#ClassicsaDay Black History Month Week 1
By Ralph Graves
The Classics a Day team has celebrated Balck composers before. This time around, I tried to avoid duplication with previous posts. It was easy to do. There is a lot of classical music by persons of color, both in the past as well as the present. A lot.
Here’s what I found for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth for #ClassicsaDay.
02/01/21 Harry T. Burleigh – Go Down Moses
This recording was made in 1919 by George W. Brooome Company — the first Black record label. Burleigh is credited with introducing Black music to Antonin Dvorak.
02/02/21 Shawn Okpebholo – Kutimbua Kivumbi
Okpebholo wrote this work after a sabbatical in Kenya. The title means Stomp the Dust in Swahili.
02/03/21 Leslie Adams – Prayer
Adams is best known for his vocal compositions. “Prayer” is part of his 1961 song cycle “Nightsongs.” The text is by Langston Hughes.
02/04/21 Thomas Kerr – Anguished American Easter
Kerr wrote over 100 works and was on the faculty of Howard University. Anguished American Easter was a reaction to MLK’s assassination. Kerr originally improvised it during a Good Friday service in 1968.
02/05/21 Dorothy Rudd Moore – Dirge and Deliverance
Moore studied with both Thomas Kerr at Howard U. and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She later co-founded the Society of Black Composers.
