Old Dan Tucker. Written and arranged for the piano forte by Dan. Tucker Jr.

New York: Atwill's, 201 Broadway. [1843]. First edition. Score, upright folio (34 cm). 3 pp. Cover illustrated with a silhouette of African American man leaning on a cane. Spine reinforced with paper, generally toned with some foxing around the edges, small tears and wrinkles along lower edge, else very good. Very rare, OCLC recording two copies only (Brown, Johns Hopkins).


The origins of Old Dan Tucker remain obscure. The tune may have come from oral tradition, but the words (and frequently the music too) are generally credited to songwriter and performer Dan Emmett, who was the founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition. The Virginia Minstrels popularized "Old Dan Tucker" in 1843, and it quickly became a minstrel hit. In exaggerated Black Vernacular English, the lyrics tell of Dan Tucker's exploits in a strange town, where he fights, gets drunk, overeats, and breaks other social taboos.


"Perhaps the minstrel show arose because there was this song. 'Old Dan Tucker,' composed by Dan Emmett...is a part of the transition, both of the old world and of the new...In text it is of the racist genre commonly assumed to characterize minstrel songs. However...more like 'Zip Coon' than 'Jim Crow,' it is about music and music-making...According to Y.S. Nathanson, it was 'the best of what I have denominated the ancient negro ballads. The melody was far superior to anything that had preceded it.' That the music is paramount is obvious from a quick glance at the sheet music, which gives far fewer verses for reading or singing than 'Jim Crow,' for example, and much more music for making. Then there's the infectious tune, which Nathanson compared to Donizetti and Auber. In the refrain, especially, one hears a use of syncopation that has been entirely absent from minstrelsy, with the single qualified exception of 'Zip Coon.' " (Dale Cockrell, "Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World," p. 156) (9584)

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