{"id":5889,"date":"2021-10-28T04:33:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T09:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5889"},"modified":"2021-10-28T04:39:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T09:39:16","slug":"5889","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/28\/5889\/","title":{"rendered":"Giddens and Powers: Reclaiming Minstrelsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much like the tunes from our sheet music discussion, \u201cCan\u2019t Yo\u2019 Heah Me Callin\u2019 Caroline\u201d features a sweet tune with racialized lyrics, leaving a bad taste in the mouth for most twenty-first century listeners who stumble upon it. (Side note: the plethora of sheet music that fit this exact description is somewhat overwhelming, to be honest.)\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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Can’t Yo’ Heah Me Callin’ Caroline<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Composed in 1914 by Caro Roma<\/a>, this song features the words of the poet William Henry Gardner — who she seemed to work with quite often, according to WorldCa. Like many popular minstrel songs and vaudeville pieces, W.H. Gardner writes in the dialect white people\u00a0 projected onto African Americans. Although the title is heavy with this racist misrepresentation, this poem also includes phrases like the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u201cI miss yo\u2019 when de moonbeams out on de ribber shine,\u201d and\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mah heart a-callin\u2019 dine.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Likewise, the song follows the narrator who pines over his love Caroline, equating a lot of this emotion with natural imagery, as evidenced in the lines featured above. However, Caroline could be either oblivious to their attempts to swoon or is simply not interested. Regardless of what Caroline thinks of the narrator, I think this tune is not only relatable to most people, but speaks to a more common theme of <\/span>unrequited love<\/b> in art music — I digress, but Robert Schumann\u2019s <\/span>Dichterleibe<\/span><\/i> comes to mind, especially considering the rich harmony combined with the expressive chromatic melody.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While I do enjoy the tune and the story,\u00a0 I chose this song because of\u00a0 a secondary video recording I discovered when searching for a recording of the piece. Listen to Bill Power\u2019s rendition of \u201cCan\u2019t Yo\u2019 Heah Me Callin\u2019 Caroline\u201d below.<\/span><\/p>\n