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Description: | 'Jig dancing' was very popular in the 19thC American Music Hall. The word 'jig' was used not only to describe the 6/8 dance meter of the Irish tradition, but also a peculiarly American dance form developed by minstrel-show entertainers who incorporated African-inspired syncopation into tunes with the same basic 4/4 rhythm and eight-bar segments of Irish or Scottish hornpipes, reels, and flings. These 'jigs' (sometimes called 'straight jigs' to distinguish them from the Irish variety), were first played and danced by blackface 'Ethiopian impersonators' and hold great significance in the development of American popular culture. Dance historians trace the origin of twentieth-century tap and soft-shoe dancing to the amalgamation of African, Irish, and English dance styles in the musical melting pot of nineteenth-century America. Jig dancers often competed with each other in 'challenge dances,' which were sometimes adjudicated by auditors stationed underneath the stage, the better to hear the accuracy of the steps.One of the most popular turns of that era was Kitty O'Neil, who was frequently billed as 'the champion jig and clog dancer of the world.' In 1876 she is said to have become the first woman to perform the 'sand jig,' a specialty introduced that year by dancer Jimmy Bradley. The dance was done in shuffles and slides instead of taps. The soles of the shoes were thin and hard, and the dancer, shifting and digging in the sand, produced a sharp, staccato sound which could be doubled and tripled at will. Veteran New York Irish tap dancer Josephine McNamara remembers seeing it in her youth, when it was danced by vaudevillean Charles 'Cookie' Cook at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre. Film buffs may recall Fred Astaire's sand dance sequence in the 1935 film Top Hat, and the famous black dancer John Bubbles was noted for his rendition of the specialty. The sand dance was kept alive in more recent years by New York tapper Harriet Brown, who mixed sequins into her sand, and by Harlem resident 'Sandman' Sims.The Negro Hornpipe or Sand Jig, with it's change from major to minor between the first and second parts, is typical of the genre. The tune is taken from T. Craig's Empire Collection of Hornpipes. This small collection is one of a number of books published by Thomas Craig of Aberdeen in the late nineteenth century. This eight page publication contains 36 melodies arranged in keys starting with A and working through to Eb. This mode for arranging collections of melodies is reflected in Kerr's Merry Melodies and we have seen it used in some of the hand written texts in the North of England. One such volume, written by T. Newlands (1831-33) contains a number of tune sets arranged for dancing grouped by key. This seems very much at odds with the current practice of arranging tune sets around dramatic changes of key.Although it only contains 36 melodies, this slim volume is of great interest. Many of the tunes are by known composers. Some are certainly American or Scottish, but at least one composition has obvious Tyneside Links. The tune 'Hill's Hornpipe' is definitely in the style of James Hill of Gateshead, it would be fair to assume then that this is one of Hill's compositions. The fact that this Scottish publication contains compositions by American and Italian musicians alongside melodies from Tyneside gives us a very clear picture of the important place held by Tyneside composers such as James Hill and it is no little surprise that these compositions remain popular to this day. ; 19th century hornpipe collection | Publisher: | Thomas Craig George Street ; Aberdeen | Rights holder: | rights holder : | Temporal: | start=1861;end=1900; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:X0001021 | Go to resource |
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