Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
Harry Thacker Burleigh
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Browse piano sheets by Harry Thacker Burleigh on Zen Virtual Piano. Harry Burleigh named his mother as his first music teacher, and from her and her father he learned the African-American spirituals that later made him famous; the grandfather had been enslaved before buying his freedom. In his late teens he stood in the snow outside the window to hear the pianist Rafael Joseffy play a salon recital and became ill; after he told his mother what had made him ill, she asked Elizabeth Russell, for whom she sometimes worked, to hire him as a doorman, so that he could safely attend the segregated events. A recital heard from outside the window, beside spirituals learned from his mother and grandfather, may suggest music reaching him in very different settings. A scholarship in 1892 took him to the National Conservatory of Music in New York for composition studies under Christian Fritsch, Rubin Goldmark and others. Burleigh spent many hours singing the spirituals and plantation songs of his family for Dvorák. The older composer encouraged him to preserve those melodies in his own writing, and Dvorák in turn drew on them for themes in his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World. A conservatory scholarship in 1892, beside spirituals learned from his mother and grandfather, may suggest formal training and family tradition both running through his music. In 1894 he auditioned for the post of soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church of New York and won it despite the congregation's objections to an African American in the role. The post stayed his for more than fifty years, and he missed only a single performance; his talent and dedication won him the respect of the entire congregation. A post won against objections in 1894, beside a doorman's post his mother sought for him so he could attend segregated events, may suggest that racial barriers met him more than once. His setting of Deep River in 1917 was so widely successful that nearly a dozen more spirituals were published the same year. His arrangements helped make spirituals a popular genre for concert singers. The Library of Congress guide says many consider his song cycles Saracen Songs (1914), Passionale (1915) and Five Songs of Laurence Hope (1915) his best work. Recording was something he disdained, and for a long time people wrongly thought no recording of his voice existed; there were in fact two, a 1919 session for a small label run by his friend George Broome and one in 1944 for St. George's Church. In 1917 he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. A man who disdained recording, beside arrangements that concert singers took up, may suggest his influence travelled through others' voices. Song cycles that many consider his best work, beside the spirituals for which he became famous, may hint at a wider range than the spirituals alone.
Browse piano sheets by Harry Thacker Burleigh on Zen Virtual Piano.
Harry Burleigh named his mother as his first music teacher, and from her and her father he learned the African-American spirituals that later made him famous; the grandfather had been enslaved before buying his freedom. In his late teens he stood in the snow outside the window to hear the pianist Rafael Joseffy play a salon recital and became ill; after he told his mother what had made him ill, she asked Elizabeth Russell, for whom she sometimes worked, to hire him as a doorman, so that he could safely attend the segregated events. A recital heard from outside the window, beside spirituals learned from his mother and grandfather, may suggest music reaching him in very different settings.
A scholarship in 1892 took him to the National Conservatory of Music in New York for composition studies under Christian Fritsch, Rubin Goldmark and others. Burleigh spent many hours singing the spirituals and plantation songs of his family for Dvorák. The older composer encouraged him to preserve those melodies in his own writing, and Dvorák in turn drew on them for themes in his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World. A conservatory scholarship in 1892, beside spirituals learned from his mother and grandfather, may suggest formal training and family tradition both running through his music.
In 1894 he auditioned for the post of soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church of New York and won it despite the congregation's objections to an African American in the role. The post stayed his for more than fifty years, and he missed only a single performance; his talent and dedication won him the respect of the entire congregation. A post won against objections in 1894, beside a doorman's post his mother sought for him so he could attend segregated events, may suggest that racial barriers met him more than once.
His setting of Deep River in 1917 was so widely successful that nearly a dozen more spirituals were published the same year. His arrangements helped make spirituals a popular genre for concert singers. The Library of Congress guide says many consider his song cycles Saracen Songs (1914), Passionale (1915) and Five Songs of Laurence Hope (1915) his best work. Recording was something he disdained, and for a long time people wrongly thought no recording of his voice existed; there were in fact two, a 1919 session for a small label run by his friend George Broome and one in 1944 for St. George's Church. In 1917 he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. A man who disdained recording, beside arrangements that concert singers took up, may suggest his influence travelled through others' voices. Song cycles that many consider his best work, beside the spirituals for which he became famous, may hint at a wider range than the spirituals alone.
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Common questions
Harry Thacker Burleigh was a composer and arranger who helped make spirituals popular with concert singers.
He learned them from his mother and his maternal grandfather, who had been enslaved but had bought his freedom.
He sang spirituals for Dvorák, who encouraged him to preserve them in his own compositions and wrote themes inspired by them in his Symphony No. 9.
He received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, which is awarded annually for outstanding achievement by an African American.