| Music Encyclopedia: Harry T(hacker) Burleigh |
(b Erie, pa, 2 Dec 1866; dStamford, ct, 12 Sept 1949). American composer and singer. He studied in New York, 1892-5, where he was influenced by Dvořák among others. He sang in New York and worked as a music editor; he wrote 265 vocal works and made 187 choral arrangements of African-American spirituals as well as compiling a collection of minstrel melodies.
| Black Biography: Henry Thacker Burleigh |
composer; singer
Personal Information
Born Henry Thacker Burleigh on December 2, 1866, in Erie, Pennsylvania; died on September 12, 1949, in Stamford, Connecticut; married Louise Alston on February 9, 1898; children: Alston Waters (son)
Education: National Conservatory of Music, New York City, 1892-95.
Religion: Episcopalian.
Memberships: Charter member of American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), board member from 1941.
Career
Baritone soloist, St. George's Episcopal Church, New York City, 1894-1946; Soloist at Temple Emanu-El, 1900-46; editor at Ricordi Record Company, 1911-49; also composer and arranger, 1898-1949.
Life's Work
A leading classical vocalist and composer, Henry Burleigh was influential in the process of establishing an "American School" in classical music. In particular he composed and arranged religious music in the African American tradition of spirituals and was a friend of Antonin Dvorák, who consulted Burleigh about American folk and religious music while composing his ninth symphony From the New World. Though much of Burleigh's output is highly sentimental, it was performed by some of the major singing stars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; he produced over 100 arrangements of popular songs such as "Deep River" (1916) and "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (1935). Burleigh was also a fine baritone singer in his own right, toured extensively, and performed for many heads of state; Paul Robeson listed him as one of his singing mentors. Through his performances, original compositions, and through his arrangements of spirituals, Burleigh helped establish American folk music in the concert hall and became the first black American composer to gain international prominence.
Henry Thacker Burleigh was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1866, the second son of Henry Thacker Burleigh and Elizabeth (Waters) Burleigh. His father was a laborer while his mother worked as a domestic servant despite being a teaching college graduate. Burleigh acquired his knowledge of Negro spiritiuals from his maternal grandfather, who had been born a slave but was freed after being beaten and partially blinded in punishment. From an early age Burleigh, who was known throughout his life as "Harry," worked as an errand boy and messenger, often accompanying his grandfather on his rounds as a lamplighter. In her biography of the composer Anne Key Simpson explains that his love for music became apparent at an early age: he was hired as a doorman by his mother's employer, Elizabeth Russell, after standing knee-deep in snow for hours so that he could hear Rafael Joseffy perform at the Russell home.
Burleigh graduated from Erie High School in 1887 and worked as a laborer and later a stenographer, supplementing his income with local singing performances. It was not until 1894, at the age of 26, that he went to New York City and entered the National Conservatory of Music on a scholarship after his second attempt to pass the audition. It was at the conservatory that he met Antonin Dvorák, the Czech composer who became the school's director in 1892. Burleigh spent a great deal of time with Dvorák, learning composition, copying manuscripts, and singing spirituals for him. Dvorák's major work in the period was his Symphony No. 9 From the New World, which premiered in December 1893 and includes musical references to several American folk tunes, though the extent of Burleigh's influence on Dvorák's work is uncertain.
In 1894 Burleigh began to make his way as a professional musician when he was auditioned for a position as baritone soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church in New York City. His skin color made him a controversial choice, but Burleigh beat 59 white candidates and began a relationship with the church that lasted 52 years. He was also the first black soloist at the Temple Emanu-El, where he served between 1900 and 1946. Burleigh married poet Louise Alston on February 9, 1898, at about the same time as he began to compose. Their only child, a son named Alston, was born in 1899.
In all Burleigh made almost 190 choral arrangements and composed over 260 works for solo voice. His "art songs," arrangements of spirituals, and other compositions, were performed by some of the best-known musicians of the time, including, including John McCormack, Lucrezia Bori, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink. In a review of the collection From the Soutland, Keith Ward wrote that while many of Burleigh's songs have become dated, some are "...quite ambitious. A good example is the ballad, 'Ethiopia Saluting the Colors' (1915), one of four songs found on both compact discs....Burleigh's suggestive harmonies, his use of borrowed material, and his highly personal rendering of the text [by Walt Whitman] make this a song that deserves a place in today's concert repertoire."
Burleigh's success as a performer also extended to touring. He performed across the United States and in Europe, appearing in command performances for the British royal family and for President Theodore Roosevelt as well as a special broadcast performance for New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Ill health forced his retirement from performing in 1946. Two years earlier he had performed in the fiftieth annual performance of Fauré's The Palms, a tradition he established at St. George's church in his first year as soloist there. Burleigh's influence on American music also found lasting expression in his work as an editor for the Ricordi Record Company, a position he held from 1911 until his death, and in his generosity to other black musicians and artists. In particular Burleigh was a mentor to Paul Robeson, Roland Hayes, and Marion Anderson, but he was also acquainted with other black musicians and academics, including composer Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the historian W.E.B. DuBois. Burleigh was a charter member of American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1914 and became a member of its board of directors in 1941. He died from a heart attack in Stamford, Connecticut, on September 12, 1949, and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Hastings, NY.
Awards
NAACP Spingarn Medal, 1917; Harmon Foundation Award, 1929; honorary degrees from Atlanta University and Howard University.
Works
Selected works
Further Reading
Books
— Chris Routledge
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Henry Thacker Burleigh |
| Artist: Henry Thacker Burleigh |
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| Discography: Henry Thacker Burleigh |
| Wikipedia: Harry Burleigh |
| Harry Burleigh | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Henry Thacker Burleigh |
| Born | December 2, 1866 Erie, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Origin | New York City |
| Died | December 12, 1949 (aged 83) New York, New York, United States |
| Occupations | Singer, composer, arranger |
Henry "Harry" Thacker Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – December 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[1].
Contents |
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 Antonín 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's role in introducing Dvořák to African American folk music was substantial. It was written that "The first time a Negro song became a major theme in a great symphonic work... was in 1893, when Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony was played" [2].
Burleigh's career as a professional singer began in earnest in 1894, when 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[1], 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[2]. 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[2].
In the late 1890s, he also began to publish his own arrangements of art songs. About 1898 he began to compose his own songs[1] 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.
After publishing several versions of "Deep River" in 1916 and 1917, Burleigh became known for his arrangements of the spiritual for voice and piano. Prior to this time, spirituals were sung only by ensembles and choruses. His arrangements were the first to make spirituals available to concert singers[1].
Burleigh also made the first formal orchestral arrangements for more than 100 Negro spirituals, including Nobody Knows (the Trouble I've Seen)[2]. Burleigh's best-known compositions are his arrangements of these spirituals, as art songs. They 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. 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)[1]. In many ways, the popularity of Burleigh's settings contributed to an explosion of popularity for the genre during the 1920s.
During an interview in 1924, Burleigh said:
In Negro spirituals my race has pure gold, and they should be taken as the Negro's contribution to artistic possessions. In them we show a spiritual security as old as the ages.[cite this quote]
Through the 1920s and 1930s, Burleigh continued to promote the spirituals through publications, lectures, and arrangements. His life-long advocacy for the spiritual eclipsed his singing career, and his arrangements of art songs. With the success of Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson, among others, his seminal role in carving out a place on America's recitals had been eclipsed. His many popular art songs from the early twentieth century have often been out of print since the composer's death. Nevertheless, Burleigh's position as one of America's most important composers from the early twentieth century remains.
He was also the 1917 winner of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal. The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for outstanding achievement by an African American.
The award, which consists of a gold medal, was created by Joel Elias Spingarn, Chairman of the Board of the NAACP in 1914. It was first awarded to biologist Ernest E. Just in 1915, and has been given each year thereafter, with the exception of 1938.
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 | Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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