Music And Some Highly Musical People
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''Music and Some Highly Musical People'' is a history of African-American music by James Monroe Trotter first published in 1878. It represents perhaps the first attempt to assess American music across multiple genres in a single volume. The book includes biographies of more than forty African-American musicians and touring groups. Notable inclusions were Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, Henry F. Williams, Thomas J. Bowers, Thomas Greene Bethune, Rachel M. Washington, Sarah Sedgewick Bowers, the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, and the Georgia Minstrels.


Reception

The book is an example of a number of works of that era for which "uplifting the race" was a main goal. As with other works, this task was done while traits such as "character, modesty, and industry" were emphasized as a way to "assure whites" that blacks were not a threat. This balance is exemplified by the work of
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...
, who was at that time beginning his career. Reception of the book initially followed the color line, with most white music critics and historians, especially outside of Trotter's home city of Boston, ignoring the book. Black historians, biographers, and encyclopedists quoted and borrowed freely from the work.Schenbeck 2012, p51


Contents

Trotter's work is highly reflective of the society in which it was written. In his discussion of, for example, Elizabeth Greenfield, Trotter is unable to examine problematic coverage of the singer lest he alienate a white audience which would not recognize the negative effects of stereotyping of black musicians. For instance, he quotes with some approval reviews of Greenfield describing her talent as "untaught" and "innate", subordinating Greenfield to white, civilized, educated musicians. Historian Lawrence Schenbeck describes how Trotter's work shows examples of the Culture of Dissemblance, that is, rejection of a stereotype by becoming the exact opposite of that stereotype. As an example, Trotter's description of Greenfield emphasized childlike moral perfection. On the other hand, Trotter's work was itself not immune to the scientific racism of the period, for instance he praises lightness of skin and repeats arguments of
phrenologists Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or ...
about the relationship between character and cranium shape. Trotter's coverage of classical music was influenced by a movement to raise classical music and its performance to the level of religious service. A leader in this movement was white journalist John Sullivan Dwight. With this reverence on classical music, Trotter's description of classical soloists such as Thomas Wiggins and Sisieretta Jones become examples of racial culture and uplift through the musical genre itself. However, instead of reassuring whites, encroachment by blacks on white cultural territory described in the book was sometimes at best seen as a curiosity and at worst an affront. Trotter also covered vernacular music. Trotter covered
gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...
ians with much approval, particularly the Fisk Jubilee Singers.Darden, Bob
Get Ready!: a new history of black gospel music
A&C Black, 2004. p119-123
On the other hand, Trotter agreed that minstrelsy was usually "disgusting...buffoonery". Even so, the book was the first revisionist look at black minstrelsy, an approach which suggests that out of the racist stereotyping and caricature of the style came the chance for musical expression, employment, and audience happiness. As an example, the book discusses the work of the Georgia Minstrels.


Influence

Eileen Southern calls the book, "the first time that anyone, black or white, had attempted to assess a body of American music that cut across genres and styles". The book fits into a body of literature of that era and later. In 1883, white composer Frederic Louis Ritter published a similar book about American music as a whole, ''Music in America'', which acknowledges Trotter's research on the contributions by African-Americans to vernacular and classical music. The book more directly influenced many later works on African-American music, especially by black authors, including Penman Lovinggood Sr.'s ''Famous Modern Negro Musicians'' in 1921. In 1936, two publications by black authors, Alain LeRoy Locke's, ''The Negro and His Music'' and
Maud Cuney Hare Maud Cuney Hare (''née'' Cuney, February 16, 1874 – February 13 or 14, 1936) was an American pianist, musicologist, writer, and African-American activist in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. She was born in Galveston, the daughter o ...
's ''Negro Musicians and Their Music'', as well as more recent publications such as the work of Eileen Southern, who published ''The Music of Black Americans: A History'' in 1971 (second edition in 1983) and began editing the journal ''The Black Perspective in Music'' in 1973. Another major, related journal is ''Black Music Research Journal'' founded in 1980.Handy, Antoinette D
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Ladies' Jazz Band from Piney Woods Country Life School
Scarecrow Press, 1998. p44


List of individuals with biographies in anthology

* Joseph G. Anderson * William Appo * Dennis Auguste * Basile Bares * Thomas Greene Bethune * William Brady * Nellie E. Brown * Sarah Sedgewick Bowers * Thomas J. Bowers * James Caseras * Colored American Opera Company * Walter F. Craig *
Edmond Dédé Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827 – January 5, 1901) was an American musician and composer. A Free Negro, free-born Louisiana Creole people, Creole, he moved to Europe in 1855. He worked in Bordeaux for more than forty years, first as assistant ...
* James Gloucester Demarest * Marice J. B. Doublet * John T. Douglass * Dupre Family *
Fisk Jubilee Singers The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early ...
* Georgia Minstrels * Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield * Justin Holland *
Hyers Sisters The Hyers Sisters, Anna Madah (ca. 1855 – 1929) and Emma Louise (ca. 1857 – 1901), were singers and pioneers of black musical theater. With Joseph Bradford and Pauline Hopkins, the Hyers Sisters produced the "first full-fledged musical pla ...
* Samuel W. Jamison * Frank Johnson *
Lambert Family Lambert may refer to People *Lambert (name), a given name and surname * Lambert, Bishop of Ostia (–1130), became Pope Honorius II * Lambert, Margrave of Tuscany (fl. 929–931), also count and duke of Lucca *Lambert (pianist), stage-name of Ger ...
* Frederick Elliot Lewis * Luca Family Singers *
Samuel Lucas Samuel Lucas (1811 – 16 April 1865) was a British journalist and abolitionist. He was the editor of the ''Morning Star (London newspaper), Morning Star'' in London, the only national newspaper in Britain to support the Unionist cause in the Am ...
* E. V. Macarty * Thomas Martin * Charls Martinez *John Moore * Peter P. O'Fake * Samuel Snaer * William H. Starr * G. H. W. Stewart * Rachel M. Washington * Joseph White * A. P. Williams * Henry F. Williams


References


External links


Edition
at archive.org *{{gutenberg, no=28056, name=Music and Some Highly Musical People


Sources

*Schenbeck, Lawrence
Racial Uplift and American Music, 1878-1943
Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2012. *Southern, Eileen
The music of black Americans: A history
WW Norton & Company, 1997. 1878 books Books about African-American history Lists of African-American people United States biographical dictionaries