Inviting performers, educators, and all lovers of song to explore connections between poetry and music, between history and culture, through the work of American composers and poets
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The Alcotts were a remarkable family, embracing reform movements and leaving a lasting legacy in the worlds of philosophy, education, and literature.
Author, journalist, social reformer, activist, poet, philosopher, and educator, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) wielded one of the most influential pens in African-American history. For 66 years he functioned not only as a mentor, model, and spokesman for generations of black Americans, but also as the conscience of all Americans who yearned for racial equality and social justice.
Transcendentalism was a visionary way of thinking that was widespread in 19th-century American art and thinking. Among those associated with the movement were Emerson, Thoreau, and the Alcotts. Composers who were influenced by Transcendentalist thinking include Edward MacDowell, Charles Ives, and Charles Griffes.
This lecture-performance, titled 'A Vein of Fresh Melody' - Harry T. Burleigh Ushers in the African American Art Song, took place during the African American Art Song Alliance Conference in 2017. The concert venue was the University of California, Irvine. The live-streaming and recording of this event was made possible by a grant from the Hampsong Foundation.
Presenters & performers:
Jean Snyder, scholar
Roderick George, tenor
Katie Franklin, piano
