Harry Burleigh's music falls into three categories: secular, religious, and sacred. This 200-page collection is a treasure of history made usable in his fine arrangements. "Deep River" was published in 1917, the first of many to make Burleigh well-known as a composer. This title is available in SmartMusic.
Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) played a leading role in American music and culture in the twentieth century. Celebrated for his arrangements of spirituals, Burleigh was also the first African American composer to create a significant body of art song. An international roster of opera and recital singers performed his works and praised them as among the best of their time. Jean E. Snyder traces Burleigh's life from his Pennsylvania childhood through his fifty-year tenure as soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church in Manhattan. As a composer, Burleigh's pioneering work preserved and transformed the African American spiritual; as a music editor, he facilitated the work of other black composers; as a role model, vocal coach, and mentor, he profoundly influenced American song; and in private life he was friends with Antonín Dvořák, Marian Anderson, Will Marion Cook, and other America luminaries. Snyder provides rich historical, social, and political contexts that explore Burleigh's professional and personal life within an era complicated by changes in race relations, class expectations, and musical tastes.
Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) was recognized as the first African-American art song composer and arranger of spirituals for concert use. Includes a bibliography, chapter notes, and detailed index. Many photos and musical examples.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
One dozen spirituals arranged for solo voice with accompaniment. Preserved in Burleigh's arrangements are the essential characteristics of these songs that generally derived from spontaneous outbursts of intense religious fervor. Includes: Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray * Were You There * Deep River and others.
It should not surprise us when we see God use the common things of life--snow, streetlights, a rented suit, a mop--to accomplish the incredible. But it should inspire us. From the depths of near obscurity at the turn of the last century, a young African American man rose to fame through those ordinary things--listening intently out in the snow as a child to beautiful music in an elegant hall, listening to his grandfather sing the old slave songs as he lit the streetlamps, sweating through a rented suit during an audition for a musical scholarship, a chance meeting with a musical legend as he was mopping the halls of his school. Through the seemingly insignificant pieces of life, God led Harry T. Burleigh along the path to fame and through him preserved the songs that would form the basis of a uniquely American music. Now Harry T. Burleigh, once world-renowned for his career as a beautiful baritone soloist, an arranger of Negro Spirituals, and a composer in his own right, is lifted once more out of obscurity by Craig von Buseck. This inspiring true story will take readers back in time to Southern plantations and Northern boom towns, to minstrel shows and soaring sanctuaries, and into the heart of a man who never suspected that God had destined him for greatness.
Exploding the assumption that black women's only important musical contributions have been in folk, jazz, and pop Helen Walker-Hill's unique study provides a carefully researched examination of the history and scope of musical composition by African American women composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on the effect of race, gender, and class, From Spirituals to Symphonies notes the important role played by individual personalities and circumstances in shaping this underappreciated category of American art. The study also provides in-depth exploration of the backgrounds, experiences, and musical compositions of eight African American women including Margaret Bonds, Undine Smith Moore, and Julia Perry, who combined the techniques of Western art music with their own cultural traditions and individual gifts. Despite having gained national and international recognition during their lifetimes, the contributions of many of these women are today forgotten.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Each poem captures the resilience and ugliness of prejudice. – Dr Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu has assembled an essential anthology on race and racism. It chronicles the plethora of race-based prejudices that seem to be an ingredient of our very being as humans. Devoid of anger, even as it is so impassioned, this collection is a very worthwhile read and singularly relevant for contemporary, global society. – Mavuso Msimang In a time when the struggle is between the responsibility of remembering and the danger of forgetting, we are called to conscientiousness. In this book, Ndlovu bottles the tension between memory and the forging of a future in the most delicate way. Not only does he boast exquisite talents as a writer, but he also makes a gallant attempt to remind us about what is now at stake. – Xhanti Payi