{"id":3030,"date":"2024-04-13T00:16:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T04:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2024-04-13T00:20:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T04:20:55","slug":"harry-burleighs-deep-river-of-common-humanity-on-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2024\/04\/harry-burleighs-deep-river-of-common-humanity-on-npr.html","title":{"rendered":"Harry Burleigh’s “Deep River” of Common Humanity on NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever heard\u00a0Marian Anderson sing \u201cDeep River,<\/a>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0you\u2019ve heard an immortal concert spiritual by Harry Burleigh. His name won\u2019t appear on the youtube captions \u2013 and yet Burleigh\u2019s \u201cDeep River\u201d isn\u2019t a mere arrangement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I unpack the genesis of \u201cDeep River\u201d \u2013 its surprising origins as an obscure \u201cchurch militant\u201d spiritual, its indebtedness to Antonin Dvorak, its subsidiary theme composed by Burleigh himself \u2013 on the most recent \u201cMore than Music\u201d feature on NPR: \u201c<\/strong>\u2019Deep River\u2019: The Art of Harry<\/strong> Burleigh<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d The performances (other than Marian Anderson\u2019s) were recorded in concert by the exceptional African-American baritone Sidney Outlaw. It was my pleasure to be the pianist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show argues that Burleigh was a major creative force \u2013 more than the pivotal transcriber of spirituals as concert songs. In particular, we present his final art song \u2013 \u201cLovely, Dark, and Lonely One\u201d(1935) \u2013 as his valedictory: not merely one of the supreme concert songs by an American, but an encapsulation of Burleigh\u2019s life philosophy. It takes an eloquently impatient Langston Hughes poem, and turns it into an expression of hope and faith. \u201cBurleigh consistently refused to participate in movements he considered separatist or chauvinistic,\u201d writes Jean Snyder in her Burleigh biography<\/a><\/strong>. He believed that artists, not politicians, would most effect progressive change. \u201cThey are the true physicians who heal the ills of mankind,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThey are the trailblazers. They find new worlds.\u201d Our performance of this song, at Princeton University last year, is a little slower than other versions; its interior life (the climax is a pregnant silence) felt deep and true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burleigh\u2019s own life story is a parable of faith: his patience was rewarded. As I remark on NPR: \u201cWhen Harry Burleigh arrived in New York, its leading classical music institutions were segregated. Eight years later, in 1900, a \u2018race riot\u2019 erupted in the Tenderloin District. But New York was at the same time a city of opportunity for Harry Burleigh. And the opportunities did not merely arise in spite of his skin color; sometimes, they materialized because \u2013 dignified and composed — he was self-evidently a young Black American unusual in talent, character, and promise.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New York, Antonin Dvorak made 26-year-old Harry Burleigh his assistant.  Jeannette Thurber, the visionary music educator who invited Dvorak to lead her National Conservatory, was part of a community of cultural leaders who \u2013 like Dvorak and W. E. B. Du Bois — looked to Black America for direction. Not long after Dvorak arrived, she added a department \u201cfor the instruction of colored pupils of merit\u201d with free tuition. The conservatory soon acquired 150 Black students \u2013 out of a student body totaling 750. Meanwhile, Henry Krehbiel, the most influential New York music critic, turned himself into what would later be called an ethnomusicologist, studying vernacular music from all over the world \u2013 including the music of Native America, and of Africa. In the New York Tribune<\/em>, Krehbiel wrote: \u201cThat which is most characteristic, most beautiful and most vital in our folk-song has come from the negro slaves of the South.\u201d Krehbiel and Burleigh would become friends and allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we observe that, beginning with \u201cDeep River\u201d in 1913, Burleigh\u2019s spirituals were  instantaneously popular among vocal recitalists \u2013 that means they were being sung by famous white<\/em> recitalists. But over the course of the 1920s, Burleigh himself became an immensely popular black recitalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the long view, Burleigh commences a high lineage of Black vocalists whose renderings of the songs of Black America are buoyed by a courageous optimism. His first two great successors, both of whom he knew and admired, were Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson. Closing the NPR show, I ask: \u201cIs Burleigh\u2019s \u2018deep river\u2019 of common humanity a thing of the past? Let\u2019s hope not. Here\u2019s a Dutch student chorus singing Harry Burleigh<\/a><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LISTENING GUIDE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performances by Sidney Outlaw and JH recorded in concert at the Newark School of the Arts (with thanks to Larry Tamburri), and at Princeton University (presented by the James Madison Program, with thanks to Allen Guelzo):<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:00: \u201cDeep River\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:10: \u201cSometimes I Feel like a Lonely Child\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

22:45: \u201cLovely, Dark, and Lonely One\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

25:31: \u201cSteal Away\u201d —<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever heard\u00a0Marian Anderson sing \u201cDeep River,\u201d\u00a0you\u2019ve heard an immortal concert spiritual by Harry Burleigh. His name won\u2019t appear on the youtube captions \u2013 and yet Burleigh\u2019s \u201cDeep River\u201d isn\u2019t a mere arrangement.\u00a0 I unpack the genesis of \u201cDeep River\u201d \u2013 its surprising origins as an obscure \u201cchurch militant\u201d spiritual, its indebtedness to Antonin […]<\/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-3030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-MS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030","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=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3040,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions\/3040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}