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
"We never saw an audience more riveted, nor a more thorough
heart entertainment. Men of hoary hairs, as well as those
younger in the assembly, were moved even to tears as they
listened with rapt attention to some of the identical
slave-songs which these emancipated ones rendered with a
power and pathos perfectly indescribable."--_London Rock._
I might now, if it were necessary, fill many pages with the comments
made upon these charming singers by the American press both before and
after their trip to England; but these would only be repetitions of
the laudatory notices just given. The following is quoted because it
is descriptive of the improvement made by the singers. Said "The
Boston Journal,"--
"THE JUBILEE SINGERS.--The students of Fisk University,
Nashville, Tenn., whose sweet voices made such a popularity
for the Jubilee Singers in this city two or three years ago,
and won royal favor on the other side of the Atlantic, gave
their first concert since their return at Tremont Temple
last evening. The audience numbered some two thousand
persons, and manifested an enthusiasm seldom witnessed at a
concert in this city. From the initial to the finale of the
programme the singers were applauded and encored, and now
and then the enthusiasm broke forth in the interludes. So
many thousands have listened with delight to the full, rich
voices of the 'Jubilees,' and the sweet undertone which
disarms criticism while it charms the popular ear, that it
is needless to speak of them at length. The simple purity of
the rendering of the Lord's Prayer, which initiated the
programme, gave evidence that they had lost none of their
natural grace and simplicity of expression by their tour
across the water; and this was confirmed by the peculiar and
plaintive melodies of the South-land in the days of slavery,
which made up the major part of the programme. A few
selections of more artistic composition were introduced, for
the purpose of demonstrating, as they did most fully, that
the students have been educated to an appreciation of the
higher grades of vocalization. The great charm of these
singers will, however, remain in the reproduction of the
melodies of an era that has gone, happily never to
return,--melodies which were the natural expression of the
fancies and sympathies of an emotional race, and which no
musical culture or refinement can ever render with the sweet
simplicity and charming grace that flow from the lips of
those to whom they are the native music."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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