Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) played a leading role in American music and culture in the twentieth century. Celebrated for his arrangements of spirituals, Burleigh was also the first African American composer to create a significant body of art song. An international roster of opera and recital singers performed his works and praised them as among the best of their time. Jean E. Snyder traces Burleigh's life from his Pennsylvania childhood through his fifty-year tenure as soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church in Manhattan. As a composer, Burleigh's pioneering work preserved and transformed the African American spiritual; as a music editor, he facilitated the work of other black composers; as a role model, vocal coach, and mentor, he profoundly influenced American song; and in private life he was friends with AntonA n DvoA (TM)A!k, Marian Anderson, Will Marion Cook, and other America luminaries. Snyder provides rich historical, social, and political contexts that explore Burleigh's professional and personal life within an era complicated by changes in race relations, class expectations, and musical tastes.
Ethnomusicologist Jean E. Snyder has taught in Kenya and Zambia, and at several colleges and universities in western Pennsylvania.
"Jean E. Snyder's brilliant encyclopedic evaluation of the life and legacy of Harry Thacker Burleigh reveals an intriguing lode of personal and professional detail about the iconic singer whose seminal influence in American compositional history is appreciated today by precious few."--George I. Shirley, Grammy Award winner and Director of the Vocal Arts Division, University of Michigan "By incorporating the unique perspective offered by members of Harry T. Burleigh's family, Jean Snyder makes a valuable and much-needed contribution to the literature on one of the greatest African-American musical figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Moreover, Snyder's work is timely since it coincides with the Burleigh sesquicentennial celebration."--Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., author of The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States "In addition to a detailed account of Burleigh's relationships with his contemporaries, his complex marital life, and his successful performing career, Snyder provides valuable musicological analysis of Burleigh's compositions and arrangements. Highly recommended."--Choice
