John Thomas Douglass
John Thomas Douglass (1847–1886) was an American
A highly regarded violinist, Douglass's violin playing received high praise during his lifetime. In addition to his solo career, he traveled with various groups throughout the 1870s, including the Hyers Sisters. He settled in New York by the 1880s and conducted both a music studio and string ensemble. Later in life he led a teaching studio, and among his students was David Mannes who became the concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra. Nearly 30 years after Douglass's death at age 38–39, Mannes founded the Colored Music Settlement School in the memory of his teacher.
Life and career
John Thomas Douglass was born in
He settled in New York by the late 1860s.
In the 1870s he began performing widely, because, as Southern explains, "like many concert artists of the time, Douglass could not earn a living solely with his violin."[3] As such, he toured with different Georgia Minstrels and the Hyers Sisters.[3] With the Hyers Sisters, the sisters' father, Samuel B. Hyers, organized a company which included Douglass, tenor Wallace King, John W. Luca of the Luca Family Singers and pianist Alexander C. Taylor.[4] He returned to New York in the 1880s, where he conducted a music studio and a string ensemble, the latter of which played for various public entertainments, such as dances.[3]
Contemporary sources describe Douglass as "very justly ranked with the best musicians of [the United States]";[2] "the master violinist"; and "one of the greatest musicians of the race".[3] The Encyclopedia of African American Music (2010) notes that Douglass, along with his contemporaries Walter F. Craig and Joseph Douglass—all active in New York—joined their older contemporary Edmond Dédé in the pantheon of major Black violinists of the time.[5][n 1] Craig and John Thomas Douglass in particular obtained a "high level of virtuosity".[6] He was also known to have played guitar.[2]
Douglass managed a teaching studio, where he taught violin to both David Mannes[1] and Albert Mando.[7][8] Mannes was later a violinist and then concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra, founding the Colored Music Settlement School in 1916 in the memory of Douglass.[1] Douglass died in 1886 at the age of 38–39 and did not live to see the creation of the school.[1][3]
He has a short biography in James Monroe Trotter's historical study, Music and Some Highly Musical People (1878), written while Douglass was in his thirties.[2]
Works
Only two works of Douglass's are known, Virginia's Ball and The Pilgrim: Grand Overture—only The Pilgrim has survived.[9][10] He supposedly wrote numerous other works, based on Trotter's assertion that "He has also composed many fine pieces for orchestras and for piano."[2] Trotter also reported that Douglass arranged and composed a "great deal of music" for guitar.[2]
Works by other Black composers of this period have generally not survived.[10] Like Douglass, Frederick Elliott Lewis (1846–18?) and Jacob J. Sawyer (1856–1885) only have a single surviving keyboard work,[n 2] all published in Music and Some Highly Musical People.[10][n 3]
Virginia's Ball
Virginia's Ball was an opera in 3 acts by John Thomas Douglass.[3] It was premiered in 1868 at the Stuyvesant Institute on Broadway and is only known to have been performed once; it is now lost.[3][9] It is generally considered to be the first opera by a Black composer.[15][16] However, Southern notes that Harry Lawrence Freeman may be considered the first significant Black composer of opera, as he wrote 14 and had five performed from 1893 to 1947 during his lifetime.[15][n 4][n 5]
Musicologists
The Pilgrim
Douglass's The Pilgrim: Grand Overture for piano was published by the
References
Notes
- ^ Joseph Douglass is unrelated to John Thomas Douglass.
- ^ Free scores by Frederick Elliott Lewis at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). Free scores by Jacob J. Sawyer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP).
- ^ While the surviving keyboard works by Douglass (The Pilgrim: Grand Overture),[11] Lewis (Scenes of Youth: Fantasia for Piano),[12] and Sawyer (Welcome to the Era)[13] are in Music and Some Highly Musical People,[10] Sawyer has a multitude of other works that have survived,[14] while Douglass and Lewis only have their respective keyboard work.[10]
- ^ Louisa Melvin Delos Mars was the first Black female composer to write an opera and have it performed. This occurred with her operetta Leoni, the Gypsy Queen, premiered in Providence, Rhode Island in 1889.[17]
- ^ Throughout the 20th century, Freeman was thought to be the first Black composer to write an opera, until Southern's The Music of Black Americans: A History (1971) revealed Douglass's contribution.[18]
Citations
- ^ a b c d Bean, Hatch & Brooks 1996, p. 168.
- ^ a b c d e f Trotter 1878, p. 301.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Southern 1983, p. 248.
- ^ Graham 2015.
- ^ Price III, Kernodle & Maxile 2011, p. 246.
- ^ Glaser, Shipton & Barnett 2003.
- ^ NYA 1907.
- ^ NYA 1912.
- ^ a b Koskoff 2000, p. 616 [print: 646].
- ^ a b c d e f Martin 1988, p. 138.
- ^ a b c Trotter 1878, p. 30 (appendix).
- ^ Trotter 1878, p. 101 (appendix).
- ^ Trotter 1878, p. 22 (appendix).
- ^ Schüler 2014.
- ^ a b Southern 2001.
- ^ a b c Burnim & Maultsby 2014, p. 301.
- ^ Kirk 2001, p. 110.
- ^ de Lerma 1990, p. 155.
- ^ Trotter 1878, pp. 30–43 (appendix).
Sources
- Bean, Annemarie; Hatch, James V.; ISBN 978-0-8195-6300-2.
- ISBN 978-1-317-93442-4.
- ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- Graham, Sandra Jean (2015) [2013]. "Hyers Sisters". ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- Kirk, Elise K. (2001). American Opera (Music in American Life). Champaign: ISBN 978-0-252-02623-2.
- Koskoff, Ellen, ed. (2000). Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Vol. 3: The United States and Canada. New York: ISBN 978-0-8240-4944-7. (subscription required)
- JSTOR 779549.
- Martin, Sherrill (1988). Feel the Spirit: Studies in Nineteenth-century Afro-American Music. Santa Barbara: ISBN 978-0-313-26234-0.
- Price III, Emmett G.; Kernodle, Tammy L.; Maxile, Horace, eds. (2011). Encyclopedia of African American Music. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ISBN 978-0-313-34200-4.
- Schüler, Nico (2014) [2013]. "Sawyer, Jacob J.". ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- OCLC 1036776225.
- ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- OCLC 1157161991.
- "Albert F. Mando: America's Most Noted Musical Artist, Instructor and Composer". Newspapers.com.
- "Prof. Mando Dead". The New York Age. October 7, 1912. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
Free scores by John Thomas Douglass at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)