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Originally published 1.04.23. Less than one year after its world premiere at the Cincinnati May Festival, Dett’s oratorio made its way to New York City’s Juilliard School in April of 1938. Baltimore’s prominent, Black news source, the Afro-American, kept tabs on Dett’s whereabouts and even had a local correspondent in Rochester, NY, who popped up onto its columns just when Dett moved there and then all but vanished once he took his job at Bennett College. The performing organization, the Oratorio Society of New York, had close ties to Dett. Among them was the ethnomusicologically inclined music critic Henry Edward Krehbiel. Krehbiel published a treatise on African spirituals, Afro-AmericanRead More →

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Orignally published 1.04.23. Legend: The NBC radio broadcast of The Ordering of Moses on 7 May 1937 was cut off because of racist complaints at stations in the South. Status: Untrue. However, this does NOT mean that racist complaints were not made. We need to put blame where blame is due, namely, what I have been calling the “long arm of the radio schedule,” which still serves as the primary means to frame on-air advertisements. Newspapers printed the day’s radio listings ahead of time, such as you see here, which is a clip of the schedule from Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle. Mind you, Dett was livingRead More →

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Originally published 12.28.22 If you read about R. Nathaniel Dett, you are bound to encounter conflicting information. This is not anyone’s fault, really, but it still results in a lot of unnecessary confusion. So, here we go: 1. The Name. The first thing we need to do is get his name right. “R. Nathaniel Dett” was how he signed his name. The “R.” stands for Robert, which was his father’s name: Robert Tue Dett. However, Dett did not have a great relationship with his father, who divorced his mother and essentially estranged himself from Dett and his brother Samuel as well. Further, Robert Tue Dett wasRead More →