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Five (of 6) separately published songs: When the Golden Morn / In Darkness I wander / Come, Come Away / Oh! Return My mother / Aladdin Quick Step. 13x10", removed from larger volume. 

Some version of the “Grand Chinese Spectacle of Aladdin” was produced in London, with elaborate sets and costumes, as early as 1816; this first American production was perhaps intended to capitalize on the popularity of the Boston “Chinese Museum” exhibition (see preceding listing). The odd juxtaposition of the Middle Eastern folk tale into a Chinese setting, which endured as late as a 1958 Cole Porter TV musical, appealed to early American romantic notions of the exotic Orient.  Lyrics in the first four imprints, by popular song-writer Thomas Comer, mention a pagoda, junk, sampan, temple bells, Buddha, and one Chinese-sounding name (Hau Loo). But the historical importance of this set is in the music of the “Quick Step”, which historians have identified as the origin of the “Oriental Riff”, the western invention of a stereotypic “musical cliché signifying the Far East” in general, and China in particular. While the Aladdin notes differ from the common modern musical phrase, the rhythmical pattern, “Da-da-da-da / dah-dah / dun-dun / dah”, which appear for the first time in the Quick Step, has endured in the minds of Americans for nearly two centuries, and may still be found in popular songs and even video games. A rare and significant musical imprint.