Annotation:Old Aunt Sally

Find traditional instrumental music


Back to Old Aunt Sally


X:1 T:Old Aunt Sally M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Minstrel tune B:Gumbo Chaff - The Complete Preceptor for the Banjo (1851, p. 5) N:A later edition of the earliest known banjo tutor, published in 1848. N:It was written by Elias Howe, whose pseudonym Gumbo Chaff N:is taken from Thomas Dartmouth Rice's 1834 blackface character. N:The 1851 edition was published in Boston by Oliver Ditson. N:In 1850 Howe sold some of his works to Ditson (this one among them) N:and agreed not to publish similar works for ten years. Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D|D/G/G/B/ A/d/d/e/|d/d/c/A/ d/d/d/d/|D/G/G/B/ A/d/d/e/|d/d/c/A/ A/Gz/D/|| g|^f/d/>z/g/f/d/>g/|=f/e/f/g/ f/d/>z/^c/|d/g/g/^f/ g/g/g|g/g/a/g/ g/d/>z/z/| g/g/ z d/d/>z/A/|BG F/D/ z|gABc|d/e/c/A/ A<G z||



OLD AUNT SALLY. AKA - "My Old Aunt Sally." American, Air. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. 19th century Boston publisher Elias Howe included the tune in his section of "Ethiopian Melodies," consisting of melodies from the mid-19th century minstrel stage. "My Old Aunt Sally" is the title of a song by blackface minstrel Dan Emmett, first published in 1843. It is mentioned in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.

Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815-1904)



An elaborated instrumental version of the tune was entered (as "My Old Aunt Sally") into the mid-19th century music manuscript of Bellport, Long Island, NY, ship-builder and fiddler biography:Isaac Homan.


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Chaff (The Complete Preceptor for the Banjo), 1851; p. 5. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 42.

Recorded sources : - Hear the tune played on fretless banjo by Timothy Twiss on youtube.com [1]





Back to Old Aunt Sally

0.00
(0 votes)