The Nigger and the Bee
'The Nigger and the Bee.' Anonymous singer. No place or date given on MS score. This is, no doubt, of minstrel origin, but no print or reference to it could be found. Compare, however, a similar song in ANFS 400 : 'Did You Eber Go A-Fishin' On a Hot Summer Day?' The rather complicated structure would certainly strengthen the opinion with regard to the origin of the song. Otherwise, the tune is full of melodic 'innuendos' ; for instance, the beginning borrows from 'Turkey in the Straw'; others, like measures 7, 11 etc., certainly acknowledge their acquaintance with a bow ! ^ ,
Did you e - her heah tell of de nig - gar an' de bee?
Yes, I did, 'deed I did. How de bee stung de nig
ger an' den he stung me? Yes, he did — deed he did. Dat
nig - ger he said to de bee, 'Dere's sights in de gar - den
fo' to see. You suck de blos-soms an' get all de hon-ey,
An I'll be 'roun' an' get all de mon - ey.' An' to
de nig - ger 'twas fun - ny, — Fo' to rob de bee of his hon-ey,-
But de bee laid fo' him An' oh,
such fun, Good-ness gra-cious! how de nig -ger did run. Dat
bee, dat bee,
dat'le honey bee
He lit stung dat nig - ger
hard Till de nig - ger could - n't
scarce-ly see. Dat bee, dat bee, dat li - 'le hon - ey bee.
Scale: Heptachordal. Tonal Center: c. Structure: aaibbicdd^cefe (2,2,1,
1,2,1,1,2,2,2,2) ; the f is closely related to e. Thus we have a compound struc-
ture of strophe, barform, barform, strophe. The over-all form, however,
would be: abed (4,4,4,6). Here, b as well as c share in the same ending. The
tonal center is the lowest tone.