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About Nathaniel Dett
Robert Nathaniel Dett, c. 1920
This website is dedicated to the music of Nathaniel Dett (18821943), one of history’s greatest musicians of African descent, to
its appreciation, and to the promotion of performances of this
great body of work. A true polymath, Dett was a great
composer, choir leader, pianist, teacher, poet, and
writer. During his lifetime, he was lauded as the first American
composer to fuse Negro folk music with the European art music
tradition in a sophisticated way. As a seminal figure in the
preservation and study of spirituals, both as a writer and choral
leader, and as a great teacher and inspirer of African-American
musicians in later generations, he is acknowledged to be one of
the most important musicians in American history.
Dett’s writings include The Emancipation of Negro Music,
which won an important literary prize at Harvard University in 1920, and Album of the Heart, a
volume of poems. He was also deeply attracted to philosophical inquiry and involved with
Rosicrucianism as well as Christianity. He was also interested in other cultures; ancient Hebrew
legends, African chants, and Hindu poets all have a place in his music. Particularly toward the
end of his life, Dett’s music expresses messages of human oneness, which speak to people now
with the same meaning and urgency that it did in his time. Through the efforts of Nathaniel Dett,
what he called “Negro folk music” is a gift to the world.
Dett was an extremely hard working personality, always driven to improve his craft by further
study. He was the first African-American to graduate from Oberlin College, one of the few
unsegregated colleges at the time, with a double degree in piano and composition in 1908. Even
after being awarded honorary doctorates in music from Howard University in 1924 and Oberlin
in 1926, he chose to enroll at the Eastman School of Music in 1931 to obtain a masters
degree. His life experiences ranged from bitter disappointments to great triumphs, all lived out
within the segregated social environment of his time.
Cover to “In The Bottoms” sheet music from 1913
He grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario and later on the New York side, and was exposed to the
piano at a very young age. His early musical experiences were mostly with the light salon music
of the day, now mostly forgotten, mixed with a scattering of classics. His compositions as a
teenager and young adult are in that style, reflecting the ragtime and dance music popular at the
time. After hearing the Kneisel Quartet perform a slow movement by Antonín Dvořák at
Oberlin, Dett found his true calling, writing that “Suddenly
it seemed I heard again the frail voice of my long departed
grandmother calling across the years; and in a rush of
emotion which stirred my spirit to its very center, the
meaning of the songs which had given her soul such peace
was revealed to me.” Afro-British composer Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was also an important
influence. The enormous success of Coleridge-Taylor’s
cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, had begun in
1898. From then on, Dett composed music that used Negro
folk idioms in a new way, striving for the highest goals of
musical art. He railed against ragtime influenced minstrel
music, viewing it as a corruption of Negro folk music and
reinforcing of racial stereotypes. Dvořák’s challenge for
American composers to use their own folk materials for the
basis of musical creation found a wonderful answer in
Nathaniel Dett’s music.
Dett’s music includes many choral pieces in motet form including Listen to the Lambs, Holy
Lord, Chariot Jubilee, a magnificent Ave Maria, and an oratorio, Ordering of Moses. His piano
music centers around the six suites for piano, including the romantic Magnolia, In the Bottoms
(his most popular piano work which ends with the Juba Dance) and culminating with Eight Bible
Vignettes, completed in the last year of his life.
As work progresses, this site’s goal is to link with other information on Nathaniel Dett, including
recordings, publications, research and performances. Please feel free to submit comments by
email to: [email protected]
© 2014 Nathaniel Dett. Web Design by www.weblinkstudio.com
CLIPPER ERICKSON, PIANO CONCERT - WALDOMORE, FRIDAY, NOV. 21, 2014
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Sheep May Safely Graze
J.S. Bach – Mary Howe
From Eight Bible Vignettes
Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)
Father Abraham
Desert Interlude
As His Own Soul
Martha Complained
Madrigal Divine
Dance-Juba
Nathaniel Dett
Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise
F. Chopin
Rhapsody in Blue (transcribed by the composer)
George Gershwin
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