Saturday, August 21, 2010

University of Miami Music Library Has 'A Choice Collection of the Music of Francis Johnson'


[The Music of Francis Johnson & His Contemporaries: Early 19th-Century Black Composers; Diane Monroe, Violin; The Chestnut Brass Company and Friends; Tamara Brooks, Conductor; Music Masters 7029-2-C (1990)]

Francis B. Johnson (1792-1844) was an African American bugler, bandleader and composer who is profiled at AfriClassical.com. His life has been researched by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor of Music, Lawrence University Conservatory, Appleton, Wisconsin.

We are very grateful for research by an industrious visitor to AfriClassical.com, Micheal Sturgulewski, who sent us an email a few days ago:
“Great website...long overdue. For years I've have been trying to obtain piano sheet music for Francis Johnson's music, especially his moving song, The Grave of the Slave. Are you aware of any sources where I can find this work and possibly others?”

We replied that one source for sheet music of Francis Johnson is:
“Keffer Collection of Sheet Music, ca. 1790-1895” at the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. We also noted that Suzanne Flandreau, Head Librarian and Archivist, Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago, has excellent reference materials on the music of Composers of African Descent, http://www.colum.edu/cbmr

Micheal Sturgulewski now tells us:
“Luckily, the University of Miami Music Library had a now out-of-print two-volume set entitled 'A Choice Collection of the Music of Francis Johnson.' It includes authoritative and well annotated piano arrangements of most of his major works including The Grave of the Slave.'” He provides this bibliographical information:

Charles Kelly Jones and Lorenzo K. Greenwich II, compiled, edited, and annotated by,
A Choice Collection of the Works of Francis Johnson,
Point Two Publications, NY; 1983.

“The set seems to contain all of his major works and then some. I should mention that it's a very scholarly, well-annotated and beautifully bound couple of volumes; each even comes with a bound ribbon marker. There are two pages of background information for Grave of the Slave alone; similar in many respects to the two-volume Stephen Foster collection that Smithsonian published around the same time...also out of print.

“I can't tell you how pleased I am to have found this set. Though my main musical interests are the German symphonic and operatic works (Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, ...), I've had a deep and lifelong interest in the musical evolution of lighter instrumental works, operettas and song literature, European and American.

"Since I first came across his music, I've long felt that Jack Johnson has been unjustly forgotten and seriously underrated. In my opinion, his dances, marches and quadrilles compare favorably with many of the J. Strauss Jr. and Lanner works written twenty or more years later and 'Grave of the Slave' and other of his songs are reminiscent of many of early Romantic lieder composers (Schubert, Schumann, Weber and Mendelssohn). And considering that most of his music was written in the 1820's and 30's...in America...by a black musician...his introduction of such novel instrumental effects for the period...make his accomplishments all the more striking.

“I would have loved to have heard that Haydn Creation he produced as well as meet this amazing and accomplished man! Though I just retired as founding physics teacher at the New World School of Arts in Miami, I'm forwarding a copy of Grave of the Slave sheet music to our new activities director with the hopes that it will be included in this year's Black History Show performed during February. Though well intentioned, often these ethnic cultural history shows miss the mark and ignore truly significant accomplishments. I'll let you know whether it materializes.”
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