25 Spirituals Arranged by Harry T. Burleigh

SKU: PR.140401340

ISBN 9781491134450. UPC: 680160684953.

Best known for his settings of spirituals and influence on Dvorák, Henry T. Burleigh was a celebrated baritone, and a prolific composer of original works. FROM THE SOUTHLAND is a suite of six atmospheric scenes of the American south, inspired by Black musical and cultural traditions. FROM THE SOUTHLAND is within reach of intermediate pianists and artistically suited for professional recitals.
In 1835, Henry T. Burleigh’s maternal grandfather purchased his own release from slavery for the sum of $50, and traveled north out of Maryland to begin a new life as a free man. He established his family in Ithaca, NY, and then moved to the bustling lakefront city of Erie, PA, where three decades later his grandson Henry would be born and raised.For Burleigh, the “Southland” that inspired this collection of piano sketches was a distant place that could not have been more different from the physical world he knew, up there in the northern snowbelt. And yet these southern landscapes and vignettes must have been intensely present in his consciousness, absorbed through the stories and songs he first learned at his grandfather’s knee.The music of the South – the spirituals and work songs he heard as a child –would travel with Burleigh throughout his long and illustrious musical life. Even as he progressed through his early classical training, his career as a baritone soloist in Erie’s churches and synagogue, his move to New York to study at the National Conservatory of Music, and his rise to national prominence as a concert soloist, these ancestral melodies stayed firmly centered in his musical identity.When he wrote From the Southland, his only composition for solo piano, Burleigh was just beginning his career as a composer. The art songs that would establish him as one of America’s best known composers in the genre were still to come. And so were his iconic arrangements of spirituals that would bring the songs of slavery onto concert stages around the world, transformed into timeless and uniquely American music.These little piano sketches bring together all the things that made Burleigh the musician he was – the lush, late-romantic style of his time; a broad vision for American music; and a profound respect for his heritage, a memory of the world his grandfather left behind, and a love of the music he brought with him.

SKU: GI.G-CD-814

Recordings from the African American Church Music Series Diverse choirs throughout the country are raising a joyful noise with the powerful anthems, hymn arrangements, spirituals, and gospel selections in GIA’s African American Church Music Series, edited by James Abbington. Seven CDs (Stop By, Lord, Use Me, Beams of Heaven, How Excellent Is Thy Name, Guide My Feet, I Heard the Voice, and the newly released The Lord Is My Light) each include 14–18 selections from this rich series. The latest recording in the African American Church Music Series, The Lord Is My Light, is simply bursting with a wonderful array of music: anthems with organ and trumpets, a hymn arrangement, gospel selections in contemporary and traditional styles, and lesser known a cappella spirituals by composers/arrangers Clayton White, Uzee Brown, Jr., and the pioneer of the concert Negro spiritual, Harry T. Burleigh. Recorded in Cannon Chapel at Emory University in Atlanta, this CD features a collection of talented voices from various Georgia universities and the broader Atlanta community. Get all 7 CDs for only $87.50! That's a bargain price of only $12.50 per CD. You save over $31.00 when you buy the entire set.

SKU: HL.291713

UPC: 888680927936. 6.75x10.5 inches.

Antonín Dvorák wrote his 9th Symphony From the New World while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. He was directly influenced by Harry T. Burleigh, a student at the National Conservatory at the time. The musical theme from the Largo movement was adapted into the spiritual-like “Goin' Home” by Dvorák pupil William Arms Fisher. This beautiful melody along with the powerful lyrics are here set in an African American gospel style, including a quote from the spiritual “Deep River.&rdquo.

SKU: GI.G-7999

UPC: 785147799900. English. Text source: Negro Spiritual.