Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Afro-British Composer, Born Aug. 15, 1875

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912): Afro-British Composer & Conductor

24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59 is David Shaffer-Gottschalk's recent 2-disc recording of this work for solo piano, on Troy 930/31 (2007). The composer's program notes read, in part:

“What Brahms has done for the Hungarian folk music, Dvorak for the Bohemian, and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies. The plan adopted has been almost without exception that of the Tema con Variazioni.”

The CD has been reviewed at Black Grooves, an online publication of the Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University. The Coleridge Ensemble has recorded Five Negro Melodies for Piano Trio, Op. 59, No. 1 on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Chamber Music, AFKA SK-543 (1998). Sometimes I feel like a motherless child (4:55) can be heard in its entirety on the Audio page at www.AfriClassical.com

His biographer, Geoffrey Self has, has called him The Hiawatha Man, but in addition to his interest in Native American legend, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was also an important Pan-Africanist. Very early on, he began collaborating with the African American poet and author Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906). Writing in Africana Encyclopedia, Roanne Edwards says:

“He was also a leading exponent of Pan-Africanism, which emphasized the importance of a shared African heritage as the touchstone of black cultural identity.”

An entry on Pan-Africanism in Encyclopedia Africana includes a photo, with this caption:

“The first Pan-African Conference convened in London in July 1900. W.E.B. Du Bois, who stands in the center of this photograph of the conference delegates, gave the keynote address titled 'To the Nations of the World'.”

Jeffrey Green has published an article in Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2, entitled "The Foremost Musician of His Race: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor of England, 1875-1912". He reports:

“Coleridge-Taylor's black associates were fine people, as we can see from his contacts in London in July 1900 when Du Bois and the Loudins participated in a Pan-African conference at which Coleridge-Taylor was present (Mathurin 1976, 67, 168).” Frederick J. Loudin was a bass singer from Ohio who led the famous Fisk Singers, Green notes.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born on August 15, 1875 in Croydon, a suburb of London, England. His mother was an English woman named Alice Hare. His father was Daniel Peter Taylor, a native of Sierra Leone who trained as a physician at King's College, London. After graduating he found his race was a barrier to maintaining a medical practice in the United Kingdom. As a result he returned to Africa permanently around the time of Samuel's birth. He is not known to have had any contact with his son.

Young Samuel was raised by his English mother and stepfather, but his musical education was overseen by Col. Herbert A. Walters, who belonged to the church choir in which the boy sang. Samuel also studied violin with a local musician as a child. He enrolled at the Royal college of Music in 1890 as a student of Violin.

Two years later he switched to composition and was taught by Charles Villiers Stanford. Coleridge-Taylor wrote his Symphony in A Minor in 1896, we are told by Lewis Foreman in the liner notes of the world premiere recording, Classico 684 (2006). Critic Jonathon Woolf of Music Web International writes of the work: “His characteristic gift for melodic beauty is always present.”

Coleridge-Taylor rose to prominence in 1898, the year he turned 23, on the strength of two works. The first was his Ballade in A Minor. It was commissioned for the prestigious annual Three Choirs Festival at the suggestion of the British composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). The piece was a critical and popular success.

The composer's second major composition of 1898 was his musical Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, for which he is best known. The work is a setting of verses from Song of Hiawatha by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He conducted its premier to great acclaim. It was staged hundreds of times in the United Kingdom alone during the next 15 years.

Samuel married Jessie Walmisley, a pianist and classmate, on Dec. 30, 1899. The publicity surrounding Hiawatha's Wedding Feast created a huge demand for tours both within the United Kingdom and abroad. Among the most important for the composer's career were three tours of North America in 1904, 1906 and 1910.

The first concert of the 1904 tour was in Washington, D.C. The Coleridge-Taylor Society, an African American choir, appeared with the United States Marine Band, with the composer at the podium. During his stay in the capital Coleridge-Taylor visited President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House.

Jeffrey Green describes the 1906 tour in his article:

“In the 1906 tour the Briton presented the Atonement, the Quadroon Girl, and Hiawatha; he also toured with Burleigh. He appeared in Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee, as well as the cities of Boston, Washington and Chicago, which had also been on his first tour schedule.”

The 1910 tour took Coleridge-Taylor to Boston, Detroit, and Norfolk, Connecticut, where he was guest conductor for the Litchfield County Choral Union Festival, Green tells us.

American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell, Cedille CDR 90000 097 (2007), is a new CD featuring Rachel Barton Pine, violin, and Matthew Hagle, piano. Among the works is Coleridge-Taylor's Deep River, Op. 59, No. 10 (4:46). Rachel Barton and the Encore Chamber Orchestra, led by Daniel Hege, conductor, made the world premiere recording of the composer's Romance in G Major for Violin and Orchestra (12:33) on the CD Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries, Cedille CDR 90000 035 (1997).

Comment on "Dance Like The Wind: Music of Today's Black Composers"

The CD pictured above is Africa: Piano Music of William Grant Still, Koch 3-7084-2H1 (1991).

Herdingcats makes this comment on "Dance Like The Wind: Music of today's Black composers" by Dominique-René de Lerma:

It's a shame you can't embed some sample clips so we can hear this music. Maybe if it's available on Amazon or another big site you could link to their clips.

How does their music sound differently from their white counterparts? Why a blog on this topic when you are not African-American? This is intriguing.

I appreciate the fact that the author of the comment took the time to raise these questions, and I am happy to respond. This blog is a companion to AfriClassical.com, so priority is given to music samples by composers featured there. The person making the comment is correct about audio samples being available at websites such as Amazon.com, which offers 18 samples of the CD.

The music of Black composers may or may not reflect African heritage, depending on their compositional philosophies. William Grant Still was chosen to compose the theme music for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair after the Theme Committee listened to recorded music on file at CBS Radio without knowing who wrote it, and chose two pieces as having the best sound. Both were by William Grant Still, and he composed the theme music. While some of his works contain references to African American spirituals, for example, much of Still's output is as all-American as that of his White contemporaries.

The reason for having a blog on this topic, as noted above, is that it is a companion to the website, AfriClassical.com The reviewer of the CD wrote his dissertation on Mozart, yet he is not Austrian and did not live in the 18th century! Professors, record label executives, biographers and webmasters who deal with the music of Black composers and musicians come from a wide array of backgrounds.

I listened to classical music for 30 years before learning of a single composer of African descent. By the time I discovered that I had been missing out on very beautiful classical music by Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, Duke Ellington and hundreds of other Black composers, I had an academic and professional background in Civil Rights. I immediately resolved to do what I could to remedy the neglect of classical composers on the basis of race. My own heritage was not a factor in the decision.

This music belongs to all of us!

"H. Leslie Adams Listening Party" Returns Sept. 9, 2007

Music of the African American composer H. Leslie Adams for voice, piano, string quartet and cello will be heard on Sept. 9, 2007 in "H. Leslie Adams: A Listening Party, Return Engagement". Featured performers will be the Cavani String Quartet; Maria Corley, piano; Darryl Taylor, countertenor; William Clarence Marshall, bass; and Kent Collier, cello. The location is the Greg Reese Performing Arts Center, East Cleveland Library, 14101 Euclid Avenue, East Cleveland, Ohio. Phone: 216-541-4128. Admission is $10.

Pictured above are Greg L. Reese, Executive Director, East Cleveland Public Library (far left); Maria Corley, pianist (3rd from left); Kent Collier, cellist (4th from right); Darryl Taylor, countertenor (2nd from right); Jonathan Stuckey, bass (far right); H. Leslie Adams, composer (center); Cavani String Quartet (in purple jackets).

H. Leslie Adams lives in Cleveland, where he was born in 1932. He is a composer, pianist and professor whose career as a professor of music and a choral director has been quite varied. His page at www.AfriClassical.com includes links to six sound samples. Five are from Love Rejoices: Songs of H. Leslie Adams, recorded by Darryl Taylor, tenor, and Robin Guy, piano, on Albany Records Troy 428 (2000). The sixth audio excerpt is from Twelve Etudes, performed by pianist Maria Corley on Albany Records Troy 639 (2004).

"Dance Like the Wind: Music of Today's Black Composers" by Dominique-René de Lerma

Introduction
This is the conclusion of a four-part review by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, an oboist and musicologist who is Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and has specialized in Black classical music for four decades. The review of the series of four CDs appears in the August 2007 eNewsletter of the Myrtle Hart Society and is used by permission of its Founder/Director, Rashida Black, who is also a harpist.

Witness, the soul of American music
By Dominique-René de Lerma; Part 4 of 4

Dance like the wind; Music of today's Black composers
VocalEssence Ensemble; Philip Brunelle, conductor; liner notes by Dominique-René de Lerma; texts; series note; performer bios.

Baker, David. Images, shadows, and dreams. VocalEssence Chorus; Michele Frisch, flute; Chris Kachian, guitar; Charles Kemper, piano; Greg Hippen, double bass; Robert Stacke, drums. (17:14).
Banfield, William. Dance like the wind. Michele Frisch, flute; Kathy Robison, oboe; Joseph Longo, clarinet; Paul Straka, horn; Kevin Coria, bassoon. (9: 45).
Childs, Billy. Piece for string orchestra. 2. Slow. 3. Fast. ( 13:03).
Hailstork, Adolphus. Nocturne. Maria Jette, soprano. (6:59).
Moore, Undine Smith. Mother to son. Yolanda Williams, soprano. (2:41).
Moore, Undine Smith. We shall walk through the valley. (2:54).
Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor. Lamentations; Black folk song suite. 2. Song form. 4. Perpetual motion. Anthony Elliott, cello. (7:13).
Simpson-Currenton, Evelyn. My soul hath found refuge in thee. Dan Dressen, tenor. (4:54).

If we wonder who is Michael Abels for want of a richer discography, that question may also be raised in the case of David Baker, although his very extensive recorded oeuvre is no excuse. Is there any composer who is so comfortably all over the place? A violin concerto for Josef Gingold with jazz band, a cello sonata for Janos Starker, 12-tone jazz, song cycles, cantatas, liturgical jazz, jivey pieces for string ensemble… is the whole world of music his?

Clearly a most important figure of his generation, Banfield takes films seriously, and his offering here is in direct response to Cat on a hot tin roof, for woodwind quintet.

The senior figure here is Undine Smith Moore, whose career as a major music educator was dedicated to Virginia State University. In the final decades of her life, her choral works began to receive substantial attention.

No longer with us is another giant in Perkinson, composer for films, orchestra and chamber groups, and a conductor of real substance. His contribution here provides an opportunity to hear the work of Anthony Elliott, whose tenure at the University of Michigan followed years of substantial experience as principal cellist with major orchestras in the US and Canada.

The Simpson dynasty flourished from Temple Evangelical Church in Philadelphia – first in the person of Joy Simpson, whose death while protesting apartheid in South Africa deprived us of a voice, equally comfortable with opera as with gospel music. Her career lasted long enough to be joined with Marietta, a mezzo-soprano whose career evolved in international importance. The third member of the family is a most remarkable musician whose imaginative settings of spirituals are unquestionably first-rate.

This set of four CDs belongs readily in any university or public library. It illustrates, not only a chunk of African American legacy, but demonstrates the enviable musical forces available within Minnesota's Twin Cities. The conductor, who as musicologist is acutely aware of the monuments of the history he is tracing here, and he has at his command an exemplary assemblage of splendid choristers and instrumentalists. With these recordings, all of this can be shared with a large and appreciative audience.

Fencing Match of Saint-Georges & D'Éon Reenacted

An E-mail from Catherine Pizon, Director of the Saint-Georges Commemoration by junior high school students on May 10 & 11, 2007 was posted here on Aug. 2, 2007. Madame Pizon has written again, and has illustrated her point with photos of the event, including this one in which students reenact the fencing match which took place at Carlton House, London, on April 9, 1787 between La Chevalière d'Éon (Brigitte Tillier) on the left and Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Joseph Blanc) on the right.

The Prince of Wales arranged a friendly fencing demonstration in London between Saint-Georges, who was 42, and a 59-year-old French woman, La chevalière d'Éon. Saint-Georges had broken an Achilles tendon at age 40, and was not as nimble as before. He could still parry and counterattack effectively.

It is known that one touché was scored against Saint-Georges, but the final result is not clear. We do know the chevalière was actually Charles d'Éon de Beaumont, a male diplomat who dressed as a woman for many years to help him spy on foreign countries for the King of France. D'Éon was a multitalented man of letters, law, diplomacy and the military but had fallen out of favor with the royal court. He practiced fencing daily, in fear of his life.

Dear Sir,

I am proud to read my letter on your beautiful blog; I let it be known, as well as your site, to many people, in France and in Africa (more particularly in Gabon where acquaintances are translating in several vernacular langages the nice book of Jean-Claude Halley "le chevalier de Saint-Georges" told to children.)

I send you some photos of our show in order to illustrate what I said in my letter. It was so exceptional - and also so natural - to work with these children from Guadeloupe. Isn't Saint-Georges universal?

As a musician (amateur!) myself - but a passionate lover of music - I congratulate you again for your wonderful work!

Musicalement vôtre !

Catherine Pizon

Rudolph Dunbar Story Aired on BBC Radio 4

Rudolph Dunbar, the Black conductor and clarinettist from Guyana, was profiled at On An Overgrown Path on April 23, 2007, in a post entitled Berlin Philharmonic's first black conductor. The link was later published in the eNewsletter of the Myrtle Hart Society, which promotes composers and musicians of color. Response to the post was unusually heavy, according to Pliable, and it is now linked to Wikipedia. He adds:

Dunbar's inspirational story needs to reach a wider audience, so I was delighted to find BBC Radio 4 broadcasting the Strange Story of Rudolph Dunbar today (August 7 2007). Here is the BBC blurb:

Strange Story of Rudolph Dunbar
Tuesday 7 August 2007 11:30-12:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Wayne Marshall tells the story of Rudolph Dunbar.

Born into poverty in British Guiana, Dunbar became a well-known jazz and classical clarinettist as well as having a European career as a classical conductor.

Despite becoming the first black man to conduct at the Royal Albert Hall and having conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra just days after the end of the Second World War, Dunbar ended his life in obscurity in Britain, convinced that the BBC in particular had barred his way to greater things.

You can to listen to the BBC programme on demand until August 15 here. Following my article as you listen to the broadcast is really quite interesting.

"What a mighty God; Spirituals and gospels for chorus" by Dominique-René de Lerma

Introduction

Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma is an oboist and musicologist who has been a Professor of Music and a prolific author for more than half a century. For the past four decades he has specialized in Black classical music. The review of the series of four CDs appears in the August 2007 eNewsletter of the Myrtle Hart Society and is used by permission of its Founder/Director, Rashida Black, an African American harpist. The eNewsletter is free and may be requested by E-mail to enewsletter@myrtlehart.org

Witness, the soul of American music
By Dominique-René de Lerma; Part 3 of 4

What a mighty God; Spirituals and gospels for chorus

VocalEssence Ensemble; Philip Brunelle, conductor; liner notes by Dominique-René de Lerma; texts; series note; performer bios.

Abels, Michael. What a might God. Moore by Four; VocalEssence Chorus; Sanford Moore, piano; Joe Pulice, drums; Gordon Johnson, double bass. (4:14).
Adelmann, Dale. Swing low, sweet chariot. Steve Burger, baritone. (3:27).
Burleigh, Harry T. My Lord, what a morning. (3:40).
Dennard, Brazeal W. Hush! Somebody's calling my name. Yolanda Williams, soprano. (4:40).
Hailstork, Adolphus. Crucifixion. (5:14).
Hairston, Jester. In dat great gittin' up mornin'. Yolanda Williams, soprano. (3:03).
Halloran, Jack. Witness. Sigrid Johnson, conductor. (3:27).
Harris, Robert A. Go down, Moses. Yolanda Williams, soprano. (5:12).
Hogan, Moses. Elijah rock. (3:42).
Moore, Sanford. Go, tell it on the mountain. Robert Commodore, drums; Jay Young, double bass. (5:04).
Moore, Sanford. This train. Moore by Four. (7:39).
Scholz, Robert. Were you there? Brian Link, Tenor. (4:00).
Smallwood, Richard. Jesus, lover of my soul. Moore by Four; Philip Brunelle, piano. (5:22).
Smith, William Henry. Walk together, children. Sanford Moore, piano. (2:33).
Thomas, André. Death is gonna lay his cold, icy hands on me. James Bohn, baritone; Sanford Moore, piano. (3:45).
Thomas, André. Go where I send thee. Michael Morgensen, baritone; Charles Kemper, piano. (3:27).

Non-Black choruses and soloists are either fearless or inhibited when it comes to the performance of spirituals or texts with dialect. Is there any reason why they should avoid this music? If so, then in a parallel situation, a Black singer should avoid German Lieder and Italian opera, but what a loss it would be had Leontyne Price or Jessye Norman followed that restriction! Of course, these ladies had to deal with diction in the foreign language, but that is an obligation every singer must face. It is not a linguistic barrier facing the non-Black singer when the repertoire is enriched, it is political. Jessye Norman's French is so flawless that she was called on to participate in the 200^th anniversary of the French revolution, and no protest was registered to my knowledge from France, which has a very strong protectionist policy about its culture.

Brunelle's singers face the dialect straight on, and replicate the sonority of a fine Black college chorus. So also do the singers from St. Olaf, guided by Dr. Anton Armstrong.

The question arises about the setting of a traditional spiritual by one who is not Black, and that is exemplified in a few instances with this recording, but a critical listener would be no more able to identify those composers than one can signal the gender of a composer by the sound of the music.

Of course, we are blessed by the masterful settings of such classic figures as Burleigh (his My Lord might well be the most marvelously performed work here), Hairston, and the more recent figures such as Thomas, Dennard, Hailstork, and Harris. The gospel element enters with the performances of Moore by Four, a well-established ensemble, although some might feel this idiom is in strange company here.

Bach's Sheep may safely graze is merged with Jesus, love of my soul, a gospel synthesis so often beautifully performed in recital by the late Pearl Williams-Jones.

But who is Michael Abels? We first encountered his work in Detroit some years back, when Global warming heralded the emergence of a quite gifted young man. We do not even yet have a proper perspective on his output, where are found pieces for children performers and now he appears in gospel guise. One yearns to have him better represented on recordings.

"Skyward my people rose: Music of William Grant Still" by Dominique-René de Lerma

Introduction

Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma is an oboist and musicologist who has been a Professor of Music and a prolific author for more than half a century. For the past four decades he has specialized in Black classical music. The review of the series of four CDs appears in the August 2007 eNewsletter of the Myrtle Hart Society and is used by permission of its Founder/Director, Rashida Black, an African American harpist. The eNewsletter is free and may be requested by E-mail to enewsletter@myrtlehart.org

Witness, the soul of American music
By Dominique-René de Lerma; Part 2 of 4

Skyward my people rose; Music of William Grant Still
VocalEssence Ensemble; Philip Brunelle, conductor; liner notes by Dominique-René de Lerma; texts; series note; performer bios.

Swanee river. (2:56).
And they lynched him on a tree. Hilda Harris, mezzo-soprano; William Warfield, narrator; Leigh Morris Chorale (17:34).
Miss Sally's party. String orchestra . (9:11).
Reverie. Philip Brunelle, organ. (3:56)
Elegy. Philip Brunelle, organ. (5:25).

There certainly has never been any question about William Grant Still's standing in Black music history, and hardly any justification for not signaling him as a major person to define American music. Further, one immediately can claim his Afro-American symphony of 1930 as being the culmination of the aspirations of the Harlem Renaissance "elevating" the folkloric to the idealization of the concert world (this, despite the rise of Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith by that time). Still grew up in the legacy of the blues and jazz, never disdaining either, but reaching for the world of the symphony and opera. His passion for the latter genre was frustrated in what should have been a major breakthrough.

Troubled island received its première and only production during his life by the New York City Opera. Its fate was determined after only three performances in 1949 by a cabal of racist critics, defying the audience enthusiasm and twenty-two curtain calls (The story is told in the richly documented Just tell the story; Troubled island by Judith Anne Still and Lisa M. Headlee – Flagstaff: The Master-Player Library, 2006).

The works heard on this CD, several for the very first time) come both before and after that unfortunate event. First is his choral setting of Stephen Foster's Swanee river.

The poignant cantata, And they lynched him on a tree, was written in 1940 to a text by Catherine Garrison Chapin. For this performance, Brunelle has called on the stellar forces of Hilda Harris, the late William Warfield, with the African American chorus, Robert L. Morris' Leigh Morris Chorale providing a sympathetic counterpart to the singers of VocalEssence.

Miss Sally's party is a ballet, the scenario provided by the composer's multi-gifted wife and frequent collaborator, Verna Arvey. It centers around mischievous boys who misbehave, failing to win the concluding cakewalk.

The last two works are performed by the conductor, now as organist. The pair come from 1961 and 1963, and could well serve as meditative occasional pieces.

One feature that is included on all of these recordings is the specification of publishers (many of the Still works are available from William Grant Still Music in Flagstaff, operated by the composer's daughter, who has a virtual archive of no end of materials related to all aspects of her father's life and works – jazz arrangements and recordings from the 1920s as well as film scores from the early days of sound movies, when Still's distinctive orchestral sonorities established the Klangideal even for Russian films of the time).

French Principal Finds Calliope Cover "...ambiguous and scornful (even racist)..."

French Jr. High Principal On Cover Art of Calliope 9373

Dear Mr. Zick,

I have regularly visited AfriClassical with interest and admiration. I am myself passionately interested in the Chevalier de Saint-Georges and therefore the questions raised by the cover of the Calliope CD retained my attention. That’s why I feel a need to express my point of view.

As the Principal of a junior high school near Vichy, France, I staged a theatre show on the life and music of Saint-Georges this year with the collaboration of several primary and secondary schools, music schools and a fencing school. This show was exclusively interpreted by 14 year old students. The progam included a theatre performance, music, singing, dancing and fencing.

Saint-Georges was first introduced to our children through Saint-Georges raconté aux enfants (Saint-Georges told to children), J.C. Halley’s book, and then we adapted Le Divin Saint-Georges, Daniel Marciano’s play. Most of our students, not particularly inclined to 18^th century music, often due to an unfavorable family environment for symphonic music, worked on the show during the whole academic year. It was a hard job and they were at times discouraged.

However, when they started rehearsing with costumes - perfect replicas of the period - things changed. A surprising phenomenon of identification took place: the children became Saint-Georges, Nanon, Georges de Bologne, Texier La Boëssière, d’Eon etc. The fencers tried extra hard to cross blades with style and even their attitudes were those of another century; the singers interpreted Saint-Georges’s Romances with greater conviction and the actresses and actors became different people when playing their roles.

When they were not rehearsing, we happened to hear lines of the play or see attempts at fencing bouts in the school yard !

It was simply due to the magic of costumes, authentic gestures and attitudes, the tone and the language of the period.

We are aware of teenagers’ reactions. It is part of our job. They did appreciate performing in the historical context.

On stage, they managed wonderfully to share with the audience all the emotions they felt when discovering the thrilling life of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges: in turn affection, indignation, anger, humor, love, laughter and in fine the dramatic impact of the subject. Through Saint-Georges, the ultimate objective was to speak of the human drama of slavery.

The final scene of the show was a moment of anthology. A beautiful voice off stage summed up the life of Saint-Georges to the strains of the sublime Adagio of Saint-Georges, so dear to Dominique-René de Lerma.

We often hear that Saint-Georges’ music is reserved for informed musicians and in that respect, Les Archets de Paris serve the cause of music. However, their praiseworthy contribution should not prevent others from being genuinely interested in Saint-Georges’ music. (I personally discovered this music almost 40 years ago.) Our show presented the Vichy audience all the aspects of Joseph Bologne’s works: the magnificent overture of L’Amant Anonyme which kept coming back as a leitmotiv, excerpts of concertos, quartets and a selection of Saint-Georges’ Romances sung by two children’s choirs. Interpreting this great musician was a challenge and a source of enjoyment for these youngsters.

However the highlight of the show was the participation of a group of children who came to Vichy with the Mayor of the birthplace of Saint-Georges in Guadeloupe. The encounter of these two worlds was a great event for both the children of Saint-Yorre and Baillif. In this instance, we may talk about the shock of cultures but also about a spontaneous current of sympathy which was established between the children in the presence of the parents who all wanted to take home one of the Baillif children.

Before ending this comment - I hope to have shown my respect for Saint-Georges - I would like to express my deep indignation on hearing unfair accusations against L’Association des Amis de Joseph Bologne. During this hard and ambitious academic year they were constantly by our side to advise us, to bring support and encouragement. We could not have achieved our goal without their generosity and their friendship. I am much indebted to Jean-Claude Halley and Daniel Marciano. The values they defend are just the opposite of the venal conceptions of others who have the pretension of being the ones who discovered Saint-Georges but make blatant mistakes on purpose in order that Saint-Georges may fit into the mold of their conceptions.

I find the cover of the CD utterly distasteful. It is, on the one hand, ambiguous and scornful (even racist), and on the other hand, vulgarity is not likely to attract the curiosity of children. They are far more discriminating than one may think!

To add a few more words about our show which was a success – at a secondary school level of course – we are proud of the participation of 150 children, 30 musicians, 20 fencers and 70 young choristers.

Over 1000 spectators of the region of Vichy attended the show and I think I can say that it was an opportunity to introduce Saint-Georges’ music to the whole region.

RFO was present to cover the event. Their comment may be found on Guadeloupe Attitude, Gens de la Caraïbe, You Tube etc.

We were obviously too modest. We did not perform on the premises of The Senate but hundreds of children and spectators in a little corner of France, far from Paris, discovered an exceptional character, a sensitive and virtuoso musician, a talented fencer, and above all a man whose life remains an example for our youth.

With all my admiration for your work and beautiful website.

Catherine Pizon
Principale du collège Victor Hugo

"Witness, the soul of American music" by Dominique-René de Lerma

Introduction

Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma is an oboist and musicologist who has been a Professor of Music and a prolific author for more than half a century. For the past four decades he has specialized in Black classical music. He is a Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Prior to assuming his present position, Prof. De Lerma served as Director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago. He is principal advisor for AfriClassical.com

The review of the series of four CDs appears in the August 2007 eNewsletter of the Myrtle Hart Society and is used by permission. The Society is named for an early African American harpist, and its Founder/Director is Rashida Black, also an African American harpist. The organization's motto is: "Illuminating The Accomplishments of Classical Musicians of Color". The website and the eNewsletter fulfill multiple functions, including announcements of performances, reviews, profiles of performers and ensembles. Historical reference material is also researched and compiled. The eNewsletter is free and may be requested by E-mail to enewsletter@myrtlehart.org

Witness, the soul of American music
By Dominique-René de Lerma; Part 1 of 4

Got the Saint Louis blues, Classical music in the Jazz Age
VocalEssence Ensemble; Philip Brunelle, conductor; liner notes by Dominique-René de Lerma; texts; series note; performer bios.

Burleigh, Harry T. Ethiopia's paean to exaltation. (5:40).
Burleigh, Harry T. O Southland. (3:08).
Dett, R. Nathaniel. Ave Maria. Ryan French, baritone. (3:31).
Dett, R. Nathaniel. Listen to the lambs. (4:28).
Dett, R. Nathaniel. The chariot jubilee. Michael Forest, tenor. (11:43).
Diton, Carl R. Poor mourner's got a home at last. (3:14).
Jenkins, Edmond Thornton. Charlestoniana; Folk rhapsody for orchestra, no. 1; reconstructed by Vincent Plush. (9:30).
Johnson, J. Rosamond. Yamekraw; a Negro rhapsody. Paul Shaw, piano, with orchestra. (15:59).
Handy, W. C. Saint Louis blues, arr. by Hall Johnson. (4:28).
Price, Florence. Moon bridge. (2:23).
Price, Florence. Song for snow (1:57).

This series of four CDs is enjoyable – no question about that – but in the process offers an extraordinary educational potential. The conductor has shown the insight of a highly attuned historian, who can put musicologists out of business as he surveys the African American musical scene of the past century, selecting works of unquestioned historical importance such as one reads about but suspects will never be heard. This is balanced with works of genuine merit, no matter how tentative were the times

Philip Brunelle is based in the musically rich twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, but his frequent engagements carry him to South America and Europe. While he is billed as a choral conductor, he is as at home with an orchestra as before the keyboards of the piano or organ. His concerts, which he founded in 1969 as the Plymouth Music Series, addresses a repertoire not scheduled by the area's eponymous orchestra, but does speak to the various ethnic communities. Their work is not confined to the formality of the concert hall, but is shared with school children (The Twin Cities, with a population under 4,000,000, have an unusually diverse population. About 10% are Chippewa, 5% African American, and 4% each Hispanic or Asian), but VocalEssence, while celebrating these and various European heritages, closes any gaps that might exist in multiracial perspectives.

The earliest work in this set is Diton's Poor moaners got a home at last, from 1914. It comes from these days before the Harlem Renaissance, when songs of slave times were only gradually being accepted. Diton is not often greeted as one of the first figures who sought to make legitimate these precious melodies from the previous century, but he has securely earned that position.

This was the same year as Dett's Listen to the lambs for which he won $25 in a competition. In fact, this is a priceless classic, elegantly performed. When we hear Dvorák's American quartet, we might not be reminded of the spiritual, but Dett, when a student at Oberlin, heard this work in a performance by the Kneisel Quartet, and was reminded of the music his grandmother sang during his Canadian childhood. He dedicated much of his life then towards transforming these gems into anthems and art songs.

Most unexpected within this anthology is quite possibly Charlestoniana (1917), an early work by the son of the founder of Charleston's Jenkins Orphanage (that produced, for example, Cat Anderson). The composer was yet a composition student in Europe, dying only nine years later in Belgium, suggesting we should look not just at New York, Chicago, or even the U.S. for roots of the Harlem Renaissance. Here was a talent and an ambition that was cut too short for its full flowering. The reconstruction by the Australian Vincent Plush involved preparing a concordance of several unfinished drafts, held, like all of Jenkins' extant works, by the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago.

Chronologically next was Burleigh's O Southland (1919), the text by James Weldon Johnson. It was two years later that Burleigh wrote Ethiopia's Paean to Exaltation. The text was by a former slave from North Carolina, Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, who was to earn her Ph.D. in 1925 from the Sorbonne.

In 1920 was the première of Dett's The Chariot Jubilee, which very likely was the first instance of the expansion of a spiritual (Swing low, sweet chariot) into a motet (to be followed in 1930 by his oratorio, The ordering of Moses, his graduate thesis at the Eastman School of Music). This was the same year as his Ave Maria, written for his chorus at the Hampton Institute in Virginia.

Florence Price's Moon bridge comes from 1927, the text by Mary Rolofson Gamble (of the Gamble Hinged Music Company) and Song for snow from 1930, a tribute to her days in Maine (text by Elizabeth Coatsworth). These are two quite innocuous works for chorus. Price is well remembered as a piano teacher from her days in Chicago, where one of her young students was Ned Rorem.

Hall Johnson's setting of the 1914 Handy hit was prepared for the 1939 film, The best of the blues, at a time Johnson had been writing and conducting for Hollywood, where he and his chorus migrated from New York to participate in the film version of The green pastures. The performance, not overly refined, cannot fail to elicit smiles from the listeners. This is a joyously, self-assured work.