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Henry "Harry" Thacker Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – September 12, 1949), a baritone, was an African American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer. He was the first black composer to be instrumental in the development of a characteristically American music and he helped to make black music available to classically-trained artists both by introducing them to the music and by arranging the music in a more classical form.
Early life and education
Burleigh was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. With the aid of a scholarship (obtained with the help of Francis MacDowell,[1] the mother of composer Edward MacDowell), Burleigh was accepted to the prestigious National Conservatory of Music in New York, eventually playing double bass in the Conservatory's orchestra. In 1893, he assisted the Czech composer AntonÃn Dvořák. Most of the work that Burleigh did for Dvořák was copy work, transferring the manuscript of Dvořák's 9th symphony for the parts for various instruments. However, Burleigh did have a role in introducing Dvořák to African American folk music. Despite the fact that much of the melodic material of the symphony can be traced to Dvořák's homeland, and that Dvořák himself perceived many of the 'American' tunes in it as being Native American, it has been claimed that "The first time a Negro song became a major theme in a great symphonic work... was in 1893, when AntonÃn
Dvořák's New World Symphony was played".
Though at first he was denied entrance to the Conservatory due to low grades, Mrs. MacDowell (the registrar) insisted that Burleigh try his entrance exam again. Days later, he received a scholarship. To help earn a small income during his years there, Burleigh was known to work for Mrs. MacDowell as a handyman, cleaning and working on anything she needed. According to some, Burleigh would sing spirituals while cleaning the halls of the Conservatory, which caught the attention of Dvořák, who invited Burleigh to sing to him. It has been alleged that this interaction with Burleigh inspired Dvořák to write down the spirituals, which he eventually incorporated into his “New World Symphony”. However, modern music historians doubt this account.
Singing career
Burleigh began his singing career as the baritone in his family’s quartet. By the time Burleigh left Erie in January 1892, he was singing with the city’s best vocalists at civic events and church gatherings. At the end of the summer of 1892, Burleigh gave a performance in the Adirondacks, at North Hudson, New York, as the featured soloist in “the summer school for Christian workers.” Nine months after arriving in New York City, Burleigh appeared in two Grand Encampment Concerts at the Metropolitan Church in Washington, D.C. as “the celebrated Western baritone.”
In 1894, he became a soloist for St. George's Episcopal church in New York City. There was opposition to hiring Burleigh at the all-white church from some parishioners, because of his race, at a time when other white New York Episcopal churches were forbidding black people to worship. J. P. Morgan, a member of St. George's at that time, cast the deciding vote to hire Burleigh. In spite of the initial problems obtaining the appointment, Burleigh became close to many of the members during his long tenure as a soloist at the church. In the late 1890s, Burleigh gained a reputation as a concert soloist, singing art songs, opera selections, as well as African American folk songs. From 1900 to 1925, Burleigh was also a member of the synagogue choir at the Temple Emanu-El in New York, the only African-American to sing there.
Arrangements and compositions
In the late 1890s, he also began to publish his own arrangements of art songs. About 1898 he began to compose his own songs and by the late 1910s, Burleigh was one of America's best-known composers of art songs. Beginning around 1910, Burleigh began to be a music editor for G. Ricordi, an Italian music publisher that had offices in New York.
Burleigh published several versions of the Negro spiritual "Deep River" in 1916 and 1917, and he quickly became known for his arrangements of spirituals for voice and piano; one of his arrangements in Common Metre is the hymn tune "McKee", used with John Oxenham's hymn In Christ There Is No East or West.[5] His arrangements helped to make spirituals a popular genre for concert singers, and within a few years, many notable singers performed Burleigh's arrangements.
Burleigh's art song arrangements of the spiritual and other sentimental songs were so popular during the late 1910s and 1920s, that almost no vocal recitalist gave a concert in a major city without occasionally singing them.[citation needed] John McCormack sang a number of Burleigh's songs in concert, including Little Mother of Mine (1917), Dear Old Pal of Mine (1918), Under a Blazing Star (1918), and In the Great Somewhere (1919). In many ways, the popularity of Burleigh's settings contributed to an explosion of popularity for the genre during the 1920s.
Beyond the Score - Dvorak New World Symphony - Henry T. Burleigh and the
Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Balm in Gilead, arr. Henry T. Burleigh
H.T. Burleigh - Deep River
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