Ching-a-Ring Chaw
Ching-a-Ring Chaw (sometimes Ching-a-Ring, or Ching-a-Ring Shaw) is a song from the early days of the Minstrel tradition. A rewritten version frequently performed in modern times comes from Aaron Copland's 1952 Old American Songs song set.
Lyrics
The precise lyrics vary, but they are generally approximately as follows:
- Ching-a-ring-a ring ching ching,
- Ho a ding-a-ding kum larkee,
- Ching-a-ring-a ring ching ching,
- Ho a ding kum larkee.
- Brothers gather round,
- Listen to this story,
- 'Bout the promised land,
- An' the promised glory.
- You don't need to fear,
- If you have no money,
- You don't need none there,
- To buy you milk and honey.
- There you'll ride in style,
- Coach with four white horses,
- There the evenin' meal,
- Has one two three four courses.
- Nights we all will dance
- To the harp and fiddle,
- Waltz and jig and prance,
- "And Cast off down the middle!"
- When the mornin' come,
- All in grand and splendour,
- Stand out in the sun,
- And hear the holy thunder!
- Brothers hear me out,
- The promised land's a-comin'
- Dance and sing and shout,
- I hear them harps a strummin'.
- Ching-a-ring-a ching
- ching ching, ching a ring ching
- Ching-a-ring-a ching ching,
- Ching a Ching a Ching chning
- ching-a-ring-a,
- ching-a-ring-a,
- ching-a-ring-a,
- ring, ching ching ching CHAW!
History
Ching-a-Ring Chaw's origin was as a blackface minstrel song. While arranging the piece for the second set of his Old American Songs, composer Aaron Copland made a point of rewriting the lyrics to efface any of the song's minstrel baggage: "I did not want to take any chance of it being construed as racist."[1]
See also
References
- Eileen Southern. The Music of Black Americans. Ed. 2. NY: W.W. Norton Co. 1983.
- Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff. Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895. pp. 93–96
- William A. Everett, Paul R. Laird. The Cambridge Companion to the Musical.
- Erroll G. Hill and James Hatch. A History of African-American Theater. Cambridge University Press 2003.
- -Hill, The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present, ed. Engle and Miller, Cambridge University Press. 1993
- Thomas L. Riis. "Musical Theater." The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. 614– 623.
- Riis. “Minstrelsy and Theatrical Miscegenation.” The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical. ed. Raymond Knapp, et al. Oxford University Press 2011. 66, 67, 72, 76.
- -Riis. Interview by the author. August 2015, University of Colorado, Boulder.
- -Riis. More than Just Minstrel Shows: The Rise of Black Musical Theatre at the Turn of the Century. (I.S.A.M. Monographs: Number 33.) Brooklyn: Institute for Studies in American Music, 1992.
- See also Susheel Bibbs, Voices for Freedom—Booklet: A New Look at the Hyers Sisters' Dream, Change, and Legacy. Amazon.com
- ↑ "Copland: Old American Songs". New Mexico Philharmonic. 2011-11-14. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
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