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
Under Mr. Anderson's leadership, the band was occasionally engaged to
go to distant parts of the country to play for gatherings of one kind
and another. The writer well remembers when in 1852, on "St. John's
Day," this fine corps of musicians came to Cincinnati. With ranks so
deployed as to almost extend across Broadway Street, they moved in
most soldierly manner up the same at the head of a Masonic order,
playing indeed most "soul-animating strains," and winning the while
the warm admiration of a vast throng of people that lined the
sidewalks. Ah! we were very, very proud of them; so elated with their
triumphal entry, and so inspirited by the noble music, that it seemed
as though we could have followed them for days without yielding to
fatigue.
Mr. Anderson died at Philadelphia in 1874.
The successor of "Frank Johnson's Band" is called "The Excelsior." I
am informed that the latter consists of a number of superior
musicians.
"Madam Brown" was long regarded as the finest vocalist of her race in
this country, while only a few of the other race could equal her.
Although now no longer young, she still sings artistically and
beautifully. Her _repertoire_ comprises the gems of the standard
operas; and these she has sung, and does now sing, in a style that
would reflect honor on those far more pretentious than herself.
The other day, while looking over the "scrap-book" of a friend, I met
with another of those pleasant surprises that have occasionally
cheered me since I began this volume. In this "scrap-book" I found a
large number of cuttings from Philadelphia, New York, and other
papers, that related to the concerts given in the year 1856, and
later, by _Miss Sarah Sedgewick Bowers_. By these comments, I find
that this lady possessed a voice of most charming power and sweetness,
and that in her interpretations of operatic and music of a classical
character she was well-nigh, if not quite, equal to the finest
cantatrices then before the public. These papers styled Miss
Sedgewick--this was her professional name--the "Colored Nightingale."
It would perhaps be interesting to here append a number of these very
complimentary comments. A single and representative one must, however,
suffice. It is from "The Daily Pennsylvanian" of May 3, 1856.
"We have never been called upon to record a more brilliant
and instantaneous success than has thus far attended this
talented young aspirant to musical honors. From obscurity
she has risen to popularity. She has not been through the
regular routine of advancement; but, as it were in a moment,
endowed by nature with the wonderful power of song, she
delighted the circle in which she moved, and is now
enchanting the public. Last evening the hall was thronged at
an early hour. In every song she was unanimously encored."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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