Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:20:09.399Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Opera and the Mainstreaming of Blackface Minstrelsy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2007

RENEE LAPP NORRIS
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, blackface minstrelsy entered the mainstream of antebellum popular culture by borrowing from a European musical repertory, drawing on the language of advertisements for legitimate entertainments, and engaging two themes of antebellum popular culture, sentimentality and nationalism. Minstrels' opera parodies used devices similar to the British burlesque tradition: opera in blackface relied on the recontextualization of the original and an unpredictable mingling of sources and subjects. Discussion of three popular blackface opera songs, “I Dreamed Dat I Libed in Hotel Halls,” “See! Sir, See!,” and “Stop Dat Knocking,” demonstrates these processes.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , August 2007 , pp. 341 - 365
Copyright
© 2007 The Society for American Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlquist Karen. 1997. Democracy at the Opera: Music, Theater, and Culture in New York City, 1815–60. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Allen Robert C. 1991. Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
Baines Jimmy Dalton. 1967. “Samuel S. Sanford and Negro Minstrelsy.” Ph.D. diss., Tulane University,
Bakhtin Mikhail. 1968. Rabelais and His World, trans. Helene Iswolsky. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
Bean Annemarie. 1996. “Transgressing the Gender Divide: The Female Impersonator in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy.” In Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy, ed. Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara, Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, 245– 56.
Brooks William. “Pocahontas: Her Life and Times.” American Music 2/4 (Winter 1984): 19– 48.
Buckley Peter G. 1998. “Paratheatricals and Popular Stage Entertainment.” In The Cambridge History of American Theatre, ed. Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby, 1: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 424– 81.
Buckley Peter G. 1984. “To the Opera House: Culture and Society in New York City, 1820–1860.” Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook,
Burkholder J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. 2006. A History of Western Music, 7th edn. New York: W. W. Norton,
Cockrell Dale. 1997. Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Damon S. Foster. 1936. Series of Old American Songs. Providence: Brown University Library
Dumont Frank. 1927. The Witmark Amateur Minstrel Guide and Burnt Cork Encyclopedia. Rev. edn. New York: M. Witmark & Sons
Dunson Stephanie Elaine. 2004. “The Minstrel in the Parlor: Nineteenth-Century Sheet Music and the Domestication of Blackface Minstrelsy.” Ph.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
Epstein Dena. 1977. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Finson Jon W. 1994. The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song. New York: Oxford University Press
Grimsted David. 1968. Melodrama Unveiled: American Theater and Culture, 1800–1850. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Hamm Charles. 1983. Music in the New World. New York: W. W. Norton
Hamm Charles. 1979. Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. New York: W. W. Norton
Krohn Ernest C. 1971 “Nelson Kneass: Minstrel Singer and Composer.” Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research 7: 15– 39.Google Scholar
Lawrence Vera Brodsky. 1988. Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong. Vol. 1, Resonances, 1836–1849. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lawrence Vera Brodsky. 1995. Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong. Vol. 2, Reverberations, 1850–1856. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Levine Lawrence. 1988. Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Lhamon W.T. Jr. 2003. Jump Jim Crow: Lost Plays, Lyrics, and Street Prose of the First Atlantic Popular Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Lhamon W.T. Jr. 1998. Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Lott Eric. 1995. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press
Mahar William J. 1999. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Mahar William J. “‘Sing, Darkies, Sing’: The Real Vs. Imagined Repertoires of Early Blackface Minstrelsy.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Sonneck Society for American Music, Washington, D.C., March 1996.
Martin George. 1993. Verdi at the Golden Gate: Opera in San Francisco in the Gold Rush Years. Berkeley: University of California Press
McConachie Bruce. “New York Operagoing, 1825–50: Creating an Elite Social Ritual.” American Music 6/2 (Summer 1988): 181– 92.
Moody Richard ed. 1966. Dramas from the American Theatre 1762–1909. Cleveland: World Publishing Company
Moss Harold Gene. “Popular Music and the Ballad Opera.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 26/3 (Fall 1973): 365– 82.
Nathan Hans. 1962. Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
“Negro Minstrelsy—Ancient and Modern.” Putnam's Monthly 5/15 (January 1855): 72– 79.
Norris Renee Lapp. 2001. “‘Black Opera’: Antebellum Blackface Minstrelsy and European Opera.” Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland at College Park,
Plotnicki Rita M. “John Brougham: The Aristophanes of American Burlesque.” Journal of Popular Culture 12/3 (Winter 1978): 422– 31.
Preston Katherine K. “Between the Cracks: The Performance of English-Language opera in Late Nineteenth-Century America.” American Music 21/3 (Fall 2003): 349– 74.
Preston Katherine K. 2006. “‘Dear Miss Ober’: Music Management and the Interconnections of Musical Culture in the United States, 1876–1883.” In European Music and Musicians in New York City, 1840–1900, ed. John Graziano, Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 273– 98.
Preston Katherine K. 1993. Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States, 1825–60. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Rinear David L. 1987. The Temple of Momus: Mitchell's Olympic Theater. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press
Roediger David. 1991. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. London: Verso
Root Deane. 1999. “Music Research in Nineteenth-Century Theater: or, The Case of a Burlesquer, a Baker, and a Pantomime Maker.” In Vistas of American Music: Essays and Compositions in Honor of William K. Kearns, ed. Susan L. Porter and John Graziano, Warren, Mich.: Harmonie Park Press, 179– 194.
Rourke Constance. 1931. American Humor: A Study of the National Character. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books
Toll Robert. 1974. Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press
“The ‘Trovatore’ Buckleyfied.” Dwight's Journal of Music 16/4 (22 October 1859): 236.
Winans Robert B. 1984. “Early Minstrel Show Music.” In Musical Theater in America, ed. Glenn Loney, 71– 97. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press,
Wittke Carl. 1930. Tambo and Bones: A History of the American Minstrel Stage. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press

Printed Music

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all sheet music and songsters are from the Library of Congress.
Balfe Michael William. “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” The Bohemian Girl. New York: Atwill, n.d.
Bellini Vincenzo. “As I View These Scenes So Charming, Sung with Great Applause by Mr. Brough, in Bellini's Celebrated Opera La Sonnambula.” Boston: C. Bradlee, n.d.
Bellini Vincenzo. “As I View These Scenes So Charming, Vi ravviso o luoghi amenir [sic]. Air in the Celebrated Opera La Sonnambula, Composed by Bellini.” Philadelphia: Fiot, Meignen & Co., n.d.
Bellini Vincenzo. La Sonnambula, with Italian and English Words. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., n.d.
Carter J. P. 1844. “Lucy Neal.” Boston: Keith's Publishing House,
1847. “I Dreamed Dat I Libed in Hotel Halls.” The Ethiopian Glee Book. Vol. 1. Boston: Elias Howe,
Myers J. R. 1844. “Songs of the Virginia Serenaders: Whar Did You Come From.” Boston: C. H. Keith, Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, http://levysheetmusic. mse.jhu.edu/otcgi/llscgi60.
1847. “Picayune Butler.” Baltimore: F. D. Bentenn, Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/otcgi/llscgi60.
1844. “Songs of the Congo Melodists: Lucy Neal.” Arranged by J. Buckley. New York: Firth & Hall,
1848. “Stop Dat Knocking,” Ethiopian Glee Book: Containing the Songs Sung by the Christy Minstrels. Vol. 2. Boston: Elias Howe,
“Whar Did You Cum From? Knock a Nigger Down. As Sung…by Mr. J. W. Sweeney.” New York: Firth and Hall, n.d. Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/otcgi/llscgi60.
Winnemore A. F. 1843. “Stop Dat Knocking at de Door. As Sung by the Virginia Minstrels.” Boston: G. P. Reed,
Winnemore A. F. 1847. “Stop Dat Knocking at My Door, as sung with great applause by Christy's Minstrels.” Boston: G. P. Reed,
Winnemore A. F. “Stop That Knocking at the Door.” New York: Richard A. Saalfield, n.d.
Winnemore A. F. “Stop Dat Knocking.” Rev. by William Clifton. New York: Vanderbeeks, n.d.
Zorer Maximilian. 1850. “Hither We Come.” New York: Vanderbeek,

Songsters

1858. Charley Fox's Ethiopian Songster. New York: Frederic A. Brady,
Christy's Nigga Songster, Containing Songs as Are Sung by Christy's, Pierce's, White's Sable Brothers, and Dumbleton's Band of Minstrels. New York: T. W. Strong, n.d.
1854. Christy's Plantation Melodies, No. 4. Philadelphia: Fisher & Brother,
Christy's and White's Ethiopian Melodies[,] Containing Two Hundred and Ninety-One of the Best and Most Popular and Approved Ethiopian Melodies Ever Written, Being the Largest and Most Complete Collection Ever Published[.] Comprising The Melodeon Song Book; Plantation Melodies; Ethiopian Song Book; Serenader's Song Book, and Christy and Wood's New Song Book. Published Under the Authority of George Christy and Charles White, the Original Delineators of the Popular Ludicrous Negro Character. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, n.d.
1854. The Ethiopian Serenaders' Own Book. New York: Philip J. Cozans,
The Ethiopian Serenaders' Own Book. 1857. Philadelphia: Fisher & Brother,
1847. The Forget Me Not Songster. A Choice Collection of Naval, Patriotic, Sentimental and Comic Songs. And all the Favorite Negro Melodies. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co.,
1854. George Christy & Wood's Melodies, As Sung by Their Unique Company, at Minstrel Hall, 444 Broadway, N. Y. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson,
1844. My Old Dad's Woolly Headed Screamer Containing All the Newest Negro Melodies. As Now Singing[sic] with Universal Applause by Barney Williams, Cool White, Charles White, and the Renowned Original Band of Virginia Minstrels. New York: Turner & Fisher, c.
Nigger Melodies; Being the Only Entire and Complete Work of Ethiopian Songs Extant. New York: Nafis and Cornish, n.d.
White's New Ethiopian Song Book. Containing a Collection of All the New and Most Popular Songs, Glees, Choruses, Parodies, Duetts, Trios, Burlesque Lectures, Jokes, Conundrums, etc., as sung by White's Band of Serenaders, Christy's, New Orleans, etc. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, n.d.
1851. White's New Illustrated Melodeon Song Book. New York: H. Long & Brother,
1862. Wood's New Plantation Melodies, Containing A Selection of the Most Popular Chorus [sic], Quartettes, Glees, Trios, Duets, Songs, Parodies, Burlesques, etc. Also, Funny Stories, Satirical Jokes, Quaint Sayings Conundrums, Repartees, etc., as told by the celebrated E. Horn, at Wood's Minstrel Hall, 444 Broadway. The Whole Revised and Corrected by M. Campbell. Acting Manager of Wood's Minstrels. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald,

Discography

The Early Minstrel Show. New World Records 80338-2 [1985] 1998.