myrtlehart.org - Black Orchestras Part 1

Black Orchestras Part 1

Sunday, 22 April 2007

William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois wrote in his 1903 book ‘Souls of Black Folk’: He [the American Negro] would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of White Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his faceHrvvcc`c. Let that marinate. We’ll come back to it in a few.

(Note: I use the term ‘Black’ instead of the current ‘African American’ to describe persons of African-descent. Many writers of the previous centuries were unconcerned with recording the nationality of people of color. I therefore use the dictionary definition of ‘Black:’ “A member of a racial group having brown to black skin, especially one of African origin.” Many scholars believe that the term ‘Black’ coincides with many other ethnic labels such as Latino, Chicano, etc. The term is, thanks to globalization used, well, globally.)

Nineteenth century America was divided into two distinct semi-nations: the North and the South. Some historical texts posit the North as fast moving and progressive with more free Blacks and abolitionist states than the South. The South favored slave labor and was reluctant to change its customary unindustrialized way of life. However, in both regions of the nation, Blacks were deprived of an identity and a means of collective self-expression. They instead formed and maintained groups where they could collective relate to one another through various mediums. One of these for instrumentalists was of course an orchestra that performed European concert music for both Black and White audiences.

Author Lester Sullivan explains: “Essentially genteel entertainment music on the European model, it is now sometimes called “concert” music, but a person was as likely to encounter this music in the theater as in the concert hall.” New Orleans had the leading port for slave trading during the 19^th century. Given that commerce drew businesses and people to the bustling area, New Orleans was also home to a large population of free Black Americans. Sullivan explains: “Notwithstanding its crucial role in commerce in the slavocracy, the city had one of the largest Black populations in the country, North or South, and by far the wealthiest.” It may seem inevitable that music should emerge from the combination of wealth, commerce and various ethnicities. Accordingly, it is fitting to provide a brief sketch in this introduction of the background to the slave trade in Black people to America, in order to place into perspective some of the issues that confronted (and consumed) Blacks, free and enslaved, in the 19^th century.

As the art of performing concert music became respected by White (mostly migrated) Americans, Black (mostly displaced) musicians who performed the music were gradually allowed to integrate with White society, which granted some Black Americans social latitude. (Note: As regards race and social status elevation: violinist/conductor Jacques Constantin Deburque and composer Francis Johnson whom I will speak about later are both foreign-born musicians, whereas I have referred to them as ‘Black.’ As the 1896 Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson demonstrates, all people of color, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, were/are considered Black. In Plessy, Homer Plessy, a man who was seven-eights White [being therefore one-eighth Black], tried to sit in a Whites-only section of the train and was thrown in jail. The 1896 Supreme Court decision against Plessy established a new “separate but equal” clause, known to blacks at the time as legalized slavery.) Although certain laws were implemented to produce the appearance of racial and social integration, other laws appeared to reify the prejudice. I often wonder how they knew that Plessy was 1/8 Black. Today, some people that are darker than me claim to be White. I wonder what the White mentality is... I'm already well-aware of the Black stigma. (Read an interesting novel on that very topic entitled: When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone) But I digress.

Blacks performing concert music appeared to present amnesty from the social prejudices experienced by many 19^th century Blacks. This prejudice included an 1808 Congressional legislation pertaining to the end of the African slave trade; at this time, slavery was still a source of economic and political strength for the nation, especially in the South. The Fugitive Slave Act in the Compromise of 1850 gave slave owners the power to ask for governmental help in recapturing their runaway slaves. In addition, the law also made free Blacks in the country unsafe, as any free person of color could be picked up as a slave. Once captured, even with proof of identification, free Blacks had little political representation. The Fugitive Slave Act illustrates one tactic of the century’s reliance on fear-based racial control. What’s really crazy about that is it legalizes the slave advertisements of a century before!

Musicologist Eileen Southern researched many slave ads from the 18^th century. One of my favorites from the Boston Gazette or Weekly Journal, July 9, 1745: “RAN-away from Capt. Joseph Hale of Newbury, a Negro Man named Cato, the 6^th Instant, about 22 Years of Age, short and small, SPEAKS GOOD ENGLISH AND CAN READ AND WRITE, understands farming Work carry’d with him a striped homespun Jacket and Breeches, and Trousers, and an outer Coat and Jacket of home-made Cloth, two Pairs of Shoes, sometimes wears a black Wigg, has a smooth Face, a sly Look, TOOK WITH A VIOLIN, AND CAN PLAY WELL THEREON. Had with him three Linnen Shirts, home-made pretty fine yarn Stockings. Whoever shall bring said Negro to his Master or secure him so that he may have him again shall have five Pounds Reward and all necessary Charges paid by me.” Crazy, right? I like the “sly look” part.

And the racial prejudice would only increase. During his 1858 senate debate with Stephen Douglas, our country’s president Abraham Lincoln stated: “I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the White and Black races… and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” Say what? Senator and future President Abraham Lincoln opposed racial integration believing that the two races should never live socially or politically equal lives together. As powerful as that sentiment was at the time, I think that both races used concert music to integrate socially and still do today.

Inn the coming week's, perhaps you'll think that the number of Black professional musicians associated with the groups, whose sole trade was music, was astoundingly high “for an oppressed people denied opportunities for self-advancement both by law and tradition.” (I must concede that researching collective identities of the three orchestras that I’ll tell you about was difficult since the two Northern ensembles were not recorded into history as whole groups, but were referred to instead by the ensemble leaders, Francis Johnson, Walter Craig, Jacques Constantin Deburque and Richard Lambert. It’s the equivalent of saying Darin Atwater’s Orchestra instead of Soulful Symphony.) But maybe we’ll see that it is because of the discriminatory atmosphere in the 19^th century that Black musicians were enabled to perform concert music, which was the result of Black economic leverage and White acceptance. That is, the decision to perform concert music may be seen as socially and politically methodical in the Black community. Perhaps 19^th century Black concert musicians were steadily looked upon as laborers, which ultimately helped to elevate their social status since they were playing music by upper-echelon Whites. Does the same ring true today? Are classical musicians of color viewed with more prestige than, say, a rapper? Bring on the pop vs. classical war!

Over the next few weeks, I will introduce you to three prominent 19^th century Black American orchestras that thrived and received international acclaim in a slave society, and discuss the political benefits and social consequences of their fame. Then I’ll connect it to contemporary orchestras and the ongoing race/diversity issues that everyone is talking about.

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