Composers of Color Quiz | Composers Mixture

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1. Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in eighteenth-century France of a mulatto father and a slave mother. Although he is all but forgotten today, he was one of the most highly regarded composers of his day. Saint-Georges was frequently compared to this classical-era composer and was, in fact, considered his near-equivalent by some of his contemporaries; who was the composer?

Answer: Mozart

Saint-Georges was known as "Le Mozart noir" ("the black Mozart"). An accomplished violinist and composer, Saint-Georges was also a skilled athlete and soldier (the father of novelist Alexandre Dumas served under his command during the French Revolution). Saint-Georges was appointed director of the Royal Academy of music in 1775 by King Louis XVI, but the king was compelled to withdraw the nomination after some female artists of the Academy voiced their objection to receiving orders from a mulatto.

Despite such setbacks, Saint-Georges was subjected to less discrimination in France than would have been the case in America. At the time of his final illness, Saint-Georges was the musical director of the Cercle de L'Harmonie; he died in 1799.

2. Born in England, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) studied music at the Royal College of Music under Sir Charles Villers Stanford. He became a composer of renown not only in his native country, but in the United States, where he had the distinction (quite remarkable for a man of color at that time)of being received at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. Taylor became fascinated with a particular branch of American popular music, which he incorporated into many of his own works; what was it?

Answer: Spirituals

Despite his English upbringing, Taylor became fascinated with the melodies of African-American spirituals and resolved to do for this branch of folk-music what composers like Grieg and Dvorak had done for the folk music of their native countries. Taylor's best-known work was the trilogy "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast", a setting of poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which incorporated the famous spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen". Among his other notable compositions were the Seven African Romances, the African Suite for piano, numerous art songs and settings of black spirituals, and the opera "Dream Lovers". Taylor was a friend and sometime collaborator with Paul Laurence Dunbar and W.E.B. Dubois, and also enjoyed a close friendship with Booker T. Washington, who wrote the introduction to Taylor's collection of spirituals.

Although his music fell from favor not long after his untimely death in 1912 at the age of 37, Taylor's output is being reconsidered in our own time. His legacy in America was such that the first elementary school built for African-American children (Public School #122 in Baltimore, Maryland; est. 1926) was named for him.

3. Although he is almost exclusively known for his piano rags, American composer Scott Joplin was determined to make his mark as a serious musician. "Treemonisha" is Joplin's best-known work in what branch of serious music?

Answer: Opera

"Treemonisha" is one of Joplin's three forays into the world of opera, and the only one to have enjoyed any success (though it was never performed during the composer's lifetime). The story concerns the struggles of freed slaves from an Arkansas plantation; the title character is an eighteen year-old girl who has the advantage (which the others from her community lack) of an education. Treemonisha fights against the conjurers who try to seduce the other villagers with native superstition and "bags of luck" (an oblique reference to cocaine) and convinces her people to turn instead to learning and hard work.

The score utilizes the idioms of ragtime, vaudeville, and folk ballads.

4. Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) was one of the first prominent African-American composers in American history. Burleigh studied at New York's National Conservatory of Music; one of his principal teachers and mentors was this eminent Czech composer, whose best-known symphony is noted for its use of American folksongs and spirituals. Who was he?

Answer: Antonin Dvorak

In his position at the National Conservatory, Dvorak was known to take a particular interest in students of African and Native American ancestry. He was fascinated with the native folk music of North America, which was the inspiration for his celebrated Symphony # 9 in E minor ("From the New World"). Burleigh, favorite pupil of Dvorak's, has been credited with having assisted Dvorak by sharing his intimate knowledge of the spiritual repertoire, much of which he had learned from his grandfather, a former slave. Burleigh's most enduring works are his settings of spirituals for voice and piano and for chorus, as well as the song cycle "Passionelle" (a setting of poems by J. Rosamund Johnson). Burleigh's songs were performed during his lifetime by such great artists as Roland Hayes, John McCormack, and Marian Anderson.

5. Canadian-born composer Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) was an accomplished pianist and wrote extensively for the piano. Among his works for the keyboard are the "Magnolia Suite", "'In the Bottoms' Suite", the "Cinnamon Grove Suite", and the "Tropical Winter Suite". Apart from his works for piano, Dett is best known for his compositions in what area of music?

Answer: Choral Music

Dett was a choir director of considerable distinction as well as a pianist, and his output includes a sizable body of choral music. Many of his choral works utilize the idioms of the black spiritual and folksong; these include the oratorios "The Chariot Jubilee" and "The Ordering of Moses", as well as his best-known piece, "Listen to the Lambs", which was recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is still a standard of the American choral repertoire.

Some of his choral works, however, were strikingly different; his output includes several motets, including an "Ave Maria" which English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham declared worthy of Bruckner.

In his honor, the "Dr. Nathaniel Dett Memorial Award" was established to honor African-American musicians and composers, particularly those who have worked, as he did, for the education and advancement of young people.

6. One of the most venerated of African-American composers was Mississippi-born William Grant Still (1895-1978). Still's extensive output includes opera, ballet, chamber music, and symphonic music. Apart from composition, Still attained great distinction on the concert stage in which area of musical performance?

Answer: Conducting

Still's career as a bandleader/conductor began in his years as a student at Wilberforce University in Ohio, where he led the school band. Later in life, he became bandleader of the Plantation Club; in the 1930s, he broke through the color barrier to become the first African-American to lead an all-white radio orchestra. Still caused yet more comment in 1939, when he married a white woman- the Russian-Jewish pianist and journalist Verna Arvey, whose marriage to Still lasted until his death in 1978. Still's most celebrated works include the ballet "Sadhji", the "Afro-American Symphony", a fantasia on the "St. Louis Blues" (a song he had earlier arranged for W.C. Handy), and the operas "Minette Fontaine" and "A Bayou Legend".

7. Julius C. (Jules) Bledsoe was a distinguished baritone who enjoyed a second career as a composer. Born in Waco, Texas in 1897, Bledsoe's compositions include the "Ode to America", the "African Suite" (a series of concert songs with orchestra), and the opera "Bondage", based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin". As a performer, Bledsoe appeared in concert, opera, and the musical theater. In 1927, he created the role of Joe in this groundbreaking musical by Kern and Hammerstein.

Answer: Show Boat

The character of Joe, who sings the classic "Ol' Man River", has become so thoroughly associated with Paul Robeson that most people assume that he created the role. Robeson was, in fact, Kern and Hammerstein's first choice for the role, but he was unavailable when the show went into production. Bledsoe, a concert and opera singer whose repertory included Mozart, Purcell, Schubert, and operatic roles such as Amonasaro in Verdi's "Aida" and the title role in Louis Gruenberg's "The Emperor Jones", was engaged by producer Florenz Ziegfeld to create the role (Robeson did appear in a revival of "Show Boat" in the 1930s, as well as the first film version). Bledsoe's multi-faceted career, which included a few film appearances in the early 1940s, was brought to an untimely end with his tragic death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1943 at the age of 46.

8. Born in 1904, Undine Smith Moore was a music teacher at Virginia State College in Petersburg, Virginia; she did not turn to composition until the last decades of her life. Her works include the "Afro-American Suite" for flute, cello, and piano, and several choral works, including the oratorio "Scenes From the Life of a Martyr", which commemorates the life- and death- of this great African-American crusader.

Answer: Martin Luther King

This 16-part work was scored for chorus, soloists, and orchestra and premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1982. It comprises settings of texts from the biblical "Song of Solomon", spirituals, and contemplative texts on the life of the legendary African-American crusader, who was assassinated in 1968.

It was nominated for a Nobel prize. Moore, whose pupils include Phil Medley and Billy Taylor, died in 1989; in the year before her death, she spoke of the importance of preserving the memory of African-American history with its hard-won achievements and of the need of her fellow artists to "create our own monuments."

9. The New York-born composer Adolphus Hailstork enjoys much the same renown today as did the late William Grant Still in the mid 20th century. Hailstork's works are frequently performed by many major symphony orchestras in the U.S. Among his best-known and most frequently performed works are for chorus and orchestra; these include "Mourn Not the Dead", "I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes", "Songs of Isaiah", and "Done Made My Vow". One of these works features a movement in which Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech is spoken over a choral setting of "We Shall Overcome"; which piece is it?

Answer: Done Made My Vow

I had the personal good fortune to perform this work in the fall of 1997 with the Long Island Philharmonic chorus; the narrator was Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III. This work begins with a setting of the spiritual "Done Made My Vow" and includes settings of texts from the book of Psalms composed in a style reminiscent of African folk music, and solo passages (for soprano and baritone) of great lyric beauty. The central section of the work, mentioned above, is an homage to some of the many leaders in the struggle for freedom and equality, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, in addition to Dr. King.

In addition to his choral music, Dr. Hailstork's body of work includes two symphonies, the opera "Joshua's Boots", "Arabesques", which utilizes themes derived from Arabic music, and a piano concerto commissioned by a consortium of major orchestras in 1990.

10. Composer Anthony Davis is one of the most celebrated African-American composers of the present day. In 1986, Davis' controversial opera "X (the Life and Times of Malcolm X)" created a sensation when it premiered at the New York City Opera. More recently, Davis wrote an opera about a pivotal event in the history of American slavery (which was also the subject of a film by Stephen Spielberg); what was it?

Answer: The "Amistad" uprising

Davis' musical training comprised the European tradition, as well as the traditional idioms of "black" music. The opera "X" was designated by some critics as a "jazz opera", however Davis insisted that the form of the piece was modeled on the operas of Wagner and Alban Berg, while allowing that he had utilized certain elements of Jazz and other popular music. Davis' "Amistad", dealing with the famous 1839 slave ship mutiny and its resulting trial, premiered at the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1997. Earlier, in 1993, Davis composed the score for Tony Kushner's Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway play "Angels in America".

Source: Author jouen58

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ralzzz before going online.
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Composers of Color Trivia Quiz

The many contributions of men and women of color to the world of serious music is an all too well-kept secret. Hopefully, this quiz will redress the balance a bit. Good Luck!

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