Exploring the Origin of the Song, Yankee Doodle
Exploring the Origin Of the Song, Yankee Doodle
Although it was one of the most famous and popular songs in the American colonies, "Yankee Doodle 's" original author and words are not known. Some trace this melody to a song of French vineyard workers; some to a German harvest tune, some to a Spanish sword dance, some to a Dutch peasant song. However, the most likely source is an English nursery rhyme 'Lucy Locket ' (American Popular Songs 451).
It is said that in 1755 while attending to a wounded prisoner of the French and Indian war at the home of the Van Rensselar family, Dr. Richard Schakburg composed these lyrics. The song is about a little boy and his father visiting one of the army camps of the brigade during the American Revolution. When there, the boy saw the men dancing with the ladies, he saw Captain Washington giving out orders to his men , and various other things which include the swamping gun which uses a horn of powder to be loaded. In stanza 8 the barrel being talked about with the clubs is a drum which was used to call everyone together. The boy also saw men with red ribbons around their waists playing corn stalk fiddles, and also troopers on their horses shooting their rifles.
The colonists probably got the song during the French and Indian war, when Richard Schakburg, a British army physician, was so amused at the sight of the ragged and disheveled troops under General Braddock that he decided to mock them. He improvised a set of nonsense lyrics to an English tune with which he had long been familiar; he palmed off this concoction on the colonial troops as the latest English song. The nonsense song of Doctor Richard Schakburg was "Yankee Doodle." As stated directly from Our Familiar Songs and Those Who Made Them,
Dr. Richard Schakburg was a regimental surgeon, afterwards appointed Secretary of Indian affairs by Sir William Johnson. This piece-up of broken humanity was a wit and musical genius, and the patchwork appearance of these
Although it was one of the most famous and popular songs in the American colonies, "Yankee Doodle 's" original author and words are not known. Some trace this melody to a song of French vineyard workers; some to a German harvest tune, some to a Spanish sword dance, some to a Dutch peasant song. However, the most likely source is an English nursery rhyme 'Lucy Locket ' (American Popular Songs 451).
It is said that in 1755 while attending to a wounded prisoner of the French and Indian war at the home of the Van Rensselar family, Dr. Richard Schakburg composed these lyrics. The song is about a little boy and his father visiting one of the army camps of the brigade during the American Revolution. When there, the boy saw the men dancing with the ladies, he saw Captain Washington giving out orders to his men , and various other things which include the swamping gun which uses a horn of powder to be loaded. In stanza 8 the barrel being talked about with the clubs is a drum which was used to call everyone together. The boy also saw men with red ribbons around their waists playing corn stalk fiddles, and also troopers on their horses shooting their rifles.
The colonists probably got the song during the French and Indian war, when Richard Schakburg, a British army physician, was so amused at the sight of the ragged and disheveled troops under General Braddock that he decided to mock them. He improvised a set of nonsense lyrics to an English tune with which he had long been familiar; he palmed off this concoction on the colonial troops as the latest English song. The nonsense song of Doctor Richard Schakburg was "Yankee Doodle." As stated directly from Our Familiar Songs and Those Who Made Them,
Dr. Richard Schakburg was a regimental surgeon, afterwards appointed Secretary of Indian affairs by Sir William Johnson. This piece-up of broken humanity was a wit and musical genius, and the patchwork appearance of these
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