The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States

From time to time one observes in this enumeration happy subjects. Such, for instance, are "The Dancing Girl," "The Wrestlers," and "A Young Equestrian." These are frequently winsome, but, as will be shown in a moment, they are not the artist's characteristic productions. Nor was the Jamestown series of tableaux. This was a succession of fourteen groups (originally intended for seventeen) containing in all one hundred and fifty figures. The purpose was by the construction of appropriate models, dramatic groupings, and the use of proper scenic accessories, to trace in chronological order the general progress of the Negro race. The whole, of course, had its peculiar interest for the occasion; but the artist had to work against unnumbered handicaps of every sort; her work, in fact, was not so much that of a sculptor as a designer; and, while the whole production took considerable energy, she has naturally never regarded it as her representative work.

Certain productions, however, by reason of their unmistakable show of genius, call for special consideration. These are invariably tragic or serious in tone.

Prime in order, and many would say in power, is "The Wretched." Seven figures representing as many forms of human anguish greet the eye. A mother yearns for the loved ones she has lost. An old man, wasted by hunger and disease, waits for death. Another, bowed by shame, hides his face from the sun. A sick child is suffering from some terrible hereditary trouble; a youth realizes with despair that the task before him is too great for his strength; and a woman is afflicted with some mental disease. Crowning all is the philosopher, who, suffering through sympathy with the others, realizes his powerlessness to relieve them and gradually sinks into the stoniness of despair.

"The Impenitent Thief," admitted to the Salon along with "The Wretched," was demolished in 1904, after being subjected to a series of unhappy accidents. It also defied convention. Heroic in size, the thief hung on the cross, all the while distorted by anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic, blasphemous, he was still superb in his presumption, and he was one of the artist's most powerful conceptions.

"Man Carrying Dead Body" portrays a scene from a battlefield. In it the sculptor has shown the length to which duty will spur one on. A man bears across his shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain on the battlefield for days, and though the thing is horrible, he lashes it to his back and totters under the great weight until he can find a place for decent burial. To every one there comes such a duty; each one has his own burden to bear in silence.

Two earlier pieces, "Secret Sorrow," and "Oedipus," had the same marked characteristics. The first represented a man, worn and gaunt, as actually bending his head and eating out his own heart. The figure was the personification of lost ambition, shattered ideals, and despair. For "Oedipus" the sculptor chose the hero of the old Greek legend at the moment when, realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, he tears his eyes out. The artist's later conception, "Three Gray Women," from the legend of Perseus, was in similar vein. It undertook to portray the Grææ, the three sisters who had but one eye and one tooth among them.

Perhaps the most haunting creation of Mrs. Fuller is "John the Baptist." With head slightly upraised and with eyes looking into the eternal, the prophet rises above all sordid earthly things and soars into the divine. All faith and hope and love are in his face, all poetry and inspiration in his eyes. It is a conception that, once seen, can never be forgotten.

The second model of the group for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission (two feet high, the finished group as exhibited being eight feet high) represents a recently emancipated Negro youth and maiden standing beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has the semblance of a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pushing them out into the world, while at the same time the hand of Fate, with obstacles and drawbacks, is restraining them in the exercise of their new freedom. In the attitudes of the two figures is strikingly portrayed the uncertainty of those embarking on a new life, and in their countenances one reads all the eagerness and the courage and the hope that is theirs. The whole is one of the artist's most ambitious efforts.

"Immigrant in America" was inspired by two lines from Robert Haven Schauffler's "Scum of the Earth":

Children in whose frail arms shall restProphets and singers and saints of the West.

An American mother, the parent of one strong healthy child, is seen welcoming the immigrant mother of many children to the land of plenty. The work is capable of wide application. Along with it might be mentioned a suffrage medallion and a smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal." This last is a very strong piece of work. It represents the mother capable of producing and caring for three children as making a silent request for the suffrage (or peace, or justice, or any other noble cause). The work is characterized by a singular note of dignity.

"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War," the recent prize piece, represents War as mounted on a mighty steed and trampling to death helpless human beings, while in one hand he bears a spear on which he has impaled the head of one of his victims. As he goes on in what seems his irresistible career Peace meets him on the way and commands him to cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in gray-green wax and treated its subject with remarkable spirit. It must take rank as one of the four or five of the strongest productions of the artist.

Meta Warrick Fuller's work may be said to fall into two divisions, the romantic and the social. The first is represented by such things as "The Wretched" and "Secret Sorrow," the second by "Immigrant in America" and "The Silent Appeal." The transition may be seen in "Watching for Dawn," a group that shows seven figures, in various attitudes of prayer, watchfulness, and resignation, as watching for the coming of daylight, or peace. In technique this is like "The Wretched," in spirit it is like the later work. It is as if the sculptor's own seer, John the Baptist, had, by his vision, summoned her away from the ghastly and horrible to the everyday problems of needy humanity. There are many, however, who hope that she will not utterly forsake the field in which she first became famous. Her early work is not delicate or pretty; it is gruesome and terrible; but it is also intense and vital, and from it speaks the very tragedy of the Negro race.

XII

MUSIC

THE foremost name on the roll of Negro composers is that of a man whose home was in England, but who in so many ways identified himself with the Negroes of the United States that he deserves to be considered here. He visited America, found the inspiration for much of his best work in African themes, and his name at once comes to mind in any consideration of the history of the Negro in music.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor9 (1875-1912) was born in London, the son of a physician who was a native of Sierra Leone, and an English mother. He began the study of the violin when he was no more than six years old, and as he grew older he emphasized more and more the violin and the piano. At the age of ten he entered the choir of St. George's, at Croydon, and a little later became alto singer at St. Mary Magdalene's, Croydon. In 1890 he entered the Royal College of Music as a student of the violin; and he also became a student of Stanford's in composition, in which department he won a scholarship in 1893. In 1894 he was graduated with honor. His earliest published work was the anthem, "In Thee, O Lord" (1892); but he gave frequent performances of chamber music at student concerts in his earlier years; one of his symphonies was produced in 1896 under Stanford's direction, and "a quintet for clarinet and strings in F sharp minor (played at the Royal College in 1895) was given in Berlin by the Joachim Quartet, and a string quartet in D minor dates from 1896." Coleridge-Taylor became world-famous by the production of the first part of his "Hiawatha" trilogy, "Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast," at the Royal College, November 11, 1898. He at once took rank as one of the foremost living English composers. The second part of the trilogy, "The Death of Minnehaha," was given at the North Staffordshire Festival in the autumn of 1899; and the third, "Hiawatha's Departure," by the Royal Choral Society, in Albert Hall, March 22, 1900. The whole work was a tremendous success such as even the composer himself never quite duplicated. Requests for new compositions for festival purposes now became numerous, and in response to the demand were produced "The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuillé" (Leeds, 1901), "Meg Blane" (Sheffield, 1902), "The Atonement" (Hereford, 1903), and "Kubla Khan" (Handel Society, 1906). Coleridge-Taylor also wrote the incidental music for the four romantic plays by Stephen Phillips produced at His Majesty's Theatre, as follows: "Herod," 1900; "Ulysses," 1901; "Nero," 1902; "Faust," 1908; as well as incidental music for "Othello" (the composition for the orchestra being later adapted as a suite for pianoforte), and for "A Tale of Old Japan," the words of which were by Alfred Noyes. In 1904 he was appointed conductor of the Handel Society. The composer's most distinctive work is probably that reflecting his interest in the Negro folk-song. "Characteristic of the melancholy beauty, barbaric color, charm of musical rhythm and vehement passion of the true Negro music are his symphonic pianoforte selections based on Negro melodies from Africa and America: the 'African Suite,' a group of pianoforte pieces, the 'African Romances' (words by Paul L. Dunbar), the 'Songs of Slavery,' 'Three Choral Ballads' and 'African Dances,' and a suite for violin and pianoforte."10 The complete list of the works of Coleridge-Taylor would include also the following: "Southern Love Songs," "Dream-Lovers" (an operetta), "Gipsy Suite" (for violin and piano), "Solemn Prelude" (for orchestra, first produced at the Worcester Festival, 1899), "Nourmahal's Song and Dance" (for piano), "Scenes from an Everyday Romance," "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors" (concert march for orchestra), "Five Choral Ballads" to words by Longfellow (produced at the Norwich Festival, 1905), "Moorish Dance" (for piano), "Six Sorrow Songs," several vocal duets, and the anthems, "Now Late on the Sabbath Day," "By the Waters of Babylon," "The Lord is My Strength," "Lift Up Your Heads," "Break Forth into Joy," and "O Ye that Love the Lord." Among the things published since his death are his "Viking Song," best adapted for a male chorus, and a group of pianoforte and choral works.

In America the history of conscious musical effort on the part of the Negro goes back even many years before the Civil War. "Some of the most interesting music produced by the Negro slaves was handed down from the days when the French and Spanish had possession of Louisiana. From the free Negroes of Louisiana there sprang up, during slavery days, a number of musicians and artists who distinguished themselves in foreign countries to which they removed because of the prejudice which existed against colored people. Among them was Eugène Warburg, who went to Italy and distinguished himself as a sculptor. Another was Victor Séjour, who went to Paris and gained distinction as a poet and composer of tragedy. The Lambert family, consisting of seven persons, were noted as musicians. Richard Lambert, the father, was a teacher of music; Lucien Lambert, a son, after much hard study, became a composer of music. Edmund Dédé, who was born in New Orleans in 1829, learned while a youth to play a number of instruments. He accumulated enough money to pay his passage to France. Here he took up a special study of music, and finally became director of the orchestra of L'Alcazar, in Bordeaux, France."11

The foremost composer of the race to-day is Harry T. Burleigh, who within the last few years has won a place not only among the most prominent song-writers of America, but of the world. He has emphasized compositions in classical vein, his work displaying great technical excellence. Prominent among his later songs are "Jean," the "Saracen Songs," "One Year (1914-1915)," the "Five Songs" of Laurence Hope, set to music, "The Young Warrior" (the words of which were written by James W. Johnson), and "Passionale" (four songs for a tenor voice, the words of which were also by Mr. Johnson). Nearly two years ago, at an assemblage of the Italo-American Relief Committee at the Biltmore Hotel, New York, Mr. Amato, of the Metropolitan Opera, sang with tremendous effect, "The Young Warrior," and the Italian version has later been used all over Italy as a popular song in connection with the war. Of somewhat stronger quality even than most of these songs are "The Grey Wolf," to words by Arthur Symons, "The Soldier," a setting of Rupert Brooke's well known sonnet, and "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors." An entirely different division of Mr. Burleigh's work, hardly less important than his songs, is his various adaptations of the Negro melodies, especially for choral work; and he assisted Dvorak in his "New World Symphony," based on the Negro folk-songs. For his general achievement in music he was, in 1917, awarded the Spingarn Medal. His work as a singer is reserved for later treatment.

Another prominent composer is Will Marion Cook. Mr. Cook's time has been largely given to the composition of popular music; at the same time, however, he has produced numerous songs that bear the stamp of genius. In 1912 a group of his tuneful and characteristic pieces was published by Schirmer. Generally his work exhibits not only unusual melody, but also excellent technique. J. Rosamond Johnson is also a composer with many original ideas. Like Mr. Cook, for years he gave much attention to popular music. More recently he has been director of the New York Music Settlement, the first in the country for the general cultivation and popularizing of Negro music. Among his later songs are: "I Told My Love to the Roses," and "Morning, Noon, and Night." In pure melody Mr. Johnson is not surpassed by any other musician of the race to-day. His long experience with large orchestras, moreover, has given him unusual knowledge of instrumentation. Carl Diton, organist and pianist, has so far been interested chiefly in the transcription for the organ of representative Negro melodies. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was published by Schirmer and followed by "Four Jubilee Songs." R. Nathaniel Dett has the merit, more than others, of attempting to write in large form. His carol, "Listen to the Lambs," is especially noteworthy. Representative of his work for the piano is his "Magnolia Suite." This was published by the Clayton F. Summy Co., of Chicago. As for the very young men of promise, special interest attaches to the work of Edmund T. Jenkins, of Charleston, S. C., who three years ago made his way to the Royal Academy in London. Able before he left to perform brilliantly on half a dozen instruments, this young man was soon awarded a scholarship; in 1916-17 he was awarded a silver medal for excellence on the clarinet, a bronze medal for his work on the piano, and, against brilliant competition, a second prize for his original work in composition. The year also witnessed the production of his "Prélude Réligieuse" at one of the grand orchestral concerts of the Academy.

Outstanding pianists are Raymond Augustus Lawson, of Hartford, Conn., and Hazel Harrison, now of New York. Mr. Lawson is a true artist. His technique is very highly developed, and his style causes him to be a favorite concert pianist. He has more than once been a soloist at the concerts of the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared on other noteworthy occasions. He conducts at Hartford one of the leading studios in New England. Miss Harrison has returned to America after years of study abroad, and now conducts a studio in New York. She was a special pupil of Busoni and has appeared in many noteworthy recitals. Another prominent pianist is Roy W. Tibbs, now a teacher at Howard University. Helen Hagan, who a few years ago was awarded the Sanford scholarship at Yale for study abroad, has since her return from France given many excellent recitals; and Ethel Richardson, of New York, has had several very distinguished teachers and is in general one of the most promising of the younger performers. While those that have been mentioned could not possibly be overlooked, there are to-day so many noteworthy pianists that even a most competent and well-informed musician would hesitate before passing judgment upon them. Prominent among the organists is Melville Charlton, of Brooklyn, an associate of the American Guild of Organists, who has now won for himself a place among the foremost organists of the United States, and who has also done good work as a composer. He is still a young man and from him may not unreasonably be expected many years of high artistic endeavor. Two other very prominent organists are William Herbert Bush, of New London, Conn., and Frederick P. White, of Boston. Mr. Bush has for thirty years filled his position at the Second Congregational Church, of New London, and has also given much time to composition. Mr. White, also a composer, for twenty-five years had charge of the instrument in the First Methodist Episcopal Church, of Charlestown, Mass. Excellent violinists are numerous, but in connection with this instrument especially must it be remarked that more and more must the line of distinction be drawn between the work of a pleasing and talented performer and the effort of a conscientious and painstaking artist. Foremost is Clarence Cameron White, of Boston. Prominent also for some years has been Joseph Douglass, of Washington. Felix Weir, of Washington and New York, has given unusual promise; and Kemper Harreld, of Chicago and Atlanta, also deserves mention. In this general sketch of those who have added to the musical achievement of the race there is a name that must not be overlooked. "Blind Tom," who attracted so much attention a generation ago, deserves notice as a prodigy rather than as a musician of solid accomplishment. His real name was Thomas Bethune, and he was born in Columbus, Ga., in 1849. He was peculiarly susceptible to the influences of nature, and imitated on the piano all the sounds he knew. Without being able to read a note he could play from memory the most difficult compositions of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. In phonetics he was especially skillful. Before his audiences he would commonly invite any of his hearers to play new and difficult selections, and as soon as a rendering was finished he would himself play the composition without making a single mistake.

Of those who have exhibited the capabilities of the Negro voice in song it is but natural that sopranos should have been most distinguished. Even before the Civil War the race produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who came into prominence in 1851. This artist, born in Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared for by a Quaker lady. Said the Daily State Register, of Albany, after one of her concerts: "The compass of her marvelous voice embraces twenty-seven notes, reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to a few notes above even Jenny Lind's highest." A voice with a range of more than three octaves naturally attracted much attention in both England and America, and comparisons with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her great fame, were frequent. After her success on the stage Miss Greenfield became a teacher of music in Philadelphia. Twenty-five years later the Hyers Sisters, Anna and Emma, of San Francisco, started on their memorable tour of the continent, winning some of their greatest triumphs in critical New England. Anna Hyers especially was remarked as a phenomenon. Then arose Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the first rank, and one who, by her arias and operatic work generally, as well as by her mastery of language, won great success on the continent of Europe as well as in England and America. The careers of two later singers are so recent as to be still fresh in the public memory; one indeed may still be heard on the stage. It was in 1887 that Flora Batson entered on the period of her greatest success. She was a ballad singer and her work at its best was of the sort that sends an audience into the wildest enthusiasm. Her voice exhibited a compass of three octaves, from the purest, most clear-cut soprano, sweet and full, to the rich round notes of the baritone register. Three or four years later than Flora Batson in her period of greatest artistic success was Mrs. Sissieretta Jones. The voice of this singer, when it first attracted wide attention, about 1893, commanded notice as one of unusual richness and volume, and as one exhibiting especially the plaintive quality ever present in the typical Negro voice.

At the present time Harry T. Burleigh instantly commands attention. For twenty years this singer has been the baritone soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church, New York, and for about half as long at Temple Emanu-El, the Fifth Avenue Jewish synagogue. As a concert and oratorio singer Mr. Burleigh has met with signal success. Of the younger men, Roland W. Hayes, a tenor, is outstanding. He has the temperament of an artist and gives promise of being able to justify expectations awakened by a voice of remarkable quality. Within recent years Mme. Anita Patti Brown, a product of the Chicago conservatories, has also been prominent as a concert soloist. She sings with simplicity and ease, and in her voice is a sympathetic quality that makes a ready appeal to the heart of an audience. Just at present Mme. Mayme Calloway Byron, most recently of Chicago, seems destined within the near future to take the very high place that she deserves. This great singer has but lately returned to America after years of study and cultivation in Europe. She has sung in the principal theaters abroad and was just on the eve of filling an engagement at the Opéra Comique when the war began and forced her to change her plans.

In this general review of those who have helped to make the Negro voice famous, mention must be made of a remarkable company of singers who first made the folk-songs of the race known to the world at large. In 1871 the Fisk Jubilee Singers began their memorable progress through America and Europe, meeting at first with scorn and sneers, but before long touching the heart of the world with their strange music. The original band consisted of four young men and five young women; in the seven years of the existence of the company altogether twenty-four persons were enrolled in it. Altogether, these singers raised for Fisk University one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and secured school books, paintings, and apparatus to the value of seven or eight thousand more. They sang in the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany, sometimes before royalty. Since their time they have been much imitated, but hardly ever equaled, and never surpassed.

This review could hardly close without mention of at least a few other persons who have worked along distinctive lines and thus contributed to the general advance. Pedro T. Tinsley is director of the Choral Study Club of Chicago, which has done much work of real merit. Lulu Vere Childers, director of music at Howard University, is a contralto and an excellent choral director; while John W. Work, of Fisk University, by editing and directing, has done much for the preservation of the old melodies. Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years prominent as a concert soprano, has recently given her time most largely to the work of teaching and showing the capabilities of the Negro voice. Possessed of a splendid musical temperament, she has enjoyed the benefit of three years of foreign study, has published "A Guide to Voice Culture," and generally inspired many younger singers or performers. Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare, of Boston, a concert pianist, has within the last few years elicited much favorable comment from cultured persons by her lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American music. In these she has been assisted by William H. Richardson, baritone soloist of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Cambridge. Scattered throughout the country are many other capable teachers or promising young artists.

XIII

GENERAL PROGRESS, 1918-1921

THE three years that have passed since the present book appeared have been years of tremendous import in the life of the Negro people of the United States, as indeed in that of the whole nation. In 1918 we were in the very midst of the Great War, and not until the fall of that year were the divisions of the Students' Army Training Corps organized in our colleges; and yet already some things that marked the conflict are beginning to seem very long ago.