EMMETT, DANIEL DECATUR. Autograph manuscript signed of "Dixie's Land" ("I wish I was in the land of cotton..."), n.d. [1870?]. 2 pages, folio, written on printed music staff paper, mounted on card for display, very slightly faded. The sheet is boldly titled at the head: "Dixie's Land. Composed by Daniel D. Emmett, in New York 1859," the instrumental introduction and melody of the song carefully notated on 9 staff lines, with full text beneath. At the bottom Emmet has added the note, "the 'Unison Chorus' comes in at the end of every line, as in the first verse." On the right-hand page, Emmet has neatly penned the full text of the five additional stanzas and at bottom added a certification: "This is an exact copy of the first specimen of this song, as I composed it [for] Bryant's Minstrels at No.472 Broadway N.Y. in the spring of 1859." "LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY, DIXIE LAND" A very attractive, boldly written fair copy of one of the most celebrated American songs. Emmett (1815-1904), wrote the first drummer's manual for the U.S. Army and organized one of the first minstrel companies. "Dixie,"as Emmett records, was composed for Bryant's Minstrels, a popular traveling minstrel company, its words evoking New York slaves' happy memories of life on a failed tobacco farm on Long Island owned by a family named Dixie. The song was apparently first performed in New York in April 1859, listed on the program as "Mr. Dan Emmett's original Plantation Song and Dance, Dixie's Land. ." The words were published later that year, but the song's huge popularity was launched by its performance in April 1860 in New Orleans, as part of the musical extravaganza Pocahontas. Its astonishing popularity prompted publication of several unauthorized editions of the song, the first entitled "I wish I was in Dixie." (For details of the song's complex and interesting publication history, see James Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, , pp.196-199). A band leader in Montgomery, Alabama, arranged the tune as a march and it was played in that form at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis on 16 February 1861. In spite of its rebel associations, President Lincoln was quite fond of "Dixie." While it is known that Emmett wrote out copies of "Old Dan Tucker" and this, his best-known composition, in later life, only one other fair copy of "Dixie" has appeared at auction since 1965.
EMMETT, DANIEL DECATUR. Autograph manuscript signed of "Dixie's Land" ("I wish I was in the land of cotton..."), n.d. [1870?]. 2 pages, folio, written on printed music staff paper, mounted on card for display, very slightly faded. The sheet is boldly titled at the head: "Dixie's Land. Composed by Daniel D. Emmett, in New York 1859," the instrumental introduction and melody of the song carefully notated on 9 staff lines, with full text beneath. At the bottom Emmet has added the note, "the 'Unison Chorus' comes in at the end of every line, as in the first verse." On the right-hand page, Emmet has neatly penned the full text of the five additional stanzas and at bottom added a certification: "This is an exact copy of the first specimen of this song, as I composed it [for] Bryant's Minstrels at No.472 Broadway N.Y. in the spring of 1859." "LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY, DIXIE LAND" A very attractive, boldly written fair copy of one of the most celebrated American songs. Emmett (1815-1904), wrote the first drummer's manual for the U.S. Army and organized one of the first minstrel companies. "Dixie,"as Emmett records, was composed for Bryant's Minstrels, a popular traveling minstrel company, its words evoking New York slaves' happy memories of life on a failed tobacco farm on Long Island owned by a family named Dixie. The song was apparently first performed in New York in April 1859, listed on the program as "Mr. Dan Emmett's original Plantation Song and Dance, Dixie's Land. ." The words were published later that year, but the song's huge popularity was launched by its performance in April 1860 in New Orleans, as part of the musical extravaganza Pocahontas. Its astonishing popularity prompted publication of several unauthorized editions of the song, the first entitled "I wish I was in Dixie." (For details of the song's complex and interesting publication history, see James Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, , pp.196-199). A band leader in Montgomery, Alabama, arranged the tune as a march and it was played in that form at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis on 16 February 1861. In spite of its rebel associations, President Lincoln was quite fond of "Dixie." While it is known that Emmett wrote out copies of "Old Dan Tucker" and this, his best-known composition, in later life, only one other fair copy of "Dixie" has appeared at auction since 1965.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
