is featured at AfriClassical.com,
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Works List and a Bibliography by
Works List and a Bibliography by
Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma,
July 19, 2015 | Posted by
During the nearly 80 years now known as the Antebellum era
of America (1781-1860), lived a man named Francis Johnson, commonly
known as Frank. Of West Indian background, his American life began when
he came to Philadelphia while still a teenager at the age of 17 in 1809.
As a teenager, he had an active role in leading musicians
from teaching music, directing military bands and society dance
orchestras. By the ’20s, he, with his band, performed at city functions
like dancing schools, balls and private parties making a name for
himself. Notable employers included The Washington Guards Company Three
Band, the State Fencibles Regiment, The First Troop Philadelphia City
Calvary, and famed resorts like Saratoga Springs and Cape May.
Johnson made a major contribution, early in his career to
music by providing the majority of musical programming for General
Lafayette’s return to Philadelphia in 1924. Playing between
Philadelphia, New York and Boston over the next nine years, Johnson
solidified his career as a musician while paving the way to writing his
first composition in 1818, later published as, Collection of New Cotillions by George Willig in 1837 which brought him much acclaim.
From there, he took on
assignments at major dance functions playing contemporary music of the
time. His career continued to soar when in 1838, upon a trip to England,
he and a consortium of African-American musicians – William Appo, Aaron
J.R. Connor, Edward Roland and Francis Seymour – traveled to celebrate
Queen Victoria taking the throne. Their band was the first American
ensemble to make a tour abroad, making it a historic trip. While there,
his exposure to promenade concert music changed his life and his music.
His band toured England, played for Queen Victoria after which she
gifted him with a silver bugle. With the aspiration of sharing concert
music with the world, he brought it back to Philadelphia and its effect
still survives in concerts settings, evidenced by the Boston Pops, now
running for nearly 130 years.
Hometown success followed Johnson despite the racial era he
lived in. His skill far surpassed trivial pursuits to focus on his
cultural background – live performances often contained complex rhythmic
changes.
The Philadelphia Public Ledger, which began publishing in 1836,
Philadelphia Firemens Orchestra.
noted during Johnson’s lifetime, he was an innovator in
music, introducing the extended technique of singing while playing,
commonly known today as an aid to creating harmonies by musicians using
wind instruments. Some of his musical lines contained flute obbligato,
which he used to mimic canaries in “Bird Waltz” – the imitated sound and
the real were so close it was said to be imperceptible. This, along
with dramatic effects and program music, became popular signatures of
Johnson.
Today, Johnson’s music survives through limited printed
materials: some manuscripts, piano transcriptions which were requested
by publishers, skeleton guides, reviews from newspaper critics, musical
programs and eyewitnesses – those in the audience who experienced his
music. Further, his legacy lives as man of many firsts: first Black
American composer to publish sheet music, first Black to gain fame in
U.S. and England, first Black American to give formal band concerts and
transcending color, the first American ensemble to tour abroad and the
first musician to introduce promenade concert style to America and first
Black American musician to play in integrated concerts in the U.S. as
early as 1843.
His more than 200 compositions – operatic airs, Ethiopian
minstrel songs, patriotic marches, ballads, cotillions, quadrilles and
dances like quicksteps – are a testament to a life of his historic
achievements and his undeniable impact as a pioneer of music and
ensemble touring.
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