A History of American Music �On Its Stamps�Part I: Early European Influences�

Douglas Hadley

August 2019

European and Afro-Caribbean Influence on the Development and Evolution of American Music

The Famous American Composers Series Issued 1940

Famous American Composers�

• Stephen Foster, 1 cent
• John Philip Sousa, 2 cent
• Victor Herbert, 3 cent
• Edward A. MacDowell, 5 cent
• Ethelbert Nevin, 10 cent

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Stephen Foster

• Lived 1826-1864
• Ulster Scots descent
• Born & raised Pennsylvania
• Songwriter of parlor and minstrel music
• “My Old Kentucky Home”
• “Old Folks at Home”
• “Camptown Races”
• “Swanee River”
• “Jeanie with the Light Blond Hair”
• “Oh Suzanna”
• Modern interpretations of his songs many consider to be disparaging to Black Americans
• Minstrel shows evolved into Vaudeville in the 20^th c.
• Influence into the 20^th c. would include the “Folk Song” movement of the 1950 and 1960s.

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John Philip Sousa

• Lived 1854 – 1934
• Born Washington, DC
• Spanish , Portuguese and Hessian ancestry
• Led Marine Corp band from 1880 – 1892 under five different presidents
• Known as the “March King”
• Wrote 137 marches and 15 operettas
• “Star and Stripes Forever” his most famous march
• “Semper Fidelis”
• “The Thunderer”
• “Washington Post”

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Spirit of ’76 �(Drum and Fife Corp)

Drummer

Stars and Stripes Forever

Victor Herbert

• Lived 1859 – 1924
• Born Isle of Guernsey
• Irish ancestry but German training
• Cellist in Austria and Germany
• Wife, Therese Forster, an opera singer,
• Both performed at NY Metropolitan Opera in 1886
• Successful composer and conductor of classical music
• Composed many successful operettas which premiered on Broadway from 1890s to WWI
• “Babes in Toyland”
• “Naughty Marietta”
• “Sweethearts”
• One of the founders of ASCAP, which protected the intellectual rights of American composers and songwriters.

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American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

Edward MacDowell

• Lived 1860 – 1908
• Born New York City
• Earliest musical influence were Cuban, Colombian and Venezuelan
• Later studied piano and composition in Germany with Franz Liszt
• American Romantic
• Mostly known for his piano pieces
• “To A Water Lilly”
• “To A Wild Rose”
• Second Piano Concerto
• In 1904 one of the first seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• His wife founded MacDowell Colony, a multidisciplinary artist retreat

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Ethelbert Nevin

• Lived 1862 – 1901
• Born Edgeworth, Pennsylvania
• Taught piano by his mother
• Studied in Pittsburgh, Boston as well as Dresden and Berlin
• American Romantic
• Best known pieces:
• “Narcissus” from Water Scenes for piano
• “The Rosary” and “Mighty Lak’ a Rose” songs

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Early African American Innovators

• Scott Joplin, 20 cent, issued 1983
• W.C. Handy, 6 cent, issued 1968
• Jelly Roll Morton, 32 cent, issued 1995
• James Weldon Johnson, 22 cent, issued 1988
• Robert Johnson, 29 cent, issued 1994

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Scott Joplin

• Lived 1868 – 1917
• Born Texarkana, TX
• Second of six children born to a former slave father from NC and a freeborn African American mother from KY
• Early musical days in Sedalia, Missouri, later located St. Louis and then New York
• “Maple Leaf Rag” published in 1899
• King of Ragtime wrote more than 50 of the classic piano rags
• His Opera Treemonisha was a flop, but revived many years later in the 20^th c.
• Ragtime died out in the 1920s as it gave way to jazz, but revival of ragtime occurred in 1960-70s.

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W. C. Handy

• Lived 1873 – 1958
• Born in Florence, Alabama
• Grandfather was a slave, after emancipation became a minister
• Was deeply religious
• Father of the Blues
• Travelled through Mississippi
• Transcribed blues he heard
• Wrote the “St. Louis Blues”
• “The Memphis Blues”
• Leader in the Harlem renaissance

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Jelly Roll Morton

• Lived 1890 – 1941
• Borne of Creole parents (free people of color) in New Orleans, LA
• Pivotal and influential figure in early jazz in New Orleans
• Started out as pianist in the “Sporting houses” of New Orleans
• Became band leader, composer and arranger
• Travelled and toured extensively ending up in Washington, DC
• Classic interviews for the Library of Congress
• “King Porter Stomp”
• “Kansas City Stomp”
• “Wolverine Blues”

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James Weldon Johnson

• Lived 1871 – 1938
• Borne Jacksonville, FL
• American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, civil rights activist
• Important leader in the NAACP
• Published two anthologies of Black American spirituals
• Part of the Harlem Renaissance movement
• Professor of creative writing and literature at Fisk University
• Collaborated with his brother John Rosamond Johnson, composer to write for Broadway musical theatre
• With his brother wrote the “Negro National Anthem” “ Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”

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Robert Johnson

• Lived 1911 – 1938
• Borne Hazlehurst, Mississippi
• Grew up in Mississippi delta near Tunica and Robinsville
• Master of the Delta Blues style
• Legend of a deal with the Devil
• Recording sessions 1936 in Jackson, Mississippi
• “Sweet Home Chicago”
• “Cross Roads Blues”
• “Hellhound on My Trail”
• Strong influence on Rock and Roll

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Mississippi Statehood

Further Developments in The History of American Music

• Musical comedy
• Rise of our own classical music traditions
• The recording, radio and movie industries
• Big Band and new forms of Jazz
• Great Songwriters and Singers
• Country and Western
• Gospel
• Folk Music
• Rock and Roll