Ninety years of Burleigh Tributes

Perhaps Marian Anderson's first musical contact with Harry T. Burleigh took place when she was barely seventeen.  The occasion was a concert designed by the People's Chorus on 26 March 1914 to demonstrate the musical talents of Philadelphia's African American concert artists.  Ms Anderson was a member of the chorus, yet her talent was evident enough to attract a journalist of the Philadelphia tribune.

Within three years, Burleigh had published his settings of Deep river and Go down, Moses.  That same year, 1917, Marian Anderson included two of his works in a Savannah program and thereafter included at least one of his works on every recital.  Her first recording session took place in Camden for the Victor Talking Machine Company on 10 December 1923 when she recorded Deep river and My way's cloudy, both arranged with orchestral accompaniment.  Neither recording was ever issued, nor in fact were the six Burleigh works that followed.  The first of her recordings to come out was of an orchestral version of Burleigh's Heav'n, heav'n which she recorded 20 May 1924 in Camden (now available on Eklipse EKR CD 26). All told, she retained 27 of Burleigh's works in her recital repertoire.

Burleigh's music nourished the programs of most Harlem Renaissance composers, including Roland Hayes and Paul Robeson, and his music is rarely absent from any program given since, certainly including undergraduate recitals by African American voice students.  In their original version (if one exists), the spirituals were for the untrained voice.  Supporting previous statements that the melodies, being used by composers, are not arrangements, look for example at the middle section of Burleigh's Deep river.  The range required is well more than an octave, going up to climax on a high F (in the D-flat version), while the first and final phrases dip down to a B-flat.  Some of this melody and all of the accompaniment is original with the composer.

We are certainly not experiencing a Burleigh revival.  He has never been forgotten.  But there is an intensity of attention given to his work.  Chicago's Center for Black Music Research included a whole issue of its Black music research journal to Burleigh (vol. 24, no. 2, Fall 2004).  Jean E. Snyder, who was editor for this issue, is writing a book on our composer.  She reports on a conference, held in 2003 on her home campus of Edinboro University.  The papers from this gathering provide the basis for this BMRJ issue.

In 1995 was issued an all-Burleigh CD, with soprano Regina McConnell  joined by Michael Cordovana (Centaur CRC 2251).  And now comes Karen Parks with Nobody knows; songs of Harry T. Burleigh (available from Thirty Tigers [ \n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]).  Very discrete support is provided by Wayne Sanders and in a few instances by a string quartet (The Alias Chamber Ensemble).  This young soprano has a substantial career, both in the recording studio and on the operatic stage, in the U.S. (especially with Opera Ebony) and abroad (notably in Finland).  She has appeared in both Carmen and Carmen Jones, and sung the role of Harriett Tubman in Dorothy Rudd Moore's Frederick Douglass and Leo Edwards' Hariett.  Her other repertoire include Verdi, Dvořák, and Mahler.  Web site: www.karenparks.com.

I've been in de storm so long.
Little David, play on your harp.
Lovely dark and lonely one.
My Lord, what a mornin'.
Nobody knows de trouble I've seen.
Oh, didn't it rain?
Oh! Rock me, Julie.
Sleep, li'l chile, go sleep!
Southern lullaby.
Stan' still Jordan.
Swing low, sweet chariot.
The dove and the lily.
The prayer.
Weepin' Mary.

Dominique-René de Lerma
Lawrence University
http://www.casamusicaledelerma.com