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 Opera 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.
To some extent purely literary and artistic achievement in America was
for the time being retarded, and in the case of the Negro this was
especially true. The great economic problems raised by the war and its
aftermath have very largely absorbed the energy of the race; and even if
something was actually done--as in a literary way--it was not easy for
it to gain recognition, the cost of publication frequently being
prohibitive. An enormous amount of power yearned for expression,
however; scores and even hundreds of young people were laying solid
foundations in different lines of art; and within the next decade we
shall almost certainly witness a great fulfillment of their striving.
Yet even for the time being there are some things that cannot pass
unnoticed.
Of those who have received prominent mention in the present book, W.E.
Burghardt DuBois and William Stanley Braithwaite especially have
continued the kind of work of which they had already given indication.
In 1920 appeared Dr. DuBois's "Darkwater" (Harcourt, Brace & Co., New
York), a strong indictment of the attitude of the white world toward the
Negro and other colored peoples. This book belongs rather to the field
of social discussion than to that of pure literature, and whether one
prefers it to "The Souls of Black Folk" will depend largely on whether
he prefers a work primarily in the wider field of politics or one
especially noteworthy for its literary quality. Mr. Braithwaite has
continued the publication of his "Anthology of Magazine Verse" (now
issued annually through Small, Maynard & Co., Boston), and he has also
issued "The Golden Treasury of Magazine Verse" (Small, Maynard & Co.,
1918), "Victory: Celebrated by Thirty-eight American Poets" (Small,
Maynard & Co., 1919), as well as "The Story of the Great War" for young
people (Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York, 1919). As for the special
part of the Negro in the war, importance attaches to Dr. Emmett J.
Scott's "Official History of the American Negro in the World War"
(Washington, 1919), while in biography outstanding is Robert Russa
Moton's "Finding a Way Out" (Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y.,
1920), a work written in modest vein and forming a distinct contribution
to the history of the times.
Of those poets who have come into prominence within the period now under
review first place must undoubtedly be given to Claude McKay. This man
was originally a Jamaican and his one little book was published in
London; but for the last several years he has made his home in the
United States and his achievement must now be identified with that of
the race in this country. He has served a long apprenticeship in
writing, has a firm sense of form, and only time can now give the full
measure of his capabilities. His sonnet, "The Harlem Dancer," is
astonishing in its artistry, and another sonnet, "If We must Die," is
only less unusual in strength. Mr. McKay has recently brought together
the best of his work in a slender volume, "Spring in New Hampshire, and
Other Poems" (Grant Richards & Co., London, 1920). Three young men who
sometimes gave interesting promise, have died within the period--Joseph
S. Cotter, Jr., Roscoe C. Jamison, and Lucian B. Watkins. Cotter's "The
Band of Gideon, and Other Lyrics" (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918)
especially showed something of the freedom of genuine poetry; and
mention must also be made of Charles B. Johnson's "Songs of my People"
(The Cornhill Co., 1918), while Leslie Pickney Hill's "The Wings of
Oppression" (The Stratford Co., Boston, 1921) brings together some of
the striking verse that this writer has contributed to different
periodicals within recent years. Meanwhile Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson
has continued the composition of her poignant lyrics, and Mrs. Alice M.
Dunbar-Nelson occasionally gives demonstration of her unquestionable
ability, as in the sonnet, "I had not thought of violets of late"
(_Crisis_, August, 1919). If a prize were to be given for the best
single poem produced by a member of the race within the last three
years, the decision would probably have to rest between this sonnet and
McKay's "The Harlem Dancer."
In other fields of writing special interest attaches to the composition
of dramatic work. Mary Burrill and Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson especially have
contributed one-act plays to different periodicals; Angelina W. Grimke
has formally published "Rachel," a play in three acts (The Cornhill Co.,
Boston, 1920), while several teachers and advanced students at the
different educational institutions are doing excellent amateur work
that will certainly tell later in a larger way. R. T. Browne's "The
Mystery of Space" (E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1920), is an
interesting excursion in metaphysics; and this book calls forth a remark
about the general achievement of the race in philosophy and science.
These departments are somewhat beyond the province of the present work.
It is worthwhile to note, however, that while the whole field of science
is just now being entered in a large way by members of the race, several
of the younger men within the last decade have entered upon work of the
highest order of original scholarship. No full study of this phase of
development has yet been made; but for the present an article by Dr.
Emmett J. Scott, "Scientific Achievements of Negroes" (_Southern
Workman_, July, 1920), will probably be found an adequate summary. Maud
Cuney Hare has brought out a beautiful anthology, "The Message of the
Trees" (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1919); and in the wide field of
literature mention might also be made of "A Short History of the
English Drama," by the author of the present book (Harcourt, Brace &
Co., New York, 1921).
The general attitude in the presentation of Negro characters in the
fiction in the standard magazines of the country has shown some progress
within the last three years, though this might seem to be fully offset
by such burlesques as are given in the work of E. K. Means and Octavus
Roy Cohen, all of which but gives further point to the essay on "The
Negro in American Fiction" in this book. Quite different and of much
more sympathetic temper are "The Shadow," a novel by Mary White Ovington
(Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1920) and George Madden Martin's
"Children of the Mist," a collection of stories about the people in the
lowlands of the South (D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1920).
In the field of the theatre and the drama there has been progress,
though the lower order of popular comedy still makes strong appeal; and
of course all legitimate drama has recently had to meet the competition
of moving-pictures, in connection with which several members of the
race have in one way or another won success. Outstanding is Noble M.
Johnson, originally of Colorado, a man of great personal gifts and with
a face and figure admirably adapted to Indian as well as Negro parts. In
the realm of the spoken drama attention fixes at once upon Charles S.
Gilpin, whose work is so important that it must be given special and
separate treatment. It is worthy of note also that great impetus has
recently been given to the construction of playhouses, the thoroughly
modern Dunbar Theatre in Philadelphia being a shining example.
Interesting in the general connection for the capability that many of
the participants showed was the remarkable pageant, "The Open Door,"
first presented at Atlanta University and in the winter of 1920-21 given
in various cities of the North for the benefit of this institution.
In painting and sculpture there has been much promise, but no one has
appeared who has gone beyond the achievement of those persons who had
already won secure position. Indeed that would be a very difficult
thing to do. Mr. Tanner, Mr. Scott, Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller, and Mrs.
May Howard Jackson have all continued their work. Mr. Tanner has
remained abroad, but there have recently been exhibitions of his
pictures in Des Moines and Boston, and in 1919 Mrs. Jackson exhibited at
the National Academy of Design and at the showing of the Society of
Independent Artists at the Waldorf-Astoria. In connection with
sculpture, important is a labor of love, a book, "Emancipation and the
Freed in American Sculpture," by Frederick H. M. Murray (published by
the author, 1733 7th St., N. W., Washington, 1916). This work contains
many beautiful illustrations and deserves the attention of all who are
interested in the artistic life of the Negro or in his portrayal by
representative American sculptors.
In music the noteworthy fact is that there has been such general
recognition of the value of Negro music as was never accorded before,
and impetus toward co-operation and achievement has been given by the
new National Association of Negro Musicians. R. Nathaniel Dett has been
most active and has probably made the greatest advance. His compositions
and the songs of Harry T. Burleigh are now frequently given a place on
the programs of the foremost artists in America and Europe, and the
present writer has even heard them at sea. Outstanding among smaller
works by Mr. Dett is his superb "Chariot Jubilee," designed for tenor
solo and chorus of mixed voices, with accompaniment of organ, piano, and
orchestra. To the _Southern Workman_ (April and May, 1918) this composer
contributed two articles. "The Emancipation of Negro Music" and "Negro
Music of the Present"; and, while continuing his studies at Harvard
University in 1920, under the first of these titles he won a Bowdoin
essay prize, and for a chorus without accompaniment, "Don't be weary,
traveler," he also won the Francis Boott prize of $100. Melville
Charlton, the distinguished organist, has gained greater maturity and in
April, 1919, under the auspices of the Verdi Club, he conducted "Il
Trovatore" in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria. Maud Cuney
Hare has helped to popularize Negro music by lecture-recitals and
several articles in musical journals, the latter being represented by
such titles as "The Drum in Africa," "The Sailor and his Songs," and
"Afro-American Folk-Song Contribution" in the _Musical Observer_. In
January, 1919, with the assistance of William R. Richardson, baritone,
Mrs. Hare gave a lecture-recital on "Afro-American and Creole Music" in
the lecture hall of the Boston Public Library, this being one of four
such lectures arranged for the winter by the library trustees and
marking the first time such recognition was accorded members of the
race. The violinist, Clarence Cameron White, has also entered the ranks
of the composers with his "Bandanna Sketches" and other productions, and
to the _Musical Observer_ (beginning in February, 1917) he also
contributed a formal consideration of "Negro Music." Meanwhile J.
Rosamond Johnson, Carl Diton, and other musicians have pressed forward;
and it is to be hoped that before very long the ambitious and frequently
powerful work of H. Laurence Freeman will also win the recognition it
deserves.
In the department of singing, in which the race has already done so much
laudable work, we are evidently on the threshold of greater achievement
than ever before. Several young men and women are just now appearing
above the horizon, and only a few years are needed to see who will be
able to contribute most; and what applies to the singers holds also in
the case of the young violinists, pianists, and composers. Of those who
have appeared within the period, Antoinette Smythe Garnes, who was
graduated from the Chicago Musical College in 1919 with a diamond medal
for efficiency, has been prominent among those who have awakened the
highest expectation; and Marian Anderson, a remarkable contralto, and
Cleota J. Collins, a soprano, have frequently appeared with distinct
success. Meanwhile Roland W. Hayes, the tenor, has been winning further
triumphs by his concerts in London; and generally prominent before the
public in the period now under review has been Mme. Florence Cole
Talbert, also the winner of a diamond medal at Chicago in 1916. Mme.
Talbert has been a conscientious worker; her art has now ripened; and
she has justified her high position by the simplicity and ease with
which she has appeared on numerous occasions, one of the most noteworthy
of her concerts being that at the University of California in 1920.
A list of books bearing on the artistic life of the Negro,
whether or not by members of the race, would include those
below. It may be remarked that these are only some of the more
representative of the productions within the last three years,
and attention might also be called to the pictures of the Van
Hove Statues in the Congo Museum at Brussels in the _Crisis_,
September, 1920.
A Social History of the American Negro, by Benjamin Brawley.
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921.
Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, recorded from the
singing and the sayings of C. Kamba Simango, Ndau Tribe,
Portuguese East Africa, and Madikane Cele, Zulu Tribe, Natal,
Zululand, South Africa, by Natalie Curtis Burlin. G. Schirmer,
New York and Boston, 1920.
Negro Folk-Songs: Hampton Series, recorded by Natalie Curtis
Burlin, in four books. G. Schirmer, New York and Boston, 1918.
The Upward Path: A reader for colored children, compiled by
Myron T. Prichard and Mary White Ovington, with an introduction
by Robert R. Moton. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1920.
* * * * *
J. A. Lomax: Self-Pity in Negro Folk-Songs. _Nation_, August 9,
1917.
Louise Pound: Ancestry of a "Negro Spiritual." _Modern Language
Notes_, November, 1918.
Natalie Curtis Burlin: Negro Music at Birth. _Music Quarterly_,
January, 1919, and _Current Opinion_, March, 1919.
William Stanley Braithwaite: Some Contemporary Poets of the
Negro Race. _Crisis_, April, 1919.
Elsie Clews Parsons: Joel Chandler Harris and Negro Folklore.
_Dial_, May 17, 1919.
Willis Richardson: The Hope of a Negro Drama. _Crisis_,
November, 1919.
N. I. White: Racial Traits in the Negro Song. _Sewanee Review_,
July, 1920.
Our Debt to Negro Sculpture. _Literary Digest_, July 17, 1920.
C. Bell: Negro Sculpture. _Living Age_, September 25, 1920.
Robert T. Kerlin: Present-Day Negro Poets. _Southern Workman_,
December, 1920.
Robert T. Kerlin: "Canticles of Love and Woe." _Southern
Workman_, February, 1921.
XIV
CHARLES S. GILPIN