American songwriter, entertainer, and founder (1815-1904) of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. He is most remembered as the composer of the song 'Dixie.' Rare ink signature, "Daniel D. Emmett, author of Dixie's Land. (1859), 'Den I wish I was in Dixie!,'” on an off-white 6 x 7.5 sheet. Archivally double-matted and framed with an artist rendering of the Battle of Bull Run to an overall size of 27 x 17. In fine condition.
Emmett is traditionally credited with writing the song 'Dixie,' a tune that has since become one of the most distinctively Southern musical products of the 19th century. The story that Emmett related about its composition varied each time he told it, but the main points were that he composed the song in New York City while a member of Bryant's Minstrels. The song was first performed by Emmett and the Bryants at Mechanics' Hall in New York City on April 4, 1859. The song became a runaway hit, especially in the South, and the piece for which Emmett was most well known. Emmett himself reportedly told a fellow minstrel: 'If I had known to what use they [Southerners] were going to put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it.' After the South began using his song as a rallying call, Emmett wrote the fife-and-drum manual for the Union Army. Emmett's song was a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln, who said after the war ended in 1865, 'I have always thought that 'Dixie' was one of the best tunes I ever heard…I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it.'
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