Abstract:
African American musicians of past centuries were often unfairly considered “illiterate,” despite their immense talent and their creation of fundamental modern genres such as blues, jazz, and spiritual music. Their musical literacy developed largely thanks to the national education reforms introduced by President Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War. Within just a few years, Black singers, instrumentalists, and composers appeared who could master the forms of European classical music. Antonín Dvořák strongly believed that African American and Native American music could serve as the national foundation of American art music. During the nineteenth century, the United States experienced a passionate love for French, Italian, and German opera. Two of the first African American opera composers were Scott Joplin and Harry Lawrence Freeman, the latter nicknamed “the Black Wagner.” Scott Joplin became famous for his elegant piano rags such as Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. His opera Treemonisha combines European operatic writing with African American folk traditions and themes of education and liberation. Harry Lawrence Freeman’s opera Voodoo was performed on Broadway in 1928 and broadcast on the radio. Both Joplin and Freeman contributed significantly to the birth of African American classical and theatrical music in the United States.