Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on
September 26, 1868. He attended the New England Conservatory, and
studied composition privately with Edward MacDowell, before playing the
violin in various theaters. For many years music was a secondary pursuit
as he earned his living in a printing establishment, a real-estate
agent, factory foreman, and finally an employee in a music-publishing
firm. A hearing in Paris of Gustave Charpentier’s opera, _Louise_,
proved such an overpowering experience that it inspired him to devote
himself henceforth to music alone. In 1902 he helped found in America
the Wa-Wan Press which promoted nationalism in American music and
published Gilbert’s first works. In these a strong emphasis was placed
by the composer upon American folk music and American folk idioms. In
1903 he wrote _Humoresque on Negro Minstrel Tunes_. After that came his
famous _Comedy Overture on Negro Themes_ (1905), the symphonic ballet
_The Dance in Place Congo_ (1906), the _Negro Rhapsody_ (1913), and
_Indian Sketches_ (1921). Here native elements were skilfully fused into
a style that was Romantic to produce music that remains appealing for
its freshness and vitality. Towards the end of his life, Gilbert was an
invalid. Nevertheless, in 1927, he traveled to Germany in a wheel-chair
to attend a performance of his _Dance in Place Congo_ at the Festival of
the International Society for Contemporary Music in Frankfurt. He died
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 19, 1928.
The _Comedy Overture on Negro Themes_ (1905) is one of Gilbert’s most
frequently performed compositions. It is made up of five sections played
without interruption. The composer goes on to explain: “The first
movement is light and humorous, the theme being made from two
four-measure phrases taken from Charles L. Edwards’ book _Bahama Songs
and Stories_.... This is followed by a broader, and somewhat slower,
phrase. I have here used the only complete Negro tune which occurs in
the piece ... formerly used as a working song by roustabouts and
stevedores on the Mississippi River steamboats in the old days.... Next
comes a fugue. The theme of this fugue consists of the first four
measures of the Negro Spiritual ‘Old Ship of Zion.’... It is given out
by the brass instruments and interspersed with phrases from the
roustabouts’ song.... After this a short phrase of sixteen measures
serves to reintroduce the comic element. There is a repetition of the
first theme and considerable recapitulation, which leads finally to the
development of a new ending or coda, and the piece ends in an orgy of
jollity and ragtime.”
_Dance in Place Congo_ (1906) is both a ballet and a tone poem for
orchestra. Its first version was a pantomime ballet, but soon thereafter
the composer adapted his score into a composition for orchestra. The
tone poem—describing the barbaric revels on a late Sunday afternoon of
slaves in Place Congo, a section on the outskirts of New Orleans—opens
in a dark mood which achieves a climax with an outcry in the orchestra.
At this point a bamboula melody is heard in full orchestra. It is
permitted to gain in intensity until it acquires barbaric ferocity. When
the passions are spent, a beautiful romantic section unfolds,
occasionally interrupted by a recall of the bamboula theme. Various
Negro songs and dances are then presented over an insistent rhythm. The
somber mood of the opening is brought back to conclude the composition.
_The Indian Sketches_ for orchestra (1921) presents several facets of
American-Indian life. “They are,” explains the composer, “for the most
part not musical pictures of definite incidents so much as they are
musical mood pictures.” There are six sections. The first, a prelude, is
music of savage power. This is followed by the subjective music of the
“Invocation,” a prayer or supplication of the Great Spirit. “Song of the
World” briefly develops a cry of the Kutenai Indians, and “Camp Dance”
is a scherzo portraying the lighter side of Indian life. “Nocturne” is a
romantic description of the dark forests alive with the distant sounds
of birds and animals. The suite concludes with the “Snake Dance,”
suggested by a prayer dance for rain of the Hopi Indians in Arizona.