Origins: Dixie

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Nov 02 - 10:20 PM

In 1860, another music sheet (piano version without lyrics) was published (CLICK HERE for the sheet):

Jones, Paul, arr.
Get Out of the Wilderness; Dixie's Land, piano
"Get out of the Wilderness And Dixie's Land, two popular airs as played by Capt. A. Menter and his American Cornet Band."
Price: 25 cents
Cover design
Inside title: (p. 3) "Get out of the Wilderness. As played by Menters Brass Band. Arranged for the piano by Paul Jones." (p. 4) "Dixeys Land"
At bottom of p. 4, referring to "Dixeys Land": "Published by permission of Firth, Pond & Co., owners of the copyright."
4 p.
Cincinnati: John Church, Jr., 1860.
"Cincinnati: Published by John Church, Jr., 66 West Fourth Street. Philad.: Lee & Walker. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co. New York: Firth, Pond & Co.
At bottom of 1st page of music: "Entered according to Act of Congress, A.D. 1860, by J. Church Jr. in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio."
Pub. Pl. no. n/a

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: Richie
Date: 29 Nov 02 - 09:20 PM

Here's some info on the Hays dispute and a bit about the origin of the word.

[From the Richmond Dispatch, March 19, 1893.]
Dan Emmett its Author and New York the Place of Its Production.

"Sunday afternoon he had the words, commencing: "I wish I was in Dixie." This colloquial expression was not, as most people suppose, a Southern phrase, but first appeared among the circus people of the North. In early fall, when nipping frosts would overtake the tented wanderers, the boys would think of the genial warmth of that section for which they were heading, and the common expression would be, "Well, I wish I was down in Dixie."

BECAME THE RAGE.

       This gave the catch line: the rest of the song was original. On Monday morning the song was rehearsed and highly commended, and at night a crowded house caught up the refrain and half the audience went home whistling "Dixie." Bryant gave Emmett $5 for his work. The song became the rage, and "Newcombe's," "Buckley's," and other minstrel bands paid Emmett $5 for the privilege of using it. Mr. Werlean, of New Orleans, wrote to Emmett to secure the copyright, but, without waiting for an answer, published it with the words by Mr. Peters, of New York. He afterwards secured the copyright from Emmett and gave him $600. But Werlean sold thousands of copies without giving Dan a nickel. Not only was Emmett robbed of the profit of his songs, but its authorship was disputed. Will F. Hays claimed it as his own.

REAPED NO BENEFIT.

       Pond brought the matter before a musical publishers' convention and settled the question of authorship; but Dan reaped no benefit from this tardy justice."




Since Hays disputed the authorship, it would be interesting to hear his side of the story. How can we find that?

Emmett is notorious for borrowing and arranging material that he did not author. Emmett might of won the case because he had the political and economic backing, and not because he was the author. Obviously, he penned/arranged some of the lyrics. The fact that the song was a hit for his publisher made it important to establish Emmett as the sole author.

Was he?

-Richie

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: Richie
Date: 29 Nov 02 - 08:53 PM

I'm not concerned about what the word "Dixie" means.

I have read the Snowden book and there's more evidence than Guest Q has mentioned. Still as I remember the book doesn't offer much but speculation.

The point of the book is: that Emmett learned Dixie from an African- American source, possibly the Snowden's or more likely their extended family.

Nowhere have we seen comparisons of Hays' "Dixie" (to Emmett's) or elaborate investigations into the origin of Hays' version. Why?

Can we investigate that here on Mudcat?

-Richie

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 29 Nov 02 - 01:56 PM

This website has links to several articles on Dixie and its origins, including one from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dixie Links
One of them refers to the Black Snowden family in Ohio.
Search of the records shows this is dubious, since the Snowden brothers at the time Emmett was there would only have been 5-6 years old. This is mentioned in a couple of websites, but no real evidence is cited one way or the other. The story seems to have been from a family story told much later.
The story about the "Dixy" farm in Manhattan is a late anecdote. There is no evidence that the word came from Dixon of the Mason-Dixon survey and line. The story that circus workers referred to Dixie when they pulled up stakes to move south cannot be dated- was this before or after the song's composition? Someone said it is too bad that we can't ask Emmett. Is there a medium in the house?

An interesting letter, here, written in 1893, by a man who knew Emmett and one of the Bryant brothers. Interesting sidelights on Emmett and his "walk-around" composition for the Bryant Minstrels. This letter would place the date of the composition in 1859. Dixie origin . The lyrics of Dixie given at this website is a revised and abbreviated version of the one with the later New Orleans buckwheat verse.

The best answer is that the origin of the word is "obscure."

Genealogists say that the surname "Dixie" is Saxon. Emmett descended from German immigrants. No connection likely here.

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,Frankham
Date: 29 Nov 02 - 10:25 AM

Hi All,

I ran across some information that might be true or not. In an old songbook I saw reference to a Dick's Farm, a working plantation on Long Island, New York whereby the help was paid to reproduce a plantation in the south. Dick's Land became Dixie's Land or Dicksey's Land. Wish Emmett were around to confirm or reject this theory.

The Mason-Dixon theory or the French "dix" theory seemed weak to me also. Anybody ever heard of Dick's Farm or Dix's Farm?

Frank

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,ta2
Date: 29 Nov 02 - 08:56 AM

i thought the mason-dixon line was a civil war fronteir between "north" and "south"............assumed that's where "dixie" came from

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 11:28 PM

You will have to ask a blackjack Mormon.

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: Haruo
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 11:07 PM

Mormon winemaking could be a whole separate thread. Was "Dixie" made for export or for sacramental use, or is teetotaling a newfangled notion in those circles, like monogamy? (I think the southern part of their territory is also where there's the most resistance to the apostolic outlawing of polygamy; are the polygamists also imbibers of strong wines?)

Haruo

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 10:47 PM

Emmett's song was in use by Bryant's Minstrels before the sheet music was published in 1860. (See NY Herald, May 1859, post above) Exactly how much earlier would require going through newspaper files in the towns where Bryant's Minstrels performed for mention of the song.

The same could hold true for Hays' version.

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 10:36 PM

The origin of "Dixie" is obscure, but the apparent first use of the term in print dates to Dan Emmett and his minstrel song, "Dixie's Land," 1859. The New York Herald published the song April 4, 1859, upon the occasion of a performance by Bryant's Minstrels- "In Dixie Lann whar I was born in, Arly on one frosty mawnin,...." The spelling departs from Emmett's, probably how the reporter heard it. The article discusses "Dixie's Land, another new plantation festival." (This from The Oxford English Dictionary, 1987 Supplement)

I think most southerners trace the name to the banknote and "dix," but with little reason. How widespread was the use of the note?
When our coinage was named, Jefferson in 1785 came up with disme, from the French dixième, meaning a tenth. The first pronunciation was deem, but soon became dime. (From H. L. Mencken, "The American Language")

In 1861, G. Putnam published a book referring to the South as Dixie. "Before and After the Battle, a Day and Night in Dixie," was the title. Very soon, the name spread across the country.

(The southern part of the land occupied by the Mormons, extending into Arizona, was called Dixie. The Mormons made a strong wine which they called Dixie)

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: Richie
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 10:03 PM

The melody for both Emmett's and Hays tune is nearly identical. The words to Hays version seem be more authentic, as if they were based on a local minstrel source or perhaps the same source as Emmett's.

The lyrics are also very similar:

Hays-
Away, away,
We'll all be off for Dixie,
Away away,
We'll soon be off for Dixie.

Emmett-
Away, away,
Away down south in Dixie,
Away, away,
Away down south in Dixie.

Since they were both "composed" in 1960 by different men in different locations (Ohio and Kentucky) and asuming that e-mail and horses were a slow form of communication, it seems they would have been based on a common minstrel source or one copied from the other.

Has anyone heard of any comparisions of the two works? And if not, why haven't there been any?

-Richie

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 08:56 PM

All good stuff, but what I really want to know is why the word "Dixie" was used in the first place to refer to the South.

Derives from "Mason -Dixon" ? Highly implausible, IMHO.

I did however find an interesting snippet Here . Don't know that I give much credence to it however.

Murray

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 08:30 PM

The link to the whole sheet music

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 05:47 PM

Away down in Dixie's land / words by Jerry Blossom ; music by Dixie, Jr. (Boston, Mass. : O. Ditson & Co., 1860) [sheet music from American Memory].

midi (from Public Domain Music)

Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 01:48 PM

Link cut off- Dixie's Land

Subject: RE: Origin: Dixie
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 01:44 PM

For comparisons, see thread on Dixie's Land, 25204:

Subject: Lyr Add: DIXIE
From: Richie
Date: 28 Nov 02 - 01:16 PM

I'm sure ther's been some debate on this and even a book about teh black origin (Snowden family) but I though William Shakespeare Hays version of "Dixie" should be included. Both Emmett and Hays published versions in the same year 1860, giving further creedence to the evidence that Dixie was arranged from "minstrel or African American sources.

Benjamin Robert Tubb posted Hays version on his excellent site: Public Domain Music. Tubb commented to me that "Hays' version of "Dixie" may well be more authentic. There are definite similarities. Emmet's version was afterall "arranged" by W. L. Hobbs."

Benjamin Robert Tubb: William Shakespeare Hays was born in Louisville, KY on 19 July 1837 and died there at the age of 70 on 23 July 1907. His parents were Hugh and Martha (Richardson) Hays. He married Belle McCullough in July of 1865. His known children are Mattie Belle Hays (dedicated to, in the song O, Let Me Kiss the Baby, 1867), Susie Hobbs Hays (dedicated to, in the song Kiss Me, Good Night, Mama, 1870) and Samuel Brown Hays (dedicated to, in the song How Much Does the Baby Weigh, 1880).
His most popular songs were Evangeline (1862), The Drummer Boy of Shiloh (1863), We Parted by the River (1866), The Little Old Cabin in the Lane (1871), Molly Darling (1871) [with 3 million copies published], Susan Jane (1871), Oh! Sam (1872), Angels Meet Me at the Cross Roads (1875). Early in de Mornin' (1877), Roll Out! Heave Dat Cotton (1877).
He composed approximately 350 songs. Two sigificant collections, detailed as items 286 (manuscripts) and 813 (prints and photographs), are at The Filson Club Historical Society of Kentucky.

Lyr. Add: DIXIE

To Capt. J. B. O'Bannon, Tywopita, Ky. [Title page:] "Way Down in Dixie" (1860)[Cover page: "Away Down in Dixie's Land"]
As Sung by Hooley's Minstrels, Words by "Jerry Blossom,"
[Cover page: Music by "Dixie, Jr." [Title page: "by Young Dixie"]
[pseud. for William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907]
Boston, MA: O. Ditson & Co., Plate No. 1202-5
[Copyrighted by D. P. Faulds & Co., in Kentucky]
Source: os76@UNC-CH

1.
Oh Dixie am de paradise
Whar de raise de cotton and de rice,
Come away
Boy's away boy's away,
Down in Dixie
Whar de Gal's grow tall
And de Babies small,
And some folks dey don't grow at all,
Come away boy's away, boy's away down in Dixie.

CHORUS: Then, come let's go to Dixie,
Yah! ho! yah ho!
We'll sing dis song, de whole night long,
When we go down in Dixie.
Away, away,
We'll all be off for Dixie,
Away away,
We'll soon be off for Dixie.

2. Dar was a girl in Dixie's land,
I ax'd her for her head and hand,
Come away boy's, away boys, away
Down in Dixie,
Then she smiled an' gib me her consent
I got de Gal away we went,
Come away boys, away, boys away down in Dixie.

3. And when she went to bed one night,
She could'nt see for want of light,
Away! boys, away! away down in Dixie,
She lit de lite, as any one mout,
She put it in bed and blowed her sef out,
Away! boys, away! away down in Dixie.

(CHORUS)

4.De boy's down dar dey live on chicken;
And de babies like lasses,--dey want a lickin,
And away! boys, away! away down south in Dixie,
Dar face's am as broad as a farm in de Souf,
Like de Mississippi riber got snag's in de Mouf,
Then away boys, away down south in Dixie.

(CHORUS)

5. Oh, come now boys, since you've heard our story,
To de land of light and glory,
Come away, boys, away! away down south in Dixie,
O! our hearts am gay! we're a happy band,
Good bye! folks now for Dixie's land,
Away! boys, away! away down south in Dixie.

(CHORUS)

Comments?

-Richie