I was very struck with Marian Anderson's interpretation of "He Shall Feed His Flock" in yesterday's post. The deliberate slowness stands out, along with her control, calmness, and though very practiced and technically superb, a certain naturalness graces her singing. I listened to several other of my new acquaintance's recordings and found these qualities to be very consistent.
According to Wikipedia, "Marian Anderson joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black. The woman working the admissions counter replied, "We don't take colored" when she tried to apply. She debuted with the New York Philharmonic on August 26, 1925 and scored an immediate success, also with the critics. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall. Her reputation was further advanced by her tour through Europe in the early 1930s where she did not encounter the racial prejudices she had experienced in America.
The famed conductor Arturo Toscanini told her she had a voice "heard once in a hundred years. "Once he heard her sing, he knew instantly that with a rich voice like hers, there was no way that she could fail. In 1934,[2] impresario Sol Hurok offered her a better contract than she had previously had with Arthur Judson. Hurok became her manager for the rest of her performing career.
In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. The District of Columbia Board of Education declined a request to use the auditorium of a white public high school. As a result of the ensuing furor, thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned.[3]
The Roosevelts, with Walter White, then-executive secretary of the NAACP, and Anderson's manager, impresario Sol Hurok, then persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes to arrange an open air Marian Anderson concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.[3] The concert, commencing with a dignified and stirring rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" attracted a crowd of more 75,000 of all colors and was a sensation with a national radio audience of millions.[4]
The concert mentioned above was held on Easter Sunday in 1939. Anderson was accompanied by the Finnish accompanist Kosti Vehanen, who introduced Marian to Jean Sibelius in 1933.[5] Sibelius was overwhelmed with Anderson's performance and asked his wife to bring champagne in place of the traditional coffee. At this moment Sibelius started altering and composing songs for Anderson, who was delighted to have met a musician of his magnitude, who felt that she had been able to penetrate the Nordic soul."
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"Land where my fathers died" has a different meaning when she sings it.
I am so thankful to hear her speak of her earlier years in this short video,
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EseEEdLt2os&feature=related]
So then I looked up Roland Hayes, " (3 June 1887–1 January 1977), a lyric tenor, is considered the first African American male concert artist to receive wide international acclaim as well as at home. Hayes was born in Curryville, Georgia, near Calhoun, on June 3, 1887, to Fanny and William Hayes, who were former slaves.
[...]He began with arranging his own recitals and coast-to-coast tours from 1916–1919. He sang at Craig's Pre-Lenten Recitals and several Carnegie Hall concerts. He made his official debut that year in Boston's Symphony Hall which received critical acclaim. He performed with the Philadelphia Concert Orchestra, and at the Atlanta Colored Music Festivals and at the Washington, D.C. Washington Conservatory concerts. In 1917, he toured with the Hayes Trio which he formed with baritone William Richardson and pianist William Lawrence who was his regular accompanist. His London debut was in April 1920 at Aeolian Hall with pianist Lawrence Brown as his accompanist. Soon Hayes was singing in capital cities across Europe and was quite famous when he returned to the United States in 1923. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1924.
Hayes finally secured professional management with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Company. He was reportedly making $100,000 a year at this point in his career. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills with songs in French, German and Italian. He published a collection of spirituals in 1948 as My Songs; Aframerican Religious Folk Songs Arranged and Interpreted.
[... In 1942] After Hayes' wife and daughter were thrown out of a Rome, Georgia shoe store for sitting in the white-only section, Hayes confronted the store owner. The police then arrested both Hayes, whom they beat, and his wife. Hayes and his family eventually left Georgia."
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Listen to how he sings the word "tremble",
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFOsVxQ_SmY]
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