140 PART 1 | FROM COLONIZATION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR
date: 1850
performers: Frederick Urrey, tenor, and
John Van Buskirk, piano
genre: minstrel song
meter: duple
form: verse and chorusListening Guide 6.2 “De Camptown Races” STEPHEN C. FOSTERWHAT TO LISTEN FOR- jaunty, memorable melody
- piano accompaniment in imitation of
minstrel band - lyrics in imitation of Negro dialect
timing section text comments
0:00 introduction Piano’s upper register imitates a
fi ddle, with the left hand providing
the rhythmic accompaniment of the
rest of a minstrel band.
0:06 verse 1 De Camptown ladies sing dis song,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
De Camptown race-track fi ve miles
long,
Oh, doo-dah day!
I come down dah wid my hat caved in,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
I go back home wid a pocket full of tin,
Oh, doo-dah day!All four lines of text are sung to the
same pentatonic melody, while the
punctuating vocables (“doodah,”
etc.) alternate half (unfi nished)
cadences and full (fi nished)
cadences.0:21 chorus Gwine to run all night!
Gwine to run all day!
I’ll bet my money on de bob-tail nag,
Somebody bet on de bay.Begins with a strikingly different,
rising melodic line, then concludes
with the same bit of melody used in
the verse.
0:30 verse 2 and
chorusDe long tail fi lly and de big black hoss,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
Dey fl y de track and dey both cut
across,
Oh, doo-dah-day!
De blind hoss sticken in a big mud
hole,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
Can’t touch bottom wid a ten foot pole,
Oh, doo-dah-day!
Gwine to run all night!...Performers opt to slow the tempo for
serio-comic “dramatic” effect in the
second half of the verse.0:57 verse 3 and
chorusOld muley cow come on to de track,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
De bob-tail fl ing her ober his back,
Oh, doo-dah-day!
Den fl y along like a rail-road car,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
Runnin’ a race wid a shootin’ star,
Oh, doo-dah-day!
Gwine to run all night!...As in all the verses, the piano
accompanies the melody’s solo
phrases in the lower register,
switching to the upper register for
what would be the responses in a
group performance.CD 1.18172028_06_132-161_r3_ko.indd 140 23/01/13 8:19 PM