"Clare de Kitchen" is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

from the

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

minstrel tradition. It dates to 1832, when blackface performers such as George Nichols,

Thomas D. Rice Thomas Dartmouth Rice (May 20, 1808 – September 19, 1860) was an American performer and playwright who performed in blackface and used African American vernacular speech, song and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show ente ...

, and

George Washington Dixon George Washington Dixon (1801?Many biographies list his birth year as 1808, but Cockrell, ''Demons of Disorder'', 189, argues that 1801 is the correct date. This is based on Dixon's records at a New Orleans hospital, which list him as 60 years ol ...

began to sing it. These performers and American writers such as

T. Allston Brown Thomas Allston Brown (January 16, 1836 – April 2, 1918) was an American theater critic, newspaper editor, talent agent and manager, and theater historian, best known for his books, ''History of the American Stage'' (Dick & Fitzgerald: New York ...

traced the song's origins to black riverboatsmen. "Clare de Kitchen" became very popular, and performers sometimes sang the lyrics of "

Blue Tail Fly "Jimmy Crack Corn" or "Blue-Tail Fly" is an American song which first became popular during the rise of blackface minstrelsy in the 1840s through performances by the Virginia Minstrels. It regained currency as a folk song in the 1940s at the ...

" to its tune. Musicologist Dale Cockrell sees echoes of European

mumming Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as ''rhymers'', ''pace-eggers'', ''soulers'', ''tipteerers'', ''wrenboys'', and ''galoshins''). ...

traditions in "Clare de Kitchen". In traditional mumming plays, the participants first entered a private household. One mummer, usually with a broom and sometimes with blackened face, would then clear an area and declare the space to now be public, for the use of the players. "Clare de Kitchen", Cockrell argues, moves this public/private space to the theatre. The first verse reflects this relationship to mumming: :In old Kentuck in de arternoon, :We sweep de floor wid a bran new broom, :And dis de song dat we do sing, :Oh! Clare de kitchen old folks young folks :Clare de kitchen old folks young folks :Old Virginny never tire. The line "I wish I was back in old Kentuck" is one of the earliest examples of "I wish I was in" from blackface minstrelsy. This line eventually became the famous " I Wish I Was in Dixie" in 1859. An alternate set of lyrics, sung by

in the mid-1830s, may reflect the input or influence of American blacks. This version features animal characters and trickster figures triumphing over larger animals in the same way that such figures do in African folktales: :A jay bird sot on a hickory limb, :He wink'd at me and I wink'd at him, :I pick'd up a stone and I hit his shin, :Says he you better not do dat agin. :A Bull frog dress'd sogers close, :Went in de field to shoot some crows; :De crows smell powder and fly away, :De Bull frog mighty mad dat day.Quoted in Lott 22-3.

Notes

References

* Cockrell, Dale (1997). ''Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World''. Cambridge University Press. * Goldberg, Isaac (1930). ''Tin Pan Alley: A Chronicle of the American Popular Music Racket''. Kessinger Publishing. * Lott, Eric (1995). ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class''. Oxford University Press. . * Mahar, William J. (1999). ''Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture''. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. * Nathan, Hans (1962). ''Dam Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. {{authority control 1832 songs Blackface minstrel songs