"THE YOUNG NEGRO STUDENT OF TODAY IS NOT QUITE THE SLAVE OF YESTERDAY": DETT'S RELIGIOUS FOLK-SONGS OF THE NEGRO, 1927

DETT, R. Nathaniel. Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro as Sung at Hampton Institute. Hampton, Virginia: Hampton Institute Press, 1927. Octavo, original blue cloth.

Later edition of this collection of piano-vocal music for African-American Spirituals, only the second edited by Dett and containing his powerful preface, intended to showcase Dett's award-winning achievements in African-American religious folk music with the Hampton Institute Choir.

Trained in music at Harvard and a graduate of the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory, Black American composer, pianist and conductor Robert Nathaniel Dett made his greatest contributions in the area of "Negro religious folk-songs," often referred to as Spirituals today. Dett began his work in the area while winning distinguished music prizes and earning honorary degrees from no less than the Eastman School, Howard, and Oberlin. He soon, though, moved on to professional work as a teacher of music, accepting a long-term contract as Director of Music at the Hampton Institute. There, he "developed the Hampton Institute Choir into a superior organization that won critical acclaim on tours in the USA and Europe… Dett wrote in a neo-Romantic style and a nationalist vein. He spoke on many occasions of the importance of Negro folk music and urged that 'musical architects take the loose timber of Negro themes and fashion from it music… in choral form, in lyric and operatic works, in concertos and suits and salon music'" (New Grove 5:404-5). Though Dett considered his own race to be incidental and has thus often been ignored due to his lack of racial consciousness, this work reflects Dett's continuing investment in promoting the musical achievements of his fore-bearers and in preserving African-American musical history through ongoing choral performance (ANB). This collection of Spirituals was first published in 1874 as Cabin and Plantation Songs as Sung by the Hampton Students and was subsequently published in a number of editions under different editors, with new song arrangements, and with several title changes. This is the second edition published by R. Nathaniel Dett, with a minor title change from the original Folk-Songs of the Negro as Sung on the Plantations. Both editions, however, feature Dett's moving preface about the history of Spirituals; their place of Spirituals in the musical canon; and about the myths surrounding African-American singing and the vocal character of all-Black choirs. Work, 435. See Blockson 8132. Pencil owner signature.

A few spots of foxing to text, front inner paper hinge starting, slightest rubbing and toning to cloth. A near-fine copy.