Black Classical Musicians and Composers, 1500–2000 PDF
Preview Black Classical Musicians and Composers, 1500–2000
Black Classical Musicians and Composers, 1500–2000 AlsoByRodReguezKing-doRset AndfRoMMCfARlAnd Mandela’sDancers:OralHistories ofProgramParticipantsandOrganizers(2016) Black British Theatre Pioneers: Yvonne Brewster and the First Generation of Actors, Playwrights and Other Practitioners(2014) BlackDanceinLondon,1730–1850: Innovation, Tradition and Resistance(2008) Black Classical Musicians and Composers, 1500–2000 Rodreguez King-dorset McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina i wish to acknowledge the valuable help of sandra Powlette, image sales and brand licensing manager at the British library, for providing me with permission to use many of the images included in this book. liBRARyofCongRessCAtAloguing-in-PuBliCAtiondAtA names: King-dorset, Rodreguez, author. title: Black classical musicians and composers, 1500–2000 / Rodreguez King-dorset. description: Jefferson, north Carolina : Mcfarland & Company, 2019 | includes bibliographical references and index. identifiers: lCCn 2019015334 | isBn 9781476669762 (paperback : acid free paper) ♾ subjects: lCsH: Musicians, Black—Biography. | Composers, Black— Biography. | Music by black composers—History and criticism. Classification: lCC Ml385 .K558 2019 | ddC 780.92/396 [B] —dc23 lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015334 BRitisHliBRARyCAtAloguingdAtAAReAvAilABle ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-6976-2 ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3570-5 © 2019 Rodreguez King-dorset. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover image © 2019 Shutterstock Printed in the united states of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com table of Contents Introduction 1 Background: The Development and Importance of Black Music London 10 1. John Blanke (1500–1512) 21 2. ignatius sancho (1729–1780) 35 3. Chevalier de saint- georges (1745–1799) 48 4. Joseph emidy (1775–1835) 69 5. george Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (1779–1860) 84 6. samuel Coleridge- taylor (1875–1912) 104 7. Rudolph dunbar (1889–1988) 116 8. scott Joplin (1868–1917) 127 9. florence Beatrice Price (1887–1953) 139 10. William grant still (1895–1978) 150 11. Margaret Allison Bonds (1913–1972) 160 12. twentieth-Century African American Composers of Classical Music (1900–2000) 169 Bibliography 179 Index 193 v This page intentionally left blank introduction there has been an abundance of knowledge and theory proposed about black musicians and composers, but very few of the previous books on the influence of black music mention its impact on classical music, even though an analysis of black musicians and composers has been carried out in various books on classical music. this book, then, is an attempt to redress the balance by examining, through the lens of black classical music legacy, a range of profiles of the key composers who have made a valuable contribution to classical music. in the modern era, we take it for granted that there is a wide gap between “pop” music and “classical” music. However, this was not always the case. When german- born english composer george frid- eric Handel composed his Water Music, to be played at the king’s barge, he was not composing “classical” music. He was a popular musician of his day just as much as any contemporary ballad composer. (Handel composed his jolly Water Musicaround 1717, and it was first performed on July 17 of that year, after george i requested a concert on the River thames. the king watched from the royal barge with various dukes and duchesses as the fifty musicians played nearby. each movement of the piece is based on a dance style.) the great divide between pop and classical music started to appear toward the end of the nineteenth century, when American popular music began to conquer europe. What was special about this new American music? What made it different from european popular music? the answer is obvious. Pop- ular music was America’s first cultural export because it had something european music did not have: increasing input from black American culture. African music developed differently from the european variety. it 1 Introduction The coloured opera troupe at the Oxford Street Gallery, London (from the Illustrated London News, November 13, 1858). Engraving, artist unknown. This group reportedly was a minstrel act performing at the gallery: “These gentlemen work well together, and appear to equal each other in spirit, activity, resources, talent, and love of fun. Nothing can be more silly and absurd than these negro- rhymes, the imperfections of which reckon among their attractions, a false rhyme taking the rank of a positive beauty. Yet out of all this nonsense, modulated as it is by the cunning of these minstrels’ art, there somehow rises a humanising influence which gives to an innocent recreation a positive philanthropic sentiment. This sentiment connects itself with them as a coloured troupe. With white faces the whole affair would be intolerable. It is the ebony that gives the due and needful colour to the monstrosities, the breaches of decorum, the exaggerations of feeling, and the ‘silly, sooth’ character of the whole implied drama. Some of the instrumental music is marvellous. Mr. Wile’s military solo on the concertina commanded tremendous applause” (© British Library Board P.P.7611). put much greater emphasis on rhythm, whereas european concen- trated on melody. years later, the black slaves so cruelly brought to America brought their music with them. With the abolition of slavery, the fusion of African and european influences in America created a new kind of music that was not African and not european—it was new and excitingly different, and it was uniquely American. this new music took europe by storm; from the cakewalk to scott Joplin to jazz, europeans lapped it up. 2 Introduction As european classical music experimented with its own new forms in the twentieth century, the gap between “pop” and “classical” widened. Black influence from America triumphed in pop music, and it has done so to this day. in that sense, black musical culture has had (and continues to have) an enormous influence on european and American music. What has not been so recognized and appreciated is that, gradu- ally, there has been a slow but steady black influence on classical music as well. What was remarkable about the twentieth century in the world of music was the growing divide between popular music and the seri- ous work of european composers. so much was this the case that broadsheets in the media actually used a different set of critics for each category, labeling one “pop” and the other “classical.” this is still the case today. While pop music became increasingly widespread and popular (dominated as it was by African influences, mediated through Caribbean and American former black slave communities), classical music seemed to be willfully withdrawing from the popular arena and becoming steadily more difficult, esoteric and inaccessible. Was there a connection between these two developments? did those who pre- ferred classical music come to believe that it was important to differ- entiate this style from the everyday world of what was “base, common, and popular”? Certainly the classical world became (or seemed to become) increasingly snobbish about popular music. Composers who continued to produce popular work were increasingly thought of as having “sold out,” and were therefore to be despised, because in clas- sical music a new renaissance was being established and it had respectable antecedents. innovation and experimentation were keys to much of what was happening. in America, John Cage, with his famous “silent piece,” was pioneering conceptual music. Karlheinz stockhausen in germany experimented with the aleatoric principle, approximate notion and electronic music. in Poland, a group of composers followed on from the concrete music of edgard varèse, writing what were largely elec- tronic sounds. elsewhere, a group of composers largely dominated by igor stravinsky—men like leoš Janáček, Béla Bartók and Benjamin 3
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