{"id":2170,"date":"2021-11-27T17:34:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T22:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2021-11-27T17:34:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T22:34:41","slug":"dvoraks-prophecy-on-npr-are-the-arts-still-a-fit-topic-for-historians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2021\/11\/dvoraks-prophecy-on-npr-are-the-arts-still-a-fit-topic-for-historians.html","title":{"rendered":"DVORAK’S PROPHECY on NPR — Are the Arts Still a “Fit Topic” for Historians?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At the conclusion of the\u00a0National Public Radio feature<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ve produced about \u201cThe Fate of Black Classical Music,\u201d Jenn White \u2013 who so graciously hosts the daily newsmagazine \u201c1A\u201d \u2013 asks me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the Foreword to your new book Dvorak\u2019s Prophecy<\/em>, George Shirley \u2013 the first Black tenor to sing leading roles at the Met — writes: \u2018Because of our current conversation about race, we now observe a seemingly desperate effort to make up for lost time, to present Black faces in the concert hall. But if it\u2019s going to become a permanent new way of thinking, there has to be new understanding.\u2019 What does he mean by that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I answer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeorge Shirley is 87 years old — he\u2019s seen a lot. And as we\u2019ve heard him say, he\u2019s witnessed steps forward in race relations in America, and backward steps coming after those. When he talks about \u2018a permanent new way of thinking,\u2019 he means permanent change — not ephemeral change, as we\u2019ve seen in the past. And he\u2019s referencing what I call a \u2018usable past\u2019 \u2013 lasting cultural roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, I went to a prestigious liberal arts college [it was Swarthmore]. I graduated a long time ago, in 1970. I majored in History. And in my four years there I never once heard the name  W. E. B. Du Bois. And I certainly did not read Du Bois\u2019s The Souls of Black Folk<\/em>, which today I regard as pretty much obligatory reading for educated Americans. Du Bois, his book \u2013 they\u2019re part of a usable American past, something we can all utilize as an anchor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeorge Shirley references \u2018a seemingly desperate effort.\u2019 What is this about? It says that we have to rethink the concert experience in our concert halls, on our campuses. We need to rethink the learning the experience. It\u2019s not enough just to perform Black classical music. We should use<\/em> the story of Du Bois, the story of Dvorak, the story of Harry Burleigh. We need to tell stories about the American past in order to anchor a constructive American future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s my good fortune to be creating\u00a050-minute<\/strong>\u00a0radio documentaries<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>for Rupert Allman, the producer of \u201c1A.\u201d Rupert welcomes \u201cdeep dives\u201d into timely topics. In the case of \u201cThe Fate of Black Classical Music\u201d (which aired on Thanksgiving), the big picture \u2013 as in my book \u2013 has to do with prioritizing something in ever shorter supply in our United States: informed historical memory. A good chunk of our show is dedicated to an exchange with the historian\u00a0Allen Guelzo<\/strong>, whose recent biography of Robert E. Lee is an exemplary instance of \u201cusing the past\u201d with integrity and informed understanding. Guelzo is also the rare American historian who really knows the arts, including classical music. I asked him why American historians have failed to document Black classical music. He answered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHistorians who write about music history are usually to be found in conservatories or in Music departments. But they\u2019re not usually found in History departments. Now perhaps the reason for that is that the people who populate History departments simply don\u2019t see the arts as part of their turf . . . And there is a certain professional segregation that goes on that way — which suggests, however faintly and however politely, that culture is not really a fit topic of interest for historians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guelzo observes that \u201cwe don\u2019t educate people in music the way we once did.\u201d No Child Left Behind and STEM, he continues, \u201chave been death<\/em> for arts education, especially in music. . . . Nothing surprised me more in writing Robert E. Lee \u2013 A Life<\/em> than tripping over the odd fact that when Lee was Superintendent of West Point, the faculty got together to play Schumann and Mendelssohn string quartets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prominent recent history of the US \u2013 Jill Lepore\u2019s wonderfully readable These Truths<\/em> \u2013 delves deeply into issues that matter today, including slavery and race. But there isn\u2019t a single sentence on the arts. I asked Guelzo what he made of that. He replied: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of it is the way historians are trained these days, in their graduate programs, which generally pay next to no attention to the arts. That was certainly my experience at the University of Pennsylvania. . . . Are we really adequately describing the lives that Americans have lived? . . . I think not. We\u2019ve desperately shortchanged our understanding of the past.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guelzo calls classical music a \u201cforeign country\u201d for those who write about the US. \u201cIf any thought is given to classical music at all, it\u2019s as a social representation of elite class identity. And yet classical music is an enormously supple conveyer of social meaning.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so it is with Black classical music, and with the American Dvorak. When Allen Guelzo says that William Levi Dawson\u2019s\u00a0Negro Folk Symphony<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and George Gershwin\u2019s\u00a0Porgy and Bess<\/em>\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u201cprove that Dvorak was right\u201d when he prophesied that \u201cNegro melodies\u201d would foster a \u201cgreat and noble\u201d school of American classical music, Guelzo means that these artworks absorb and dignify core aspects of the American experience, enduring American truths. I comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe story of Black classical music is both black and white. It includes W. E. B. Du Bois and William Dawson \u2013 and also Antonin Dvorak and George Gershwin. It also includes, in glorious fulfillment of Dvorak\u2019s prophecy, Porgy and Bess<\/em> \u2013 whose most fervent admirers included the members of the original 1935 cast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the wake of Gershwin\u2019s sudden, shocking death in 1937, a memorial concert was held at the Hollywood Bowl. The participants included Ruby Elzy, a gifted Black soprano who sang Serena\u00a0in the original\u00a0Porgy<\/em>\u00a0production on Broadway. Elzy, too, would die young \u2013 of a botched operation. She had been planning to sing Verdi\u2019s\u00a0Aida<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 for a Black opera company. Ruby Elzy\u2019s rendition of ‘My Man\u2019s Gone Now,’ at the Gershwin Memorial Concert, is the most extraordinary performance I know of any selection from George Gershwin\u2019s opera. The aria itself is steeped in the yearning of the sorrow songs. The performance combines the bluesy pathos of Billie Holliday with the operatic splendor of a young artist on the cusp of what would have become a notable career. It is Ruby Elzy\u2019s keening lament for the departed composer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can hear Ruby Elzy sing \u201cMy Man\u2019s Gone Now\u201d \u2013 and the rest of the NPR feature \u2013\u00a0here<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>(scroll to the bottom of the page for a time-code and use your cursor to naviage). And here\u2019s an outline of the show:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART ONE: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Levi Dawson\u2019s\u00a0Negro Folk Symphony<\/em>\u00a0(1934), why it matters, and why we don\u2019t know it. With commentary by the late conductor Michael Morgan (8:00) and by Angel\u00a0Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez,\u00a0who conducts the DC premiere this March with\u00a0PostClassical Ensemble<\/strong>\u00a0(<\/a>9:00).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART TWO:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Shirley (12:05) remembers how Rudolf Bing desegregated the Metropolitan Opera. Allen Guelzo (18:00) ponders why American historians ignore the arts. Ruby Elzy sings \u201cMy Man\u2019s Gone Now\u201d (27:00).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART THREE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpts (30:00) from PostClassical Ensemble\u2019s Nov. 14 \u201cnarrative concert\u201d \u2013 \u201cThe Souls of Black Folk\u201d — at D.C.\u2019s historic All Soul\u2019s Church, with music by Harry Burleigh, Margaret Bonds, and Florence Price, plus readings from Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and Margaret Bonds. The participants include students from Howard University, and the Chorale of the Coalition of African-Americans for the Performing Arts. The final work is Price\u2019s Suite for Brasses and Piano<\/em>(1949), in its first performance (by pianist Elizabeth Hill with members of PCE conducted by Angel Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez) in more than half a century (40:00). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

–For more on PCE\u2019s Black Classical Music Festival, click\u00a0here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–For more on my new book \u201cDvorak\u2019s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music,\u201d click\u00a0here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–For more on the six \u201cDvorak\u2019s Prophecy\u201d documentary films just released by Naxos, click\u00a0here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the conclusion of the\u00a0National Public Radio feature\u00a0I\u2019ve produced about \u201cThe Fate of Black Classical Music,\u201d Jenn White \u2013 who so graciously hosts the daily newsmagazine \u201c1A\u201d \u2013 asks me: \u201cIn the Foreword to your new book Dvorak\u2019s Prophecy, George Shirley \u2013 the first Black tenor to sing leading roles at the Met — writes: \u2018Because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-z0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2173,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions\/2173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}