Harry Burleigh's 50th

After years of selling newspapers or swabbing decks on Great Lakes steamers, Harry Burleigh got a good job--as baritone soloist with the choir of Manhattan's big, downtown St. George's Episcopal Church. That was in 1894, when he was 28. He was still there, at the age of 78, last week. He had become world famed as the composer of some 300 songs and sacred anthems and as the greatest of all arrangers of Negro spirituals.

White-haired Henry Thacker Burleigh put on a white tie and tails and stood affably in St. George's parish house while admirers thronged around in celebration of his 50th anniversary. A delegation of Negroes and whites had come all the way from his native Erie. The Erie Club of New York sent him a silver-banded cane. Fellow parishioners presented a $1,500 check. New York's Bishop William T. Manning made a speech. The choir broke into Burleigh's deft, contrapuntal choral ode, Ethiopia's Paean of Exaltation. In a baritone that was still vibrant, Harry Burleigh himself sang Go Down Moses.

Deep River. Harry Burleigh has composed or arranged (from folk music) some 50 spirituals, of which the most famous is his arrangement of Deep River. They have a deceptive artlessness which conceals the most careful workmanship. Burleigh is one of the most learned and technically able Negro composers in history.

Burleigh's mother put herself through college, expecting to become a school teacher. Turned down because of her color, she became the housemaid of a wealthy Erie music lover. Between jobs as a houseboy, newsboy, lamplighter, etc., young Harry attended Erie concerts.

When he went to Manhattan in 1892, he had as assets a rich baritone and a modest training in the rudiments of music. He got a scholarship at the National Conservatory of Music, where he studied under the late great Antonin Dvorak. Burleigh's singing of spirituals was Dvorak's chief spur toward the New World Symphony. Burleigh won his St. George's post against 59 other applicants, all white. The deciding vote was cast by the church's senior warden, J. P. Morgan the elder. Morgan later arranged to have Burleigh sing before Edward VII of Britain. When the financier died, Burleigh fulfilled his last request by singing Calvary at his funeral.

The Palms. Burleigh learned to sing in Hebrew, Latin, Italian, French and German. For 25 years he sang not only in St. George's but also in the choir of Manhattan's best known synagogue, Temple Emanu-El. But his first loyalty has always been to St. George's, and he is a devout Episcopalian. This Lent he hopes to give his 50th rendition of Faure's The Palms.

Harry Burleigh lives in The Bronx, has been separated from his wife for some 25 years. Their son is Major Alston Waters Burleigh, U.S.A., and there is also a grandson in the Army. Harry Burleigh has had the means to help many younger Negro musicians, including Marian Anderson, who sang on one of his programs when she was publicly unknown. He views social problems with a conservative eye, believing that the Negro should advance himself through individual effort rather than political action. A musician of classical training, he is not at all interested in jazz. His hobby: detective stories. His favorite author: Conan Doyle.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.