The ''Comedy Overture on Negro Themes'' is a

concert overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed over ...

composed in 1910 by

Henry F. Gilbert Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert (September 26, 1868 – May 19, 1928) was an American composer and collector of folk songs. He is best remembered today for his interest in the music of African-Americans around the turn of the 20th century. Gil ...

; it was first performed in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, by the Municipal Symphony on August 17, 1910. The piece derives its main melodic material from three black

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

s. The first is from the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

, while the second ("I'se Gwine to Alabamy", a

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

roustabout Roustabout (Australian English, Australia/New Zealand English, New Zealand English: rouseabout) is an occupational term. Traditionally, it referred to a worker with broad-based, non-specific skills. In particular, it was used to describe show ...

song) and third ("Old Ship of Zion", used as the subject of a

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the co ...

) are American.

References

*David Ewen, ''Encyclopedia of Concert Music''. New York; Hill and Wang, 1959. 1910 compositions Compositions by Henry Gilbert {{classical-composition-stub