It’s a piece of cake
I’m learning an arrangement on the violin of Debussy’s “Golliwog’s Cakewalk”. I thought I knew the origin, but looked it up again.
a “Cakewalk” was a form that started during the later years of slavery and continued through through the Ragtime era and beyond into American culture. Is the root of Ragtime music. From Wikipedia: “Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the Southern United States. The form was originally known as the chalk line walk. The dance takes its name from competitions held on plantations prior to Emancipation, in which prizes, sometimes cake, were given for the best dancers.”
So when we use expressions like “it’s a cakewalk”, or “it’s a piece of cake”, or “he takes the cake” – they all derive from this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dm4zOSA2nw
