Potosi journal. (Potosi, Mo.) 1894-1929, 1912-02-21
It's "Big-eyed Rabbit" p"

pubic last Sunday publlShe
the piano score OF this allege
| Ozark production, and behold
ItnrnS out to be our familiar ol
breakdown friend Big eye
Rabbit.''
Swing your partner round an
Make them big feet jar lii
ground.
Big eyed rabblt-boo, boo. etc
Now it chanceth that the edito
Of the Banner has made som,
original researches into the mat
ter OF Ozark folk music. This
scribe. SO it happens, once
learned to play the violin a little
He discovered that country tid
dlers could do things that his
Paganini method did not pro
vide for. This was humiliatine
What the fddlers did was not
high art. They played break
down" music only. and it was
one kind of breakdown. Many
of their classics were character.
lied by consecutive tifths. which
violate a very positive rule Of
musical grammar. Then they
did another surprising thing
They tuned their D string to G
and in many pieces droned this
note through the whole air.
This was false to harmony but
great on rhythm.
BY and by the investigator
solved the matter to bis OWE
satisfaction. He decided thai
all these breakdown tunes were
composed in Scotland. four. five
or six centuries ago for the bag
pipe and brought over here by
the Scotch-Irish immigrants,
whose descendants carried the
tunes with them from North
Carolina to all the hills and valleys
Of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis-
souIi and westward. Those con
>ecutiye tifthS gave the thing
away. for conscecutiv tifth>
characterized much Of the music
made for the bag pipe. The
American settlers substituted
the fiddle for the bag pipe, tuned
the D string to 6 and played
that string with all the other
notes in imitation of the bag
pipes droning, renamed the
pieces in some instances, made
doggcrel to suit them, and filled
the whole Southern country with
jig jingle.
Accomplished violinists can
not play these breakdoWns like
the tiddlers do. unless some in
tnrDrptcr Of the spirit of the
Ozai.iIs shows them the trick in
the bowling, which consists of
much slurring and q strange
sort O. syncopation where none
appears in the written music.
But the Republic errs in attri-
buting to US Scotch Irish Ozark
crs any ability as composers.
No Scotch Irish American has
ever produced a new breakdown.
with or without consecutive
tifths. The race knows no mel
ody but foot rhythm and no har-
nony except that droning D
string turned too to initiate the
bag pipes monotone accOmpan-
iment. Scotch-LrisI people have
been too busy supplying the ma
ton with warriors and statesmen
to develope anything true in art.
It may be doubted if the Scotch
invented these tunes in the first
place. They were old in Shakes
pears day. for he said, hot and
angry ~ q Scotch Jig The
bagDipc was introduced into
Scotland or Caledonia by the
Roman invaders, via England.
Perhaps the breakdown tune
went with the instrument. On
the whole. We lean to the opinion
the instrument Nero played
while Rome was burning Was
not the lutte at all but the bag
pipe. and we opine that the tune
he played on that memorable
occasion Wa. tlle "Houn' Ijave
Song" So recently discovered
in tn" ozarks by the st, Louis
newspapers. Piedmont Banner
Do YOU know that uf all the minor
ailments colds are i'y far the most
dangerous? 1t is Lot the cold it
seH that you nee.' fear. but the Sc
r'ous diseases that it often leads to