Download African-American Music

African-American Music
Its History and Origins
African-American Spirituals (18th Century)
• African-Americans, being converted to Christianity, would sing
songs of despair, hardship and hope in the fields as slaves.
• Folk spirituals, unlike much white gospel, were often spirited:
slaves added dancing and other forms of bodily movements to the
singing.
• The creation of folk spirituals were spontaneous and performed in
a repetitive, improvised style.
19th Century
• During the period after the Civil War, the spread of AfricanAmerican music continued. The Fisk University Jubilee
Singers toured first in 1871.
• African-American Worship music became highly recognizable for
their high energy and praise routines.
• Gospel and Shout music are emblematic of Southern Christianity
White exploitation of African-American’s in
the Arts
• Stephan Foster, and others used AfricanAmerica Harmonies, Rhythms and
Instruments to produce popular music that
had a lot of prejudicial overtones such as
• Oh Sussana, an American Classic actually
has very offensive lyrics.
Black Face
• Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used by performers to
represent a black person. The practice gained popularity during
the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of
stereotypes
Early 20th century
• In early 20th-century American musical theater, the first musicals written and
produced by African Americans debuted on Broadway in 1898 with a musical by Bob
Cole and Billy Johnson. In 1901, the first recording of black musicians was of Bert
Williams and George Walker, featuring music from Broadway musicals. Theodore
Drury helped black artists develop in the opera field. He founded the Drury Opera
Company in 1900 and, although he used a white orchestra, he featured black singers
in leading roles and choruses. Although this company was only active from 1900 to
1908, black singers' opportunities with Drury marked the first black participation in
opera companies. Also significant is Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha, which is
unique as a ragtime-folk opera; it was first performed in 1911.
• African Americans were becoming part of classical music by the turn of the 20th
century. While originally excluded from major symphony orchestras, black musicians
could study in music conservatories that had been founded in the 1860s, such as
the Oberlin School of Music, National Conservatory of Music, and the New England
Conservatory.
Scott Joplin
• an African-American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame
for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime
Writers“
Clef Club Orchestra
• This orchestra was very large, numbering around 125 members, and
consisted of a wide variety of instruments. Among the instruments
included the normal orchestral instruments of violins, violas, cellos,
basses, and the normal wind and brass instruments, but also included
mandolins, guitars, banjos, ukuleles, and a large bass drum. These
“strummed” instruments were not in small amounts either. According to
one account the orchestra included “thirty strummers- ten each of
mandolins, guitars and a rare harp guitar, and banjos.” The orchestra
was also frequently joined by a men's chorus, eight pianists, and various
soloists.
• Very few of these musicians had any musical training, and hardly any
could read music. The conductor is quoted as saying: “I always put a
man who can read notes in the middle where the others can pick him
up."
Clef Club Orchestra
The Harp-Guitar
James R Europe
He was “the Martin Luther King of music” (Eubie Blake)
Lieutenant James Europe in and “a Moses of African-American music who singlethe first World War.
handedly led black musicians and their music into the land
of respect, professionalism and pride.”(Maurice Peress
: Dvorak to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America's
Music and Its African American Roots)
• On the Clef Club Orchestra• "Our symphony orchestra never tries to play white folks' music. We should be foolish to
attempt such a thing. We are no more fitted for that than a white orchestra is fitted to play
our music." Some of the peculiarities of the present orchestra, Europe admitted, were the
result of practical necessity.
Although he could call upon "between 150 and 187'' musicians, he was forced to make
substitutions for the lack of good oboe or French horn players. Other modifications, however,
had a strictly musical and racial validity: "For instance, although we have first violins, the
place of the second violins with us is taken by mandolins and banjos. This gives that peculiar
steady strumming accompaniment to our music which all people comment on, and which is
something like that of the Russian Balalaika Orchestra, I believe. Then, for background, we
employ ten pianos. That, in itself, is sufficient to amuse the average white musician who
attends one of our concerts for the first time. The result, however, is a background of chords
which are essentially typical of Negro harmony." The point is, noted Europe, that "we have
developed a kind of symphony music that, no matter what else you may think, is different and
distinctive, and that lends itself to the playing of the peculiar compositions of our race.”