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OVERVIEW and OBJECTIVES

Overview

A conversation on the subject of Black and brown composers, musicians, and conductors in classical music doesn't usually spark a lively exchange about the latest concerts, published books, or recorded works. More often than not, the reaction is silence or a brief reply, which is not to say that conductors and artists around the world are not performing orchestral commissions and compositions. If the topic of Black and brown musicians comes up, some people will probably think of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, or maybe James Brown or Public Enemy. But few will think of Francis (Frank) Johnson or William Grant Still or a host of other Black American classical composers. However, several semesters would not be enough to cover the wealth of material produced by classical musicians of the African diaspora. So, what happened to these African American composers, musicians, and conductors who contributed to the classical music traditions of America?

Be ready to:

Identify the lives of notable Black classical composers, conductors, and musical performers.
Demonstrate the concept of the linkage between the music of the “old guard”—musicians of yesteryear—and their impact on the contemporary Black classical musicians and compositions.
Describe the importance of Slave Songs of the United States and Music and Some Highly Musical People to the development of the survey of American music history.
List a few important African American classical singers who were strategic to the early development of establishing the bar for singers of the twentieth century.
Identify classical singers who were influential upon concert life in Black America during the first half of the twentieth century.

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References

Spiritual Art Songs: Harry Thacker Burleigh (Continued)

Three noted singers who attracted to this new form of composition were the lyric tenor Roland Hayes (1887-1997), the operatic contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993), and the concert artist and actor Paul Robeson (1898-1976). All three championed this style of work on the concert stage to wide acclaim.

ROLAND HAYES (1887-1997)	MARIAN ANDERSON (1897-1993)	PAUL ROBESON (1854-1914)

Lyric Tenor and Composer	Operatic Contralto	Bass Baritone
Interview with Jackson Caesar Hear de Lambs (Negro Spiritual)	Marian Anderson sings three songs (1951) Marian Anderson: The Most Modest Trailblazer Awakening: Marian Anderson Segment	Deep River ♫

Click on the links in the boxes above to listen to their performances. Of the three singers mentioned, it was Marian Anderson who in her early career sang Burleigh's 1917 solo arrangement of "Deep River" (Kimball 2006, 250).

Deep River♫, which Burleigh states is based on an old "negro melody," which first appeared in 1875 in J.B.T Marsh's The Story of the [Fisk] Jubilee Singers: With Their Songs (Shirley 1997, 497), pays tribute to the "old guard(s)" as mentioned by Banfield earlier in the lesson. Further along in this "stream of a continuum," other composers would take Burleigh's lead and write compositions based on the use of the early spirituals.

Active Listening: Listen to Fisk Jubilee singers' a cappella performance of " Deep River♫ ."

Listen to Marian Anderson's 1924 art song performance of " Deep River♫ arranged for orchestra and voice. Watch below to listen to a piano-vocal version. Notice that the work, which consists of four lines of text, is cast into an ABA' form.

Traditional: Deep River (Arr. Coleridge-Taylor, Kanneh-Mason)

William C. Banfield

Can you imagine American music without the work of Black composers or without Black music in general? Still, there is a refusal, a denial, of that reality.

William C. Banfield

We got some Black Beethovens living up in here, and what's most sad is, y'all don't even know it!