Annotation:Coal Black Rose

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COAL BLACK ROSE. American, Minstrel Air (2/4 time). G Major (Kerr): C Major (Howe). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The song is one of the earliest known blackface minstrel songs, dating from 1820, when it was popularized on stage by George Washington Dixon, followed by Thomas Blakeley and others. A farce, it tells of the fight between Cuffee and Sambo over a woman, a stereotyped comic black love triangle.

Coal Black Rose songsheet, c. 1827

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chaff (The Complete Preceptor for the Banjo), 1851, p. 8. Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; p. 18. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 3; No. 294, p. 43.

Recorded sources:

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