[78] 'Zip Coon,' or 'Turkey in the Straw,' one of the liveliest of American popular tunes, has also been attributed to George Washington Dixon, who appeared on the stage as early as 1830 and sang to the accompaniment of a banjo. [79] 'Dixie' was a minstrel 'walk-around,' but it has become a patriotic song and we shall speak of it as such later on. [80] César Saerchinger: 'Stephen Foster and the American Folksong' (_The International_, Feb., 1914). [81] 'American History and Encyclopedia of Music.' [82] Dr. Schuchburgh was a surgeon in the British army. He probably wrote the satirical words of the song and adapted them to a familiar tune. [83] Oscar G. Sonneck: 'Reports on "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle," etc.,' Library of Congress. [84] _Cf._ Sonneck, _op. cit._, pp. 68-69. [85] _Cf._ Chapter X, pp. 240 ff. CHAPTER XII THE CLASSIC PERIOD OF AMERICAN COMPOSITION Pioneers in American composition: Fry, Emery, Gottschalk--The Boston group of 'classicists': Paine, Chadwick, Foote, Parker, etc.--Other exponents of the 'classical': William Mason, Dudley Buck, Arthur Whiting, and others--The lyricists; Ethelbert Nevin; American song writers--Composers of church music. I American musical composition lends itself to several kinds of classification, according to the point from which it is viewed. Historically, or, more properly speaking, chronologically, considered, the entire output of American composers divides itself rather naturally into two parts. The first comprises the works of those writers with whom this chapter deals, and who have adopted the older models of the classic and romantic schools. In the second group we find those writers of a later generation who employ post-Wagner idioms. Some of these have stopped at the Wagner boundaries, while others, naturally the younger men, have pressed on and are following in the steps of the ultra-modern German or French composers. In this classification, as in all artistic comparisons, there can be drawn no sharp line of demarcation. We find an occasional flash of modernity in a supposedly confirmed classicist, while, on the other hand, among the more advanced and iconoclastic of our modern writers we often find a remaining trace of a severer classicism.