Cakewalk

The Cakewalk is a social dance, which was described in 1850 as an independent dance in the United States; he was first (English for "Chalk Line Gear " ) called Chalk Line Walk. From 1895 to 1905, the dance was then on the basis of ragtime music as Cakewalk to the famous dance craze; In 1915 he had a second heyday., The world was before he went out of fashion around 1920.

Formation

By 1840, originated in the great land plantations in Florida ( USA) dance Chalk Line Walk, joined as African-American slaves a dance of the local Indian folk dances with the Seminoles from their African homeland. They took the basic form of serious border dance for couples and added elements of the dances of the Xhosa and the Ring Shout added, for example, by bent posture and the deeply held hands. The dancers, called walker ( English for " walkers " or " walkers " ), fallen from a straight line and balanced while a water-filled bucket on his head.

Over time, the water bucket disappeared and the dancers went on instead to parody the behavior of their white dominions. They imitated the proud below the white ballroom dancers played exaggerates the flirting with the ladies after, bowed deeply exaggerated, brandishing imaginary canes and greeted with mostly non-existent hats. Many plantation owners were amused by these ideas of their slaves and organized performances for themselves and their visitors. From the performances grew a competition: the plantation owners wanted to prove to each other that their slaves were the better dancers and therefore conducted Sunday dance competitions. Since the prize for the winner of such competition was initially a cake, the name of the dance to Cakewalk changed. Ekkehard Jost shows that it is unsecured, whether really that was the dance, because a cake was exposed as prize money. According to other traditions of the dance is less a formal dance, but a dance game with cake and part of a wedding tradition.

Spread

The Cakewalk has also been used in the North American minstrel shows. There he served since the late 1870s " to the " walkaround " accompany ", so the final part of a minstrel show. However, the Cakewalk was increasingly used independently of this use: The Cakewalk has appeared around the turn of the century its way into other parts of the world to. The silent film Uncle Tom 's Cabin (1903), Edwin S. Porter turned on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the dance made ​​famous in Europe, where there were also the first recordings and he developed into a dance craze.

Musical form and rhythm

Maximilian Hendler references the hypothesis that the Cakewalk could be derived from the Clave cinquillo. Audio recordings of the Cakewalk, there is only from the middle and later dissemination phase. " From the early days no notes exist nor any descriptions that reflect more than general impressions. "

The printed Cakewalk include in most cases sub-units with mostly every 16 cycles, which are present in such forms as AABBACCAA so simple when the march or the Ragtime are built. Tunes like the 1897 composed by Kerry Mills Cakewalk "At a Georgia Camp Meeting " could be interpreted both as a Two Step as well as polka and also as Cakewalk, but also as a march. As interpretations evidenced by the chapel of John Philip Sousa, Cakewalk were then played as a " march with syncope ."

Cakewalk in art music

The French composer Claude Debussy used as the final movement of his incurred 1906-1908 piano suite Children's Corner a Cakewalk entitled " Golliwogg 's Cakewalk ". The piece in ragtime rhythm parodied in its central part, the beginning of Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde, along with the music historically significant " Tristan chord ".

Word meaning and word origin

Cakewalk is the Germanization of the English term cakewalk, the "cake Gang" or " cake promenade " literally means. ( The translation given in the dictionary " Cake Dance " is inaccurate. ) The term allegedly goes back to being plantation owners had their slaves Sundays competitions could deliver in this dance form and the winner got a cake as a prize; it should mimic the campy passage of whites.

The earlier name for the dance form was chalk line walk, English for " chalk Line Gear " or " chalk line Promenade". The reason for this designation is not known, probably goes back to the fact that the couples promenading on an (imaginary ) straight line.

Related terms and phrases

Through the Cakewalk, the following English phrases emerged:

• (to) take the cake - " the price of which bear "
• Did takes the cake! - "This is ( lone ) top! "
• It's a cakewalk - "that's a no-brainer "

You may also receive the following English phrase to the Cakewalk goes back:

• That's a piece of cake - "this is a child's play", "it's easy ", "this is easy "