Did Dan Emmett steal “Dixie?”
Dr. Lorle Porter answers with a resounding, “No.”
The conspiracy theory that has been subversively percolating in recent years is that Mount Vernon native Daniel Decatur Emmett stole the soon-to-become-legendary song “Dixie” from the African-American Snowden family, who lived on what is now known as Snowden Avenue. In 1994, Howard and Judith Sacks of Gambier published the book “Way Up North in Dixie,” which cited a previously undocumented oral tradition among Mount Vernon’s black community that the Snowdens had written “Dixie,” and Emmett appropriated it from them.
Unfortunately, this unsubstantiated rumor has been regarded in some quarters as a verified fact, leading to references to Emmett’s “theft” in magazines and books by scholars who ought to know better.
Porter has struck back at those who are misusing Sacks’ valuable research into the history of the Snowdens in her new book, “The Great Dan Emmett... Burnt-Cork Artist Extraordinaire,” published by New Concord Press in Coshocton. The title, taken from a phrase used by concert promoter Al Smith, who organized a national tour for the poor and elderly Emmett, demonstrates Porter’s attempt to go back to the sources and piece together the truth.
For those loving scandal, alas, there are no credible early hints, let alone outright statements, that would indicate Emmett did anything improper with “Dixie.” As Porter points out, Ben and Lew Snowden had years after Emmett’s death when they could have gone public with allegations if he stole something from them. But they didn’t. In fact, according to Porter, the Snowdens kept a portrait of Emmett on the wall in their house, and were known to be friends with him.
Even if Emmett borrowed or rewrote an existing folk melody, he was only following the normal procedure of all popular music writers of his day, including the Snowdens themselves. Several of Emmett’s other tunes took old folk fiddle tunes and touched them up with new lyrics and sometimes alterations to the shape of the tune. The words we know today in the song “Old Dan Tucker” were updated lyrics that Emmett wrote to fit an old fiddle tune.
The fact is, times were different then. It was an age before copyright laws, an age before lawyers would jump at any hint of similarity between two melodies in order to slap a lawsuit accusing a composer of plagiarism. For all of human history, up until just under 100 years ago, musicians shared, borrowed and riffed off each other’s ideas. This is how folk music came to reflect the personalities of regions and ethnic groups, and it is a proper part of the musical dialectic.
Ask Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose third symphony is actually an arrangement of a work by Karl Abel. Ask Johannes Brahms, who snapped, “Any fool can see that,” when someone pointed out that the big tune in the finale of his first symphony sounded similar to Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Ask 20th century Russian-American composer Igor Stravinsky, who unintentionally paid tribute to his colleague Bela Bartok by accidentally ripping off a distinctive passage from Bartok’s “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta” in his own “Symphony in Three Movements.” It happens.
There’s little chance and even less evidence that Emmett did anything wrong, and Porter instead focuses on finding original documents that prove he was a first-rank entertainer who left behind a remarkable legacy. After all, America in the 1800s was a remarkable meeting ground for disparate social groups, and Emmett was one of the entertainers in the forefront of welding the styles of those groups into a distinctive new style, known to this day as American music, and serving as the foundation of jazz, blues, rock, country, hip hop and more.
Porter’s book includes a wealth of maps, pictures and background stories which are interesting both in terms of putting Emmett’s life in context, as well as in a more genealogical/local history aspect. Indeed, anyone with family roots in Knox County could learn a lot about the Scotch-Irish roots of many of the families who settled here, including the Emmetts. Also of special interest is Porter’s selection of insightful passages from a rare, never-before-published memoir written during the Great Depression by May McClane, a relative of Emmett’s, who often spoke with him in his later years.
“The Great Dan Emmett... Burnt-Cork Artist Extraordinaire” is a valuable counter against the unfounded speculation which has denied this American original’s true stature for too long. So make sure and take a moment during the festival this weekend to salute the fellow who inspired it: Dan Emmett, the real author of “Dixie.”
