to view
Chorus:
Den lubly Fan will you cum out to night
An dance by de lite ob de moon.
1 stopt her an I had some talk
But her foot covered up de whole side-walk
An left no room for me.
(Chorus)
Her lips are like de oyster plant, I try to kiss dem but I cant, Dey am so berry large. (Chorus)
She's de prettiest gal ibe seen in my life, An I wish to de Lord she was wife Den we would part no more. (Chorus)
Yes lubly Fan will cum out to night and dance by de light ob de moon. (Chorus)
MUSIC NOTE: 'Luby Fan Will You Cum Out To Night' is the original version of "Buffalo Gals.1 The tune is a parody of the 1843 parlor song 'This Midnight Hour.1
Student Notes:
De Boatman's Dance by Dan Emmett, 1843
De boatman dance and de boatman sing,
De boatman up to eb'ry ting;
And when de boatman come on shore
Dey spend dere money and dey work for more.
Chorus:
Dance de boatman dance, Oh!
Dance de boatman dance;
We dance all night till broad daylight,
Go home wid de gals in de morn-in
Hi ho, de boatman row,
Float in down de riber ob de Ohio.
I went on board de oder day,
To near what de boatman had to say,
Dar I let my passion loose,
Dey clapp'd me in de callaboose.
(Chorus)
When you go to de boatman/s ball,
Dance wid my wife, or dont dance at all,
Sky-blue jacket, tarpaulin hat,
Look out boys for de nine tail cat.
(Chorus)
When de boatman blows his horn ,
Look out ole man your hog is gone
He stole my sheep, he stole my shoat,
Chuck em in a bag and tote en to de boat.
(Chorus)
HUSIC NOTE: 'De Boatmen's Dance* is an example of a new type of band music in the 1840s using an ensemble of fiddle, bones, banjo, and tambourine instruments.
Student Notes:
Old Folks at Home by Stephen Foster, 1851
Way down upon de Swanee ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home,
Chorus:
All de world am sad and dreary,
Ebry where I roam,
Oh! darkeys how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home.
All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Dem many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I
Oh! take me to my kind old mudder,
Dere let me live and die.
(Chorus)
MUSIC NOTE: "Old Folks at Home1 was Stephen Foster's biggest hit, the sheet music selling over 100,000 copies at a time when 5,000 was considered a huge success.
Student Notes:
Old Dan Tucker by Dan Emmett, 1843
I come to town de udder night, I hear de noise den saw de fight, De watchman was a runnin roun, Crying Old Dan Tucker's come to town,
Chorus:
So get out de way! Get out de way! Get out de way! Old Dan Tucker, Your to late to come to supper.
Tucker on de wood pile - can/t count Mebben, Put in a fedder bed - him gwine to hebben, His nose so flat, his face so full, De top ob his head like a bag ob wool, (Chorus)
Here/s my razor in good order,
Magnun-bonum - jis hab bought/er
Sheep shell de oats, ole Tucker shell de corn,
I'll shabe you all when de water gets warm,
(Chorus)
I went to meet in de udder day, To hear old Tucker preach an pray, Dey all got drunk, but me alone, I make old Tucker - walk-jaw-bone,
Chorus:
Get out de way, Get out de way, Get out de way you hard/end sinner, Your too late to come to dinner
HUSIC NOTE: "Old Dan Tucker" contains several of the cliches of racism including fights, stupidity, razors, and drunkenness. "Walk jawbone- refers to a strenous minstrel dance step which imitated the rattle of a jawbone being scraped.
Student Notes:
Get Off the Track! by the Hutchinson Family, 1844
Ho! the Car Emancipation Rides majestic thro'' our nation Bearing on its train the story, LIBERTY! a Nation's Glory (Chorus)
Roll it along, Thro' the Nation,
Freedom's car, Emancipation*
Men of various predilections, Frightened, run in all directions: Merchants, Editors, Physicians, Lawyers, Priests and Politicians.
Get out of the way! every station,
Clear the track of 'mancipation.
Hear the mighty car wheels humming!
Now look out! The Engine's coming!
Church and Statesmen! hear the thunder!
Clear the track! or you'll fall under. Get off the track! all are singing, While the Liberty Bell is ringing.
See the people run to meet us; At the Depots thousands greet us; All take seats with exaltation, In the Car Emancipation.
Huzza! Huzzah! Emancipation
Soon will bless our happy nation.
Huzza! Huzza!! Huzza!!!
MUSIC NOTE: The Hutchinson Family was a touring ballad and minstrel troupe. Jesse Hutchinson wrote "Get of the Track1 as a parody of fianett's "Old Dan Tucker,1 substituting abolitionist slogans and topical references for the racist verses, bit keeping the muscial arrangement intact.
Student Notes:
Sentimental Ballads:
MUSIC NOTE: Sentimental song in the U.S. started about 1810. Its primary source was the English ballad operas of ThGioas Moore, Henry Bishop, etc., but over the next 40 years, music and lyric content were adapted to America. Themes were refined to a relative handful of subjects reflecting the fears and hopes of the Jacksonian middle class.
Darling Nelly Gray by Benjamin Hanby, 1856
There's a lone green valley by the old Kentucky shore Where we've whil'd many happy hours away; A-sitting and singing by the little cottage door Where dwelt my lovely Nelly Gray.
Chorus:
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,
And I'll never see my darling any more;
I am sitting by the river and I'm weeping all the day,
For you're gone from the old Kentucky shore.
When the moon had climb'd the mountain and the stars were shining too,
Then I took my lovely Nelly Gray,
And I travelled down the river in my little red canoe
While the banjo so sweetly I did play.
(Chorus)
Oh! My eyes are getting blinded and I cannot see my way;
Hark! there's somebody knocking at the door.
I hear the angels calling and I see my Nelly Gray,
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.
(Chorus;
MUSIC NOTE: "Darling Nelly Gray- was a song of abolitionist sympathies.
Student Notes:
Amateurs and Musical Societies:
MUSIC NOTE: Pianos and parlor organs became widely available to the middle class during Jacksonian times. There were amateur music conventions in the 1830s which evolved into choral societies and glee clubs' in the 1840s. By the 1850s young men incapable of note reading and singing were regarded by the ladies as crude. Singing was regarded as both wholesome entertainment as a base for moral instruction.
My Country, 'Tis of Thee by Rev, Samuel Francis Smith, 1831
My country! /tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty
Of thee I sing;
Land, where my fathers died;
Land of the pilgrim's pride;
From evry mountainside,
Let freedom ring.
MUSIC NOTE: Rev. Smith wrote the poem "My Country, 'This of Thee' to a German hymn tune, which he failed to recognize as "God Save the King/
Temperance Hymn by Rev. John Marsh, 1841
Be days of drinking wine forgot;
Let water goblets shine;
And from, your memory ever blot
The days of drinking wine;
Those days of drinking wine my friends,
Those days of drinking wine
A Temperances's hour is worth a year of days of drinking wine.
We now can meet as friends should,
And all together dine;
Our beverage quaff from fountain's sweet
And ne/er regret the wine.
At Temerance/s shrine, my friends, my friends
We're pledged at her fair shrine
And hold her cause above the laws.
And customs of “lang syne."
MUSIC NOTE: The Hutchinson Family sang this as part of their political reform effort to end the drinking of alcohol. (The temperance movement.)
Student Notes:
Oh! Susanna by Stephen Foster, 1847
I came from Alabama wid
my banjo on my knee,
I'm g'wan to Lousianna,
My true love for to see,
I raind all night the day I left
The weather it was dry
The sun so hot I frose to death
Susanna dont you cry*
Chorus:
Oh! Susanna
Oh! dont you cry for me
I've come Alabama
Wid my banjo on my knee.
I jumped aboard de telegraph,
And trabbelled down de riber,
De Lectric fluid magnified,
And Killed five hundred Nigger
De bullgine buste, de horse run off,
I really thought I'd die;
I shut my eyes to hold my breath,
Susanna, dont you cry.
(Chorus)
I had a dream de odder night,
When ebery ting was still;
I thought I saw Susanna,
A coming down de hill.
The buckwheat cake war in her mouth
The tear was in her eye,
Says I, im coming from de South,
Susanna, dont you cry.
(Chorus)
I soon will be in New Orleans, And den I'll look all round, And when I find Susanna, I'll fall upon the ground. Dis darkie 'I surely die, And when I'm dead and buried, Susanna, dont you cry. (Chorus)
HUSIC NOTE: 'Oh Susanna1 was Stephen Foster's second published "plantation melody/ It's extraordinary success made Foster famous. The song takes as it obvious model the crude racist humor of 'Old Dan Tucker.1 Its Classical-like instrumental tag and choral refrain show the influence of parlor song, however the song was popular with all strata of society.
Student Notes:
Shape-Note Singing:
MUSIC NOTE: &ape-note singing evolved and flourished in the American South from 1800 to 1860. It became popular in the religious music of the Methodist and Baptist camp meetings and churches. The purpose' of shape-notes music books was to make the art of singing easier to learn for those who couldn't read music.
New Britain by John Newton