Full Description
This comprehensive book of autobiographical writings, interviews, and articles reveals the thoughts and lives of African-American musicians, examining their place in musical performance and their role in introducing the Negro spiritual into the classical repertoire. The list of individuals this study looks at includes Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, the Original Fisk University Jubilee Singers, and Sissieretta Jones in the 19th century, early pioneers of the 20th century - E. Azaliah Hackley, Julius Bledsoe, Eva Jessye and Roland Hayes-their successors Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Todd Duncan, Camilla Williams and Dorothy Maynor-followed in the later 20th and early 21st centuries by Leontyne Price, William Warfield, George Shirley, Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, Vinson Cole, Mark S. Doss and Denyce Graves.
Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Three Prima Donnas; Original Fisk University Jubilee Singers; Early 20th Century Singers; 1930-Present -- Secular; 1920-Present -- Sacred; Selected Bibliography; Index.
