Thursday, October 4, 2012

Charles Kaufmann: 'J. Rosamond Johnson: Nobody Knows The Trouble I See -- Documentary Outtake'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqnDxx5CI6o&feature=youtu.be

Charles Kaufmann of The Longfellow Chorus writes:


          Published on Oct 3, 2012 by
In this outtake from our documentary in production, "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and His Music in America, 1900-1912," Rodrick Dixon, tenor, performs J. Rosamond Johnson's arrangement of the Fisk Jubilee Song, "Nobody Knows The Trouble I See," filmed and recorded in Portland, Maine, on September 27, 2012.

J. Rosamond Johnson was inspired to arrange this and other spirituals by an earlier collection of spirituals arranged for piano by his friend, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor — "24 Negro Melodies." This tune was also used by Coleridge-Taylor as the theme of his "Overture to The Song of Hiawatha." American violinist Maud Powell made an arrangement of Johnson's "Nobody Knows" for violin and piano, her last composition. Earlier, Maud had made an arrangement of Coleridge-Taylor's "Deep River" and included it in her Victor recordings. 

The intersection of the lives of these three great early twentieth century musical figures — Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Maud Powell and J. Rosamond Johnson — is one of the untold stories we will focus on in our film, "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and His Music in America." The film will be premiered at 1:30 PM, Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Nickelodeon Cinema One, 1 Temple Street, Portland, Maine, as part of the March 16 & 17, 2013, Longfellow Choral Festival. — Charles Kaufmann

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