Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Antonin Dvořák

Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals & Dvořák

Harry T. Burleigh is one of the great unsung figures in American music – which is ironic, since it was his singing that changed the course of history.

Burleigh was a student at the National Conservatory of Music in New York, where he studied with, among others, Rubin Goldmark, the conservative pedagogue who later gave lessons to Copland and Gershwin. It just so happens that his attendance there coincided with the tenure of Antonin Dvořák as the conservatory’s director. Dvořák overheard young Burleigh singing African American spirituals and was transfixed. Burleigh frequently sang spirituals for Dvořák and worked for him as a copyist beginning in 1893.

Spirituals, of course, became an important part of the “New World” Symphony’s DNA. Since Dvořák’s masterwork was intended, in part, as instructional, leading American composers by example to a distinctively national sound, the significance of Burleigh’s influence becomes inescapable.

Burleigh also served as a double-bassist and timpanist in the school’s orchestra, which Dvořák conducted. He was born in Stamford, CT, on this date in 1866.

More about Burleigh:

Goin’ Home:

Wade in de Water:

Happy Birthday, Harry!

December 2, 2014
Dvořák’s American Flag A Neglected Masterpiece

It’s Flag Day! Antonin Dvořák planned his rarely-heard cantata “The American Flag” to celebrate his arrival in America in 1892 as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. But the text, by Joseph Rodman Drake, arrived too late, and the work did not receive its first performance until 1894. Though he submitted the vocal score for publication in 1895, he did not consider the work complete until 1898.

Scored for tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra, the cantata falls into eight sections:

I. The Colors of the Flag
II. First Hymn to the Eagle
III. Second Hymn to the Eagle
IV. Orchestral Interlude: March
V. First Address to the Flag (The Foot-Soldier)
VI. Second Address to the Flag (The Cavalryman)
VII. Third Address to the Flag (The Sailor)
VIII. Apotheosis (Prophetic)

The piece remains something of an obscurity, having never attained the popularity of other major works of his American years, including the String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 92 (the so-called “American”), the “New World” Symphony No. 9, and his Cello Concerto in B Minor. Part of the reason may be the fact that, for the most part, the work doesn’t sound particularly “American.”

His association with Henry T. Burleigh (called Harry), his African-American assistant at the conservatory, and travels around the American Midwest, introduced Dvořák to the Negro Spiritual and Native American folk music, traditions the composer enthusiastically embraced. He called upon his American counterparts to look to their own soil in the founding of a unique national sound.

Mindful of the invaluable contributions of their people, Dvořák lobbied to waive tuition to the conservatory for talented Native and African American composers who could not afford the fee. His perceptivity, his enthusiastic support for, and his elevation of sounds that really were in the American ear all along earn Dvořák his place as the honorary Grandfather of American Music.

Here is the neglected cantata, “The American Flag,” posted in two parts:

June 14, 2014
Erben’s Dark Tales Inspiring Dvořák for Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day! Perhaps it’s a good thing I am not a parent; otherwise I would scare the bejesus out of my kids with stories from Karel Jaromir Erben’s “Kytice,” or “Bouquet.”

Like the Brothers Grimm in Germany, Erben synthesized native folk tales into often gruesome fairy stories. In doing so, he became an important figure in the establishment of a Czech national identity. His stories are recited by Czech schoolchildren and recalled proudly by the Czech people. Despite its influence, “Kytice” did not appear in a complete English translation until 2013.

Antonin Dvořák was particularly fond of Erben’s tales. In 1896, he composed a series of symphonic poems after Erben ballads, including “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch” and “The Wood Dove.” Erben’s influence also hangs over Dvořák’s most famous opera, “Rusalka.”

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we salute Erben with two Dvořák works: the symphonic poem “The Golden Spinning Wheel,” and the final scene from the dramatic cantata “The Spectre’s Bride.”

“The Golden Spinning Wheel” is a Cinderella story gone very, very wrong, as a wicked stepmother and stepsister not only murder but dismember an unfortunate maiden favored by the king. Not to give too much away, but the titular appliance proves their undoing.

“The Spectre’s Bride” is another in the seemingly infinite variations on the tale of a young woman being swept off by the ghost of her lover. The climax of Dvořák’s cantata places the heroine in a cottage besieged by howling spirits, as a corpse on the table, prepared for burial, stirs to do their bidding.

Forget Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” Join me for “Erben Legends,” as we celebrate Karel Jaromir Erben, this Mother’s Day at 10 ET, with a repeat Thursday at 11, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

May 11, 2014

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