Cultural Influences of Organ Music Composed by African American Women Author(s): Carol RitterSource: College Music Symposium , Vol. 55 (2015) Published by: College Music Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26574395 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms College Music Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Music Symposium This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:46:58 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Influences of Organ Music Composed by African American Women Carol Ritter Volume 55 2015 Cultural Influences on Organ Music Written By African American Women 1 Abstract In this paper, major events in African American history are described and contrasted with the history of organ music written by African American women in the twentieth- and the twenty-first centuries. The discussion includes the emergence of women's rights, especially women composers. The author traces the beginnings of African American women composers from church music to all other forms of musical performance. Included in the paper are the history, works, and styles of Florence Price (1887-1953), Undine Smith Moore (1905-1989), Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004), Betty Jackson King (1928-1994), Shirley Scott (1934-2002), Judith Marie Baity (b. 1944), Sharon J. Willis (b. 1949), Eurydice V. Osterman (b. 1950), and Regina Harris Baiocchi (b. 1956). As this discourse reveals the struggles and history of women composers in general, it also gives hope to the future of exploration in this field. With easier exposure to this music and continued advancements in culture and technology, research will continue into black music history, and especially into the music of African American women. One misconception about African American classical music works is that they are only based on Negro Spiritual themes and folk songs.2 While it is true that many of them are from this source, other works of African American composers are a reflection of social changes in black history. In addition, African American composers were not only influenced by their culture. They were also affected by the changing styles and periods represented in music history as a whole. These musicians and their music were shaped by the African American experience. The struggle for justice, equality, integration, and acceptance in the large mainstream culture have led to the renewal of pride in African heritage and its incorporation into the European American milieu of art, literature, and music. “The works of African-Americans, particularly those writing for the organ, are based upon a rich and diverse set of influences that include not only spirituals but plainchant, general Protestant hymnody, German chorale tunes, themes of African origin, and original themes.”3 African American elements can also be heard in works by composers of European descent. “Dvorak, Ravel, Gershwin This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:46:58 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms and Bernstein are noted for their inclusion of elements that are considered African-American.”4 There is not one absolute definition of “black music” that pertains to every piece written by an African American composer. As stated by Mickey Thomas Terry: As with most other ethnic groups, African-Americans are heterogeneous by nature and, therefore, cannot always be said to approach all issues from the same point of view. As this is the case, one encounters not only the diversity of compositional styles but philosophical differences as well. One issue about which there has been a long-standing difference of opinion among black composers pertains to what constitutes ‘black music.’ 5 The Harlem Renaissance was an important movement both in the definition and the celebration of black music. The migration of African Americans in the early 1920s brought them to northern cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. In the Harlem section of New York City, African American literature, art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish. African Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage. This came at a time when a nationalistic revival of folk music was flourishing in many areas of early twentieth-century music in Europe and America. “But it was in the realm of concert music that Renaissance thinkers hoped for great achievement, expecting that black folk music would serve as the basis for great symphonic compositions that would be performed by accomplished black musicians.”6 “Eileen Southern has ... identified as black nationalist composers such figures as Harry T. Burleigh, Clarence Cameron White, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Harry Lawrence Freeman, Florence Price, J. Harold Brown, and William Levi Dawson, writing that they all ‘consciously turned to the folk music of their people as a source of inspiration for their compositions.’”7 “In critical discussions of the first orchestral music by black American composers, William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony, Florence Price’s Symphony in E minor, and William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony are often cited in the context of American musical nationalism.”8 Although The Harlem Renaissance ended in the 1930s, African Americans continued to compose in a variety of genres. As Eileen Southern has written: “Though rarely discussed in the literature, black women composers of church music have played an important role in the development of the genre ever since the first independent black churches in the United States were founded in the 1790s.”9 The first known black woman church organist was Ann Appo (1809-28), who was given the position when St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia purchased an organ in 1828. Notably, The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ) published their own hymnals. Generally, in other denominations, the hymnals of the affiliated white churches were used. The following is a chronological list of African American women composers for the organ compiled in research for this article: Florence Price (1888-1953); Loretta Manggrum (1896-1992); Undine Smith Moore (1905-1989); Zenobia Powell Perry (1908- 2004); Evelyn Pittman (1910-1992); Julia Perry (1924-1979); Ruth Norman (b. 1927); Betty Jackson King (1928-1994); Shirley Scott (1934-2002); Charlene Moore Cooper (b. 1938); Judith Baity (b. 1944); Dr. Sharon J. Willis, (b. Cleveland, 1949); Eurydice V. Osterman, (b. Atlanta, 1950); Evelyn Simpson-Curenton, (b. Philadelphia, 1953); and Regina Harris Baiocchi, (b. Chicago, 1956). These composers were found in journals, books, music, and music periodicals at the beginning of the 21st century. There are undoubtedly more African American women composers, but these were the ones named and written about in the sources referenced. Without making this article overtly lengthy, nine of these composers and their works are highlighted in this discussion. It was not until the last decade of the 19th century that women composers emerged into the classical music scene in America as well as in Europe. Therefore, black women composers were also late to be recognized. “It was not until the white composer Mrs. H.H.A. Beach (1867-1944) wrote her Mass in E-flat Major, Gaelic Symphony, and Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor during the last decade of the 19th century that American women composers began to claim their place alongside their male colleagues. Performances of Beach’s music would have been heard by the black composer Florence Price while she studied in Boston, and may have inspired her own ambitions.”10 Florence Price (1887-1953) Scholars disagree on whether Florence Price was born on April 9, 1887 or April 9, 1888. But all agree that she was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and died in Chicago on June 3, 1953. She began her piano study at age four in a public recital. She “received further musical training from her public school teacher, Charlotte Andrews Stephens, who also taught William Grant Still.”11 Her father James was a dentist in Little Rock and also a successful inventor and painter. Her mother Florence was a talented soprano and concert pianist.12 Since her parents were both artistic, they both guided her early musical training, and at age fourteen, she enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music with a major in piano and organ. She studied with George Chadwick and Frederick Converse. After she graduated from college, Price returned to Little Rock and taught at Shorter College in North Little Rock, Arkansas (1906-1910), and then at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia (1910-1912). Price was also an active church organist at this time in her life. “Humble in demeanor and deeply religious, Price often used the music of the black church and made a number This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:46:58 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms of arrangements of spirituals.”13 In 1927, Price moved to Chicago because of increasing racial tensions in the South.14 In Chicago, she studied at the Chicago Musical College, the American Conservatory of Music with Leo Sowerby, and Chicago Teachers College. At this time, Price “began to win awards for her compositions (1926 and 1927 Opportunity magazine prizes). In addition, [she] wrote musical commercials for radio.”15 “She was also an accomplished theater organist, accompanying silent films in movie theaters in Chicago.”16 Many of her pieces were played by organists, especially members of the Chicago Club of Women Organists.