[[File:Macaroni2.jpg|200px|thumb|left|...and called it Macaroni]]
|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
There is some mystery and controversy about the exact origins of one of the most famous tunes in American tradition, "Yankee Doodle" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle]. Elson ('''The National Music of America''', 1899) finds that the first part of the melody was once quite familiar to Dutch musicians and “has been used in Holland from time immemorial as a children’s song,” however, the second part was not known. The Irish musicologist Flood (1906) maintains "Yankee Doodle" derives from a Jacobite era (early 18th century) song called "[[All the Way to Galway (1)]]." Claims have also been made for Spanish and even Hungarian musical origins. The earliest appearance of the complete melody was claimed by Dr. Rimbault (1876) to have been a printing in Walsh's '''Collection of Dances for the year 1750''' where it he said it appears as "[[Fisher's Jig]]" (a reference to the ‘notorious lady’, Kitty Fisher, who died in 1771). Rimbault later wrote that it was a country dance found under the title “[[Kitty Fisher|Kitty Fisher's Jig]],” written in triple time, but that it was afterwards altered to common time, although the title remained the same (he printed what he said was the Walsh tune in the magazine '''Leisure Hour''', see abc below). The problem is that no one has been able to locate the melody in either Walsh’s publication or in any of Thompson’s Country Dance Books of the same era. “Kitty Fisher” does exist in Thompson and Son’s '''Twenty-four Country Dances for 1760''' but it is a different, duple-time tune, unlike anything resembling what we know as “Yankee Doodle.” A nursery rhyme exists that goes:
|f_caption=According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life.
|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
This contains Fischer’s name (misspelled, while Lucy Locket was presumably a name taken from a character in '''The Beggars Opera''' of 1727) and scans to the “Yankee Doodle” tune, but any direct relationship remains speculative.
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If one discounts Rimbault’s claims, it was once thought that the earliest corroborated printed appearance of the “Yankee Doodle” tune was in James Aird’s '''Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1''' (1782, sometimes dated 1775–76), and George Colman’s opera '''Two to One''' (1784) as a song entitled “Adzooks, Old Crusty, Why so Rusty?” The tune's mocking connotations with at least a portion of the American colonial population were apparently well-established somewhat before that time. In fact, the tune paired with the "Yankee Doodle" title had been in circulation for some time in America. It was entered into the c. 1730 music manuscript copybook of the Rev. James Pike, a clergyman in Somersworth, New Hampshire, on a page with the "Freemason's March." J.A. Leo Lemay's researches ["The American Origins of 'Yankee Doodle'." '''William and Mary Quarterly''', 33 (July 1976): 435–64] have uncovered that a comic ballad opera (and the first American play) by Andrew Barton, called '''The Disappointment; or, The Force of Credulity''', was the first time the tune appeared in print (in New York and Philadelphia in April, 1767). "Yankee Doodle" appears as Air IV in Act 1, scene iii, sung by "brother Racoon," a dupe on his way to excavate for buried treasure. Unfortunately, Barton's satire proved a bit too biting—at least for Philadelphia, where it was thought that references to the Freemasons and some powerful personages brought too much risk on the production's sponsors—and the performance was cancelled.
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Regarding the lyrics, there is little hard evidence for the derivation of the word Yankee, although it was in use as a term to identify New Englanders since the early 18th century. Doodle, on the other hand, has been traced to the Lancashire dialect, and means a trifler or shiftless individual. Of the song itself, Winstock (1970) writes "It is generally accepted that the words were written by (the Englishman) Dr. Richard Shuckburgh around 1755 in derision of the odd looking colonials who had come to help the British regulars fight the French, and the redcoats continued to use it in contempt...”. Elson ('''The National Music of America''', 1899) traces this claim to an early 19th century publication called '''Farmer & Moore’s Monthly Literary Journal''', although there are other, separate attributions to Shuckburgh (whose name is spelled various ways). The good and witty doctor did not live to see his satire used in the war of rebellion for he died in August, 1773, the '''New York Gazetter''' reporting: “Died, at Schenectady, last Monday, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a gentleman of a very genteel family, and of infinite jest and humour.” In October, 1768, the '''New York Journal''' gave the earliest notice of its performance:
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<blockquote><font face="sans-serif" size="4"><i>
''The British fleet was bro’t to anchor near Castle William, in Boston Harbor,''
''and the opinion of the visitors to the ships was that the ‘Yankey Doodle''
''Song’ was the capital piece in the band of their musicians.''
</i></font></blockquote>
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Boorish British officers called for dancing after a concert in Boston on January 25, 1769, that had been performed by a group led by musician Stephen Deblois. "Yankee Doodle" was one of the tunes (along with "Wild Irishman") the Redcoats derisively demanded, according to a newspaper account of the time, and when Deblois was not forthcoming, the British rioted. Deblois cancelled further concerts, and did not reinstate them until the English general in command pledged his officers' good behavior. By 1775 the piece was played by British fifers and drummers as a way to taunt the colonial populace as, for example, they did that year when one "John Andrews complained of the field music of the (British) 4th Regiment playing that melody near a church during religious services to annoy the congregation" (Camus, 1976). Culprits were drummed out to the sound of the tune from British camps in the city of Boston.
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[[Annotation:Yankee_Doodle_Dandy|YANKEE DOODLE DANDY full Score(s) and Annotations]] and [[Featured_Tunes_History|Past Featured Tunes]]
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Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.
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He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.
[[File:Yankee Doodle Dandy.mp3|left]]
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Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.
{{#lst:Yankee_Doodle_Dandy|abc}}
He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left. Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.
"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."
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Latest revision as of 16:17, 4 October 2024
According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life.Elk River Blues
Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.
He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.
Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.
He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left. Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.
"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."
X:1
T:Elk River Blues
C:Ernie Carpenter (W.Va.)
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:Air
N:Played slower than a breakdown, at a very brisk
N:walking pace
Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz
K:G
D EG|[M:5/4]A2A3 A/B/ AG E/D/E/F/|[M:4/4]G2G3 D EG|[M:5/4]A2 A3 A/B/ AG E/D/E/F/|[M:4/4]G2 G3 G/A/ B/c/d|
[M:5/4]e2 e3 e/f/ ed B/A/B/c/|[M:4/4]d2 d3B G(3A/B/d/|[M:5/4]e2 e3 e/f/ ed B/A/G/B/|[M:4/4]A4- A:|]
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