Author Archives: Abby Carter

Show Boat Was a REAL Boat

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Over the century since Hammerstein and Kern wrote the musical Show Boat, discussions of its importance, influence, and problematic aspects have been studied and discussed by scholars everywhere. It is undeniable that the show has made a huge impact on the musical theater industry, with it being the first integrated show, as well as being one of the first shows to speak on more controversial topics instead of just being a spectacle. At first glance, any audience member may expect a love story between the two main characters, or a story about a family owning a show boat.3 However, it also tells the story of the racial and class tensions at that time, highlighting the life and struggles of a black ensemble alongside a white one. The musical aspect helped with this. Hammerstein took care to write lyrics that were deeply seeped in the perspectives of individual characters, with their hopes, dreams, regrets, and longings illustrated.3 One of the most famous songs from the show, “Ol’ Man River,” is a particularly great example of this, with it having had profound reactions from white audiences of the time. Paul Robeson, who played the role of Joe in the original show, recognized what it could do, even as he revised the lyric to give the lie to any notion of Black passivity in the face of suffering. For his own concerts, Robeson was known to adjust a few key words, shifting the focus from singing about resigned weariness to voice a commitment to fighting for justice for racialized and working-class people.3

While the way the racial plot points were portrayed in Show Boat were insensitive, there is still much to be said about how it commented on something very real. Show Boat was written just over one year, and was based off of a best selling novel by Edna Ferber. Ferber herself was inspired by a real show boat, pictured below.

The boat which inspired Ferber’s novel, Show Boat

The original name of the Show Boat is the James Adams Floating Theatre, and was originally located in North Carolina, as opposed to Mississippi where the book is set.4 It was staffed with a 25 person crew, who were African Americans.5 Shown below is a photo of the crew on board the boat, quite similarly mirroring what is portrayed in the musical adaptation.

African American workers on the James Adams Floating Theatre

A still from the 1957 movie adaptation of Show Boat that depicts Joe singing “Ol’ Man River” from the show boat.

This shows that the portrayals in the show, while complicated and insensitive, are ultimately an illustration of a real situation that people were in. Hammerstein defends the show as well, stating, “We believe that the Negro in Show Boat emerges with honor and respect and affection and that this play has always been good for the Negro.2”

In the height of blackface minstrelsy, a show where black people could exist and perform as themselves was revolutionary. Pairing it with an onstage spectacle, the show was able to speak on deep, controversial themes of interracial marriage, treatment of black people, and the relationships therewithin, and bring those themes to a larger, more affluent audience through Broadway. That being said, there are still racially insensitive and downright racist elements of “Show Boat” that should be acknowledged and addressed in today’s society.

Sources:

1 – https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hec.36106/

2 – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jKyq44hPE2M6mezSsnPbOPAvG3a_y3Wc/view

3 – https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/the-enduring-relevance-of-show-boat/

4 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Boat_(novel)

5 – https://www.chesapeakebaymagazine.com/the-chesapeakes-floating-theatre/

Birmingham Sunday

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September 15, 1963. It’s a lovely Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama, when an explosion states the streets right outside of the predominantly African American 16th Street Baptist Church. Twenty two parishioners were injured, and four little girls were killed. It was later revealed that the bomb was deliberately placed by local members of the Klu Klux Klan, who were not persecuted until years later in the early 2000’s for their actions.2 This event, known as the 16th Street Church Bombing, is a famous event within the Civil Rights movement. It was a turning point for the Civil Rights movement, with many white citizens being outraged at the innocent people who were killed and harmed. The deaths were followed two months later by the assassination of President JF Kennedy, which caused an outpouring of national grief and ensured the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.3

The event of the 16th Street Church Bombing inspired many people towards the Civil Rights Movement, including the folk singer and songwriter, Richard Fariña, who wrote the song “Birmingham Sunday” about the event.1 Using haunting lyrics that included the full names of each girl who was killed, set to a traditional Scottish ballad, he was able to create a protest ballad that inspired mourners and justice.2 Fariña uses lyrics such as “cowardly” to describe the attackers, symbolizing and targeting the moral failings alongside the racist act.2 He also structures the song to reach both black and white audiences, using themes of mourning and giving humanity to each of the girls killed to persuade the audience that this was a tragedy of lives cut short. At the same time, he uses words such as “freedom” and language to symbolize the black church to draw in an audience of black people and Civil Rights activists.2

The song was popularized by Fariña’s sister in law and contemporary, Joan Beaz. Both artists were heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement, with Baez personally marching hand-in-hand with Martin Luther King Jr. and Bob Dylan singing “We Shall Overcome.”2 Baez added complexity to the song Fariña wrote, with her haunting soprano vocals and popularizing it as the quiet protest song it grew to be.2 Baez’s popularization of the song inspired the persecution of one of the bombers in 1977, even though his fellow Klan members were not persecuted until the early 2000’s.2

The song “Birmingham Sunday” still holds a legacy today. Rhiannon Giddens, a famous bluegrass singer who thrives in reclaiming and exploring historical African American songs, recorded a cover of the song in 2017. She covered and revised the song on her album, Freedom Highway, an album inspired by the decades of protest music and social justice movements.2 Giddens’s recording of the album served a purpose in terms of protest music as well, bringing the events of the song into the public consciousness during the #SayHerName era of protest and black politics. In this more modern interpretation of it, the song serves to draw attention to how black women have often been omitted from narratives of racial narratives, and should have their names memorialized like the girls in this song, who went on to shape something they didn’t even know they did. We are unaware of the names of the girls – Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carol Robertson – even though they shaped the way to the Civil Rights Act posthumously.

These three versions of the same song show how protest song can be widespread and adapted to different causes, and how different artists can interpret it in ways that make sense to their audiences and causes.

1 – https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Crecorded_cd%7C73912

2- https://www.jstor.org/stable/26510207?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents

3 – https://www.nps.gov/articles/16thstreetbaptist.htm

The Problematic History of Ragtime

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In the early 20th century, an average citizen may have looked at the ragtime song titled “That dixie rag” and would have thought something along the lines of “popular music” or “dance music.” They would have not been thinking about the long, difficult, racist history that is involved in not only the title of the song, but also the style in which the song is composed and the lyrics housed within.

“That dixie rag” is a piano and voice sheet music score, published in 1911.1 In the first verse, the singer invites the audience to dance to a song that is played “way down South” that makes you “want to jag,” or dance in a jerky manner.5 The second verse tells the story of an African American man who traveled from Fort Worth to the northern states of America and taught an audience of northerners this ragtime song. The narrator refers to the African American man by using the derogatory word “coon” throughout.

There are many things to uncover with this song. First, the word “dixie” is used to describe the southern states of the USA throughout the song. The word in particular has very negative and controversial connotations tracing back to the Civil War. The origins of the word are debated, but the song “Dixie,” composed by Daniel Decatur Emmett, popularized it in 1859. The song was considered the Confederate anthem, and was originally premiered in a minstrel show.2 In my last blog post about minstrelsy, I explained how the problematic minstrelsy tradition was “baked into the pie” of American culture.6 This is another great example of this, with a word referring to a problematic past being commonplace throughout.

Second, the musical genre of ragtime (or rag) is also intertwined with a difficult and racist past. Ragtime is defined as “a syncopated musical style, one forerunner of jazz, a predominant style of American popular music from about 1899-1917.”3 The songs were influenced by and developed within minstrelsy, especially the characteristic syncopation which was influenced by the conception that syncopation was a trait of African American music.3 Many types of popular songs during the ragtime era were referred to as “coon songs,” which are racially denigrating songs that were meant to make fun of the typical African American speech, typing black people as foolish, thieves, highly sexted, and violent.4 However, a surprising thing about these songs is that many African American composers partook in the writing of these songs, saying that they were reclaiming their racial identity.4 Despite its reputation, the coon song was responsible for advancing the careers of many black entertainers and songwriters and paved the way for later popular black music genres, particularly the blues. Between 1905 and 1910, ragtime songs gradually lost their exclusively racial character, and any American song with a strongly rhythmic nature was given the description “ragtime.”3 Ragtime has had its fair share of revivals in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and is even studied in many academic settings now. However, many have lost the origins of minstrelsy and racism it arose from.

Overall, many people are unaware of the complex, racially insensitive history behind the genre of ragtime, as well as how it evolved and was influenced through minstrelsy. “That dixie rag” is a great example of many problematic elements that were overlooked at the time, and how it can be uncovered today.

WORKS CITED

1. O’Keefe, Edward M., Melcher, Charles L. That dixie rag. Fred G. Heberlein & Co., 1911. https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/metsnav/inharmony/navigate.do?oid=https://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu/fedora/get/iudl:344388/METADATA&pn=2&size=screen 

2. “Dixie,” Britannica Academic. https://academic-eb-com.ezproxy.stolaf.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Dixie/30701

3. “Ragtime” Oxford Music Online.  https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.ezproxy.stolaf.edu/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002252241#omo-9781561592630-e-1002252241

4. Neal, Brandi A. “Coon song.” Grove Music Online. 16 Oct. 2013; Accessed 22 Oct. 2024. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002249084.

5. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jag

6. https://pages.stolaf.edu/americanmusic/2024/10/10/minstrelsy-in-the-usa/

Minstrelsy in the USA

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The act of blackface minstrelsy was a form of entertainment in white American circles that started in the 1830’s and fell from popularity in the 1920’s.4 It serves to imitate the culture of African Americans, and consists of white performers who painted their faces black to resemble African Americans. The act itself was incredibly racist, serving to exaggerate and exemplify harmful stereotypes of African Americans. Some examples of this are exaggerated characters, deliberately painting a smile on their faces to perpetuate the lie that black people are happy to be enslaved, and highly exaggerating elements of African American culture, such as their dancing, singing, and vernacular. The use of music also helped with this, as music is a powerful way to shape opinion, and minstrel shows were not found without music accompanying. By the 1850’s, the peak of minstrelsy, the typical minstrel show had two parts: the first part with comic exchanges, ballads, and solo performances, and the second part which was vaudeville with specialty acts, clog dances, jigs, female impersonations, and burlesque of popular dramas.4 And the craziest part: these performances were normalized within the white community, being one of the most popular forms of entertainment of it’s time. There were ten theaters in New York alone dedicated to minstrelsy.4

An advertisement for a minstrel show. New Orleans Daily Creole; November 19, 1856

Minstrel troupes were most popular in the North, but were found throughout the United States. Some more well known troupes would tour often, as shown in the primary source above. The source is from the November 18, 1856 copy of the New Orleans Daily Creole, and advertises the third week of the celebrated Campbell Minstrels, their director Matt Peel, and their programs of “burlesque, negro farce, and black vigils” as well as a show entitled “plantation past times.”1 The advertisement also proclaims that the shows are “Negro Minstrelsy, by the Model Troupe of the World!!”1

The cover of the score for “Poor Nelly Ann,” composed by the Campbell Minstrels, depicting the troupe in (bottom photos) and out (top photos) of blackface.

This advertisement is a great example of the negative, exaggerated, and racist nature of these performances. For one, the whole troupe and the director are in fact white blackface performers, who have taken African American culture and created a negative stereotypical experience.

The program from a Campbell Minstrels’ show in Massachusetts in 1852.

In a program from the Campbell Minstrels from a performance in Massachusetts in 1852, there are examples of dances (quickstep) and music (banjo duet, drum and tambourine solos, bone castanet) that exemplify the African American culture.2 There are three sections, and the third section is titled with a derogatory term towards African Americans preceded by the word “plantation,” signifying that they are emulating slaves.2

However, something interesting about both the advertisement and the program is that they both advertise burlesque, which led to vaudeville, and ultimately musical theater. These elements of stage performance are still present today, and many people are unaware of the influence that minstrelsy has had over culture today. The horrific, racist act of minstrelsy may be dead today, but we still must be aware of how it is baked into the pie of American culture. We must be aware and consider these results so that we can go forward with more awareness, sensitivity, and a more inclusive headspace so that such acts of degradation will not happen again.

SOURCES
1. “Campbell Minstrels.” In New Orleans Daily Creole. New Orleans, Louisiana, November, 19, 1856. https://infoweb.newsbank.com

2. “West & Peel’s old and original Campbell Minstrels!” in American Broadsides and Ephemera. Worcester, Massachusetts. 1852. https://infoweb.newsbank.com

3. “Poor Nelly Ann’ / composed and sung by the Campbell Minstrels.” 1848. https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/poor-nelly-ann-composed-and-sung-by-the-campbell-minstrels./2023272

4. Salamone, Frank A. “Minstrelsy” from Encyclopedia of American Studies. 2021. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6NjcwNjc=

Historical Slave Songs from the White Perspective

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Reverend George H. Griffin was a pastor and accomplished musician who was raised in New York City and graduated from Yale University in 1860.2 He worked at the Plymouth Church in Milford, Massachusetts, and wrote many works on the subject of music in worship throughout his life.2 In this particular work of his, Griffin observes the music of the former southern slaves, and gives his analysis and opinions on the development of said music. This article was published in 1885, twenty years after the end of the American Civil War.

 

Breaking down his writing, Griffin opens with a description of African music, describing it as “real genius that was born into the soul of an entire race,” as contrasted to European music, which was “more of a science” and “the result of musical education.”1 He also stated that the “emotional largely over-balances the intellectual element, [these] songs, with their fullness of sentiment, seem to realize the ideal.”1 These observations were very typical of white observers of slave music, or spirituals, at the time. Many held the opinion that spirituals were lesser than and derived from the western European classical traditions, and used this opinion to enforce negative stereotypes about African American communities.4 His opinions were also much kinder than others’ at the time, who would describe spirituals as “weird and barbaric madrigals.”3 In this perspective, Griffin’s comparison was much kinder, saying that it was the genius of the soul.

However, Griffin still praised the creation of this music. He referred to the songs as “that kind of music which finds a responsive thrill in every human breast, because it speaks most clearly the language of man’s best impulses and tenderest feelings.”1 This type of infatuation and connection with spirituals was also typical of the time that Griffin wrote this article. A resurgence of these songs by choirs, especially the Fisk Jubilee Singers, sparked this interest, and made white audiences want to further connect them to the overall human experience.

Griffin then goes on to describe the spirituals in terms of Western musical notation, stating that the harmony is rich and the melodies varied and original. He describes the resolutions of chords as abrupt and startling, which he accredits to the rough and rugged experiences they went through. He observes strange points of emphasis and unexpected cadences in rhythm, which he said “makes it unreducible to musical notation.”1 The idea of trying to assign Western notation to these songs is a very interesting idea. Writing any form of music down will cause it to lose a lot of specificities, and especially in things as subtle as tone and emotion which are quite important in spirituals. Griffin’s observations are evident of this, with him stating that so many minute aspects were missing in the writing system he was using.

Lastly, Griffin speaks on the fact that these musical selections came from a place of agonies unknown, but have “the joy of a present salvation, and the hope of a glorious home of freedom beyond the grave.”1 As a pastor, Griffin understood the idea of salvation of life beyond death, and was able to comprehend the reasoning behind these songs. He was able to connect the fact that it rose from a desire of salvation, and a hope for a free soul after death. This was opposed to other white observers of spirituals who would try to convince themselves that the slaves were singing because they were happy to be enslaved,4 which was an incorrect and completely racist assumption.

Overall, Griffin’s article is a great, positive reflection of white perspective of spirituals during the late nineteenth century.

Works Cited:

1 THE SLAVE MUSIC OF THE SOUTH. Griffin, George H. The Musical Visitor, a Magazine of Musical LIterature and Music (1883-1897). Vol. 14, Iss. 2, (Feb 1885): 35. https://www.proquest.com/americanperiodicals/docview/137490866/4A4769645E1A4F0DPQ/19?accountid=351&sourcetype=Magazines

2 REV. GEORGE H. GRIFFIN. Congregationalist (1891-1901); Boston Vol. 79, Iss. 37, (Sep 13, 1894): 355.https://www.proquest.com/americanperiodicals/docview/124232810/95A38D77EA848B3PQ/2?accountid=351&sourcetype=Magazines

3 THE MUSIC OF BLACK AMERICANS. Eileen Southern.

4 WHITE AND NEGRO SPIRITUALS. George Pullen Jackson.

Émile Pentitot’s Athabaskan Dictation

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Father Émile Pentitot was a French missionary who spent years of the late 19th century in the Canadian Northwest with the goal of spreading religion, collecting data on native tribes, and mapping and recording ethnic and geographic data.1 Petitot published many of his findings, with his most famous being the “Dictionnaire de la langue dènè-dindjié,” which was a book of definitions and translations of the major Athabaskan languages.1 His research shown below is a collection of Native American music, titled “Chants indiens du Canada Nord-Ouest,” collected between the years 1862-1882.

This source is quite unique to Petitot’s works, seeing as he is primarily a geographer and linguist, which raises the question: why did he collect this source? He had no motivation from the government as Francis Densmore would almost 10 years later and he wasn’t a musicologist. While Petitot was primarily a missionary, he also had a personal mission of collecting as many geographical and ethnographic observations about the region as possible.3 This includes music, especially that of community gatherings. Petitot also saw language as the key to religious conversion,3 which also applies to music. Petitot could have seen music as another opportunity to relate the music of the church to tribal song, and create a sense of familiarity between them. Lastly, Petitot was himself an appreciator of the arts,1 and could be intrigued by collecting the music that he observed alongside his drawings of Athabaskan settlements and clothing.

Is this source an representation of the Athabaskan cultures? It is unlikely. As observed with Densmore and other white researchers aiming to document Native American music, this music is not meant to be written in Western notation, or the notation that is often seen throughout America and Europe today. There is a loss of nuance in rhythm, pitch, vocal tone, and energy. For example, in the source above, Petitot uses a standard five line staff and treble clef to notate these songs. He uses meters such as 3/4 and 6/8 and musical terms such as “da càpo” and “risoluto” to describe the music.4 None of these terms are ones which the Athabaskan tribes would understand or used to describe their music themselves. Further, the music was most likely not consensually taken from the culture which it originated. This is further evident by the fact that Petitot was a missionary,1 whose whole job is to convert others to their religion. He also made many incorrect assumptions about the tribes that he visited due to long-standing mental confusion, including a belief that there was a world-wide conspiracy to murder him in order to prevent continued research.3 He was also not a good person in general, being excommunicated from his mission group in 1866 due to a sexual relationship with a boy servant.2

Overall, while this source is an intriguing look into historical research and collection of Athabaskan culture, it is most likely not the most accurate representation of their culture, and is most likely intrusive and assumptive of their practices.

1 Savoie, Donat. 1982. EMILE PETITOT (1838-1916). Arctic, vol. 35, no. 3,, pp. 446–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40509367. (Accessed 19 Sept. 2024).

2 John S. Moir. “PETITOT, ÉMILE (Émile-Fortuné) (Émile-Fortuné-Stanislas-Joseph),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/petitot_emile_14E.html. (Accessed September 19, 2024).

3 Honigmann, John J. “EMILE FORTUNÉ STANISLAS JOSEPH PETITOT ENCYCLOPEDIA ARCTICA 15: BIOGRAPHIES.” Dartmouth College Library, collections.dartmouth.edu/arctica-beta/html/EA15-56.html. (Accessed 19 Sept. 2024).

4 Petitot, Father, Emile. “CHANTS INDIENS DU CANADA NORD-OUEST [MANUSCRIPT]: RECUEILLIS, CLASSÉS ET NOTÉS PAR EMILE PETITOT, PRÊTRE MISSIONNAIRE AU MACKENZIE, DE 1862-1882, 1889.” Mareuil-lès-Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), France. (Accessed 19 Sept. 2024).