Perkins, W. O.; Perkins, H. S. The Nightingale; A Choice Collection of Songs, Chants and Hymns, designed for the use of Juvenile Classes, Public Schools, and Seminaries; containing also a Complete and Concise System of Elementary Instruction. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., (1860). [11317]
Leather spine with green printed paper boards, oblong 7 3/7 x 7 1/4 inches, joints cracked and sometime filled in with glue or paste, with the boards now nearly detached, binding is clean. 1866 pencil signature on ffep. 216 clean pp., text is clean, block is tight. Fair. Hardcover.
Pp. 5-37 are the instruction in music. The music for the songs is in four parts with round notes.
Noted for the early printing of Dixie, here titled "Dixie's Land" and attributed to Dan Emmett.
There are some differences in the song for what would soon become a rallying song for the Confederate South, for instance, the first line is "I wish I was in the land of child-hood," rather than "the land of cotton." The chorus has "A-way down east in Dixie," rather than 'A-way down south in Dixie."
The song was written in the North by a composer for minstrel shows, that is, men in blackface performing songs. Some consider John Dixie's farm on Long Island, New York, which was a refuge for slaves, to have been the inspiration for "Dixie-land," and hence "A-way down east in Dixie."
William Oscar Perkins (1831-1902), b. Stockbridge, VT; d. Boston, MA. William and his brother Henry Southwick Perkins (1833-1914) were sons of musical parents and they were trained in music by their father. William attended the Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, and then studied music in Boston, in London, and in Milan, Italy. He returned to Boston and founded a music academy. Hamilton College awarded him a Doctor of Music degree in 1879. An author, composer, editor and compiler, W. O. Perkins published 33 hymnals between 1859 and 1882.
His brother Henry graduated at the Boston Music School in 1861. He conducted musical festivals and conventions across the United States and was a music teacher in various institutions, including several years as Professor of Music at the University of Iowa. He also organized the Music Teachers' National Association in 1876, and in 1891 he established the Chicago National College of Music. Henry composed several dozen hymns.
