Cotton Babes

Percy Weinrich (composer); Joseph Lechnyr (arranger); UVM Band (performers)

For eighty years, the University of Vermont's Kake Walk was the hallmark social event of the annual Winter Carnival. The competition featured fraternity brothers in blackface and kinky wings performing highly stylized choreographed dances to the signature musical piece "Cotton Babes." Kake Walk was eliminated in 1969. All Kake Walkers choreographed their high-stepping dances to the beat of this instrumental piece, which 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 files provided here were digitally reformatted from a 10 in. 78 rpm analog sound disc. 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 Part of the "Kake Walk at UVM" collection at http://cdi.uvm.edu. Recording copyright the University of Vermont. Contact Information: Center for Digital Initiatives, Bailey/Howe Library, University of Vermont Burlington, VT 05405, cdi [at] uvm.edu , http://cdi.uvm.edu