Blue-Tail Fly, The

Clare Grundman

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General Info

Year: 1951
Duration:
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes

Cost: Score and Parts - Out of print.

For availability information, see Discussion area.

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet Solo-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Bass Saxophone
Cornets Solo-II-III
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F I-II-III
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion

(percussion detail desired)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

"Jim Crack Corn" or Blue Tail Fly is an American song which first became popular during the rise of blackface minstrelsy in the 1840s, regained currency as a folk song in the 1940s at the beginning of the folk revival, and has since become a popular children's song under the name Jimmy Crack Corn.

Over the years, several variants have appeared. Most versions include some idiomatic African English, although sanitized General American versions now predominate. The basic narrative remains intact. On the surface, the song is a black slave's lament over his white master's death in a riding accident. The song, however, can be—and is—interpreted as having a subtext of celebration about that death and of the slave's having contributed to it through deliberate negligence or even deniable action.

-Program Note from Wikipedia

Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Ventura County (Calif.) Concert Band (Julie Judd, conductor) - 12 April 2015

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

Kentucky 1800 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Longfield) (1954/2006/2017)

All Wind Works

American Folk Rhapsody No. 1 (1948)
American Folk Rhapsody No. 2. See: Second American Folk Rhapsody
American Folk Rhapsody No. 3 (1970)
American Folk Rhapsody No. 4 (1977)
A Bernstein Tribute (as arranger) (1991)
The Black Knight (1956)
The Blue and the Gray (1961)
The Blue and the Gray (arr. Longfield) (1961/2013)
The Blue-Tail Fly (1951)
Burlesque for Band (1967)
Caprice for Clarinets (1961)
Chorale from "Concord" (arr. Longfield) (1988/2018)
Concord (1987)
Concertante for Alto Sax and Band (1973)
A Copland Portrait (as adapter) (1986)
A Copland Tribute (as arranger) (1986)
An English Christmas (1982)
English Suite (1968)
Fantasy on American Sailing Songs (1952)
Fantasy on English Hunting Songs (1985)
Flutation (1961)
The Green Domino (1951)
Hebrides Suite (1962)
An Irish Rhapsody (1971)
Japanese Rhapsody (1969)
Kentucky 1800 (1954/1987)
Kentucky 1800 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Longfield) (1954/2006/2017)
Little English Suite (1968)
Little Suite for Band (1957)
March Processional (1950)
A Medieval Story (1966)
Music for a Carnival (1957)
Nocturne for Harp and Band (1975)
Quiet Christmas (1959)
A Scottish Rhapsody (1981)
Second American Folk Rhapsody (1959)
Señor, Señor (1963) (as Carlos Guermo)
Slava! (as transcriber) (1977/1978)
A Somerset Rhapsody (as transcriber) (1906/1927/1980)
Spirit of '76 (1964)
Three Sketches for Winds (1969)
Two Moods (1947)
Tuba Rhapsody
A Welsh Rhapsody (1968)
Western Dance (1968)

Resources

Grundman, C. (1951). The Blue-Tail Fly [score]. Boosey & Hawkes: [s.l.]
Jimmy Crack Corn, Wikipedia