“Roots and Branches” - Music - University of California, Irvine

John Rosamund Johnson (1873 – 1954)
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones – “Black Patti” (1869 – 1933) – The Black Patti
Troubadours/The Black Patti Musical Comedy Company – a group of singers, dancers,
comedians and jugglers performing shows such as A Trip to Africa, In the Jungles, Captain
Jaspar, and Lucky Sam from Alabam.
Ground-breaking performances include:
1893 – Will Marion Cook composes Scenes from the Opera of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for
performance at the Chicago World’s Fair – a performance that was cancelled;
1898 performance of Clorindy; or, The Origin of the Cakewalk, composed by Will Marion
Cook in collaboration with Paul Laurence Dunbar.
COMMENTARY: The haze of complexional prejudice has so much obscured the vision of many persons, that
they cannot see (at least, there are many who affect not to see) that musical faculties, and power for their artistic
development, are not in the exclusive possession of the fairer-skinned race, but are alike the beneficent gifts of the
Creator to all his children. Besides, there are some well-meaning persons who have formed, for lack of
information which is here afforded, erroneous and unfavorable estimates of the art-capabilities of the colored
race.
James M. Trotter, Music and Some Highly Musical People (Boston, 1878), p.4.
1900 - 1945 --- Generation II - Nationalists
The African American Art Song: The Evolution, Preservation and Performance
• During this Period of Evolution, Preservation and Adaptation, composers begin to create a solovoice,
art-song repertoire inspired by the folk melodies of the Spiritual, and these works, known
as The Concert Spiritual, become an important component of the performance repertoire of a
growing number of professional African American singers. The tradition begins with Harry T.
Burleigh’s 1916 arrangement of Deep River and Edward Boatner’s 1918 arrangement of Give Me
Jesus. This body of song contributes to the creation of a style of American Nationalism in music.
Much of the work of the African American composer and performer was celebrated, supported
and preserved by the newly formed National Association of Negro Musicians (founded in 1919).
• Composers of the Renaissance
Renaissance – A cultural, intellectual and social phenomenon of the 20 th century in the United
States in which African Americans become among the most prominent cultural and political
personalities. The phenomenon is centered originally in Harlem, and has additional flowerings in
Chicago and numerous other urban areas. It is a period that some observers describe as
embracing the hope for black uplift and interracial interaction and empathy.
• Generation II: Artists of this New Negro Movement, many of whom are trained at the top
conservatories and universities of America, use their work to enhance the public understanding
of African American culture. African American composers embrace what is known as the “Blues
aesthetic” within their work. Composers create many Art Songs, song cycles, operas and Creole
shows utilizing the poetry of Harlem Renaissance poets, e.g. Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen,
Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay. Composers of the 1900 – 1940 period
include:
Edward Hammond Boatner (1898 – 1981)
Margaret Bonds (1913 – 1972)
Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866 – 1949)
Cecil Cohen (1894 – 1967)
Will Marion Cook (1869 – 1944)
William Levi Dawson (1899 – 1990)
Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882 – 1943)
Carl Diton (1886 – 1962)
Lillian Evanti (1890 – 1967)
William Christopher Handy (1873 – 1958)