In the words of Lester S. Levy, “The songs that appealed to nineteenth-century America had a simple humor that is somewhat amusing even today. That is not to say that anyone hearing the old songs now for the first time will double up with laughter. Amusement values change with generations. But audiences came to the theater to smile and guffaw and to buy the songs’ sheet music and take them home for singing with the family. “For a comic song, a simple melody sufficed if the tune was gay and the good humor of the verses infectious. Thus the songs were easy to sing and easy to remember. Nearly all are written in a major key – mostly B-flat, C, D, F, or G. Nothing interfered with the easy flow of words and music. Most of these songs were written in 4/4 or 6/8 time, the latter in a rollicking ibbity-zibbity rhythm which could excite a listener even before he heard the lyrics.” |
 |  |  | | : Like many good British tunes, Jenny Jones, a Welsh ballad written by John Parry, came to America in the 1840s, was circulated by an American music publisher, and enjoyed mild popularity. However, twenty-five years later, song writer W. H. Cove put a new set of verses to the old melody to create one of the most entertaining musical stories of the period, The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train. | : In the 1890s the song writers gave a new twist to the husband and wife quarrel. They introduced black participants, and did not hesitate to use dialect which today would be regarded as racially offensive. Ned Wayburn, who later became a great showman, was a little-known writer when, in 1898, he produced a song entitled He Ain’t No Relation of Mine. |  |  |  | | : Comic songs about the Irish-American started to appear in the 1840s. One of the first was a parody on a popular piece of the period, “The Fine Old English Gentleman.” John Brougham, a well-known song writer of the times, instead titled his version The Fine Ould Irish Gintleman. | : Comedienne Lottie Gilson was one of the most important song boosters in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Sometimes known as “The Little Magnet,” Gilson was helpful to many hopeful song writers, such as C. M. Rodney, who wrote the music and collaborated on the verses of La-Didily-Idily, Umti-Umti-Ay!or “Jones’ Wedding."
| : In 1893, the year of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, songwriter Francis J. Bryant composed a ditty about Christopher Columbus called Cristofo Columbo. The puns in the sixteen verses are terrible, but the melody was extremely simple, so its popularity hung on, even though during the ensuing twenty-five years college students coarsened the verses and chorus to such an extent that it became a song suitable only for stag parties. | The tour continues on the next page | | |
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