Annotation:Come to my Darkey Home

Back to Come to my Darkey Home

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COME TO MY DARKEY HOME. American, Minstrel Song (2/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The song was sung by several minstrel troups in the mid-19th century, including White's Christy's and the New Orleans Serenaders. The first stanza goes:

Oh, come to my darkey home,
Oh, come along wid me!
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya!
Oh, come along wid me,
For I'm a-going to marry;
I will no longer tarry!
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya!
Oh, I'm a-going to marry!
Oh, come to my darkey home,
Oh, come along wid me!
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya!
Oh, come along me!

The melody, along with a number of minstrel melodies, cotillion sets and misc. dance tunes, was entered into the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Bellport, Long Island, ship's captain and fiddler Isaac Homan. It seems likely that Homan and his friends had an amateur music society or group, and may have put on minstrel shows thenselves.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Christy and White's Ethiopian Melodies, 1854; p. 70.

Recorded sources:

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