Music and Some Highly Musical PeopleTrotter, James M.
History
Music and Some Highly Musical People
Trotter, James M.
African American musicians -- Biography; African Americans -- Music
With all these brilliant and remarkable achievements, with all these
rare honors so enthusiastically awarded him by the most distinguished,
the very _elite_, of the musical profession, both singly and
combinedly, and by the sovereigns of France and Italy, White might
well have rested, indulging himself in no further acquisitions.
But men of such transcendent powers, men within whose souls the fire
of musical genius so brightly burns, _cannot_ stop; for the essence,
the very soul, of music, is the predominating, the all-absorbing
quality that forms their natures; and therefore it is that their ever
new, their ever charmingly beautiful revelations in divine harmony,
cease only when the sacred flame is extinguished by death itself.
Thus, then, it was with the subject of our sketch, who was to gain new
laurels in still another country. To speak of the same briefly is the
cause of this continuance of his history.
Although born so near the United States (in Cuba), White had never
until the year 1876 visited this country. In that year, however, he
came to New York. In keeping with that modesty of demeanor, which,
despite the many and rare honors he had won in Europe, had ever
characterized him, he came to our shores unpreceded by that blowing of
trumpets (usually paid for) which generally heralds the approach of
the foreign artist; and quietly, unostentatiously addressing himself
to the _duties_ that belonged to his beloved art, little was heard of
him by the general public for some time. But such almost marvellous
power as this artist, this master, possessed, could not long remain
unrevealed. People of musical culture were ere long electrified by the
sweet tones of wondrous melody which with perfect ease he drew from
his violin. That terrible barrier so often, even at the present time,
erected in this country, that shameful obstruction, _color prejudice_,
could not long withstand the attacks of this quiet yet courageous
musical genius; and people, at first indifferent because of his
complexion, were won anon to his favor, not alone by his exceptional
skill as a performer, but also by the polish, the ease and dignity, of
his manners, so refreshingly free from ostentatious affectation on the
one hand, or hesitating timidity on the other. They found that he was
indeed the true, the conscientious artist, who loved music for its own
sake, and was imbued with a spirit of truthful enthusiasm, in such
pleasing contrast with the characteristics exhibited by many of the
foreign artists who had preceded him, as to render the same decidedly
charming. The possession of these rare traits of character served, of
course, to add to the attractiveness of a form which was one of most
pleasing symmetry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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