Minstrel tunes like Cane Break Reel, Original Essence of Old Virginny, De Bones in De Boneyard, Carney Jig, and Old Tare River are all one part Tunes. How did one part Tunes come to be and how were they used. I like them and really don't know anything about them. I find some of them to be little exercises in a right or left hand movement. Were they etudes?
Most of those tunes were extracted from minstrel shows, and were either songs with words or dances that linked different routines. See the Dan Emmett book by Hans Nathan, which includes a large number of tunes by the way.
archive.org/details/danemmettr.../mode/2up
I'm no expert on minstrelsy, but those kinds of instrumental tunes might've been used for everything from scene transitions to dedicated dance numbers. We should also keep in mind that whatever notated examples we have from that era are a simplification of practice. I mean, if someone had to play the same 16-bar tune over and over, they would probably come up with some variations. It's also easy enough to link together tunes that are in the same key (which is most of them) and meter.
I think the idea of what constitutes a "normal" tune is a matter of point-of-view. If you are accustomed to the repertory of fiddle/banjo dance tunes that have been circulating since the old-time revival of the late 1900s, yes, most tunes have an "A" section and a "B" section consisting of eight or sixteen measures, depending on how you count the beat. Of course there are tunes with a "C" section and maybe a "D" section, and then there are the tunes with an irregular number of measures and even an oddball number of beats.
If you look back to when dance tunes became common currency, the tune books printed by John Playford in the 17th century are probably the best place to start. Many tunes in these books were specific to a particular dance choreography, and while quite a few tunes had what we think today is a regular structure, many tunes had only a single section.
The minstrel show rep is actually a direct descendant of the earlier printed dance tunes, at least in spirit. The minstrel show routines were invented for their entertainment value and included some previously known dances, but if a tune consisted of only eight measures without a "B" part, it was because the tune was likely made for a minstrel show routine that included a "walk around" or a filler tune for comedic dialogue.
A good example of a minstrel show tune that entered the modern fiddle/banjo rep is "Jump Jim Crow," with two short sections. Most people trace the tune to Melvin Wine, but it is a minstrel show tune that can be found printed in the Hans Nathan book on Dan Emmett.
quote:
Originally posted by EulalieA good example of a minstrel show tune that entered the modern fiddle/banjo rep is "Jump Jim Crow," with two short sections. Most people trace the tune to Melvin Wine, but it is a minstrel show tune that can be found printed in the Hans Nathan book on Dan Emmett.
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