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Cotton Babes

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Item Description

Title: Cotton Babes

Composer

  • Weinrich, Percy

Arranger

  • Lechnyr, Joseph

Performer

  • UVM Band

Source Document

Extent: 1 sound disc: analog, 78 rpm ; 10 in.

Date Created: 1940 [approximate] - 1959 [approximate]

Description

"Cotton Babes" was the signature musical piece used for Kake Walk.  All Kake Walkers choreographed their high-stepping dances to the beat of this instrumental piece. It was performed live by the UVM band during the Walk. The syncopated melody was composed by Percy Weinrich around 1910 in the easy-to-follow musical style of the national cakewalk dance craze, then in its height.  "Cotton Babes" was used as the Kake Walk theme starting in 1912 or 1913. Tradition holds that the university's sheet music was destroyed in a fire in 1929 and that UVM Band Director Joseph Lechnyr rewrote the music from memory. The original record was probably produced in the 1940s - 1950s. Its green and gold label reads: University of Vermont / Cotton Babes / Arranged by Dr. Joseph F. Lechnyr / University of Vermont Band / Director, Dr. Joseph F. Lechnyr / 77764

Genre(s): sound recordings

Subject/topic

Note [Digital Version]

2010-05-12, Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries

Type of Resource: sound recording

Parent Collections

Access Conditions

Requests to reproduce this item should be sent to the UVM Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives at cdi@uvm.edu. For more information, see http://cdi.uvm.edu/about/rights.
More information.

Permanent Link:

http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/kwaudio001

Preferred citation

Cotton Babes, University Archives, Record Group 53: Fraternities and Sororities, Series: Kake Walk, http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/item/kwaudio001 (accessed May 21, 2013)

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User Comments

Where is the sound????

- Alan Turner

o.k. found the sound.I Kake-Walked for Phi Sig in 1952

- Alan Turner

P.S. My partner and I walked in purple face in 1952 with no stereotype makeup.

- Alan Turner

i was unable to access this item.Can you send it to me

- joseph Levin '62

No sound - can you correct??

- Michael Adess

I have an original record with the Green & Gold label form the University of Vermont "Cotton Babes". What is the value of said record and is there any interest in purchasing said record?

- Joel Staub

Alan Turner, I am a Hampshire student (Amherst, MA) doing a project on Kake Walk and I would love to talk to you about your experiences. Please let me know if you are open to this, I think it could really strengthen my project. email me at sra09@hampshire.edu it you are interested. thanks, Sam

- Sam Anderson

GREAT MEMORIES= UNABLE TO GET THE SOUND. BILL FARWELL WAS MY PARTNER.

- JACK STETSON M.D.