Negro Musicians and Their Music
9781465604781
418 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
It is with a distinct sense of pleasure and privileged duty that I give the readers of this excellent book a short sketch of the career of Maud Cuney-Hare. One who does not already know of the versatility of this remarkably talented woman will doubtless be amazed at the diversified character of her activities. Mrs. Hare is a pianist, lecturer and writer whose devotion to the highest ideals of her art has compelled admiration. She is the daughter of the late Norris Wright Cuney of Galveston, Texas, and Adelina Dowdy Cuney of Woodville, Mississippi. She was born in Galveston, Texas, February 16, 1874, and was graduated from the Central High School of that city. Her musical education was received at the New England Conservatory in Boston and later under private instructors among whom were Emil Ludwig, a pupil of Rubenstein, and Edwin Klahre, a pupil of Liszt. Following the completion of her work under these masters, she became director of music at the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute, of Texas, and at Prairie View State College in the same State. In 1906 she returned to Boston where she married William P. Hare of an old and well-known Boston family, and has since made her home there. She died there February 13, 1936. As a concert and lecturer-pianist Mrs. Hare has travelled widely and as a folklorist she has collected songs from far off beaten paths in Mexico, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. She was the first to collect and bring to the attention of the American concert public the beauties of New Orleans Creole Music as attested by her Creole Songs, published by Carl Fischer and Company of New York City. As music historian Mrs. Hare takes high rank. She collected data in this field for more than a generation. She has exhibited her personal collection of Aframerican sic and Creole music and Early American music which dates chronologically from 120 years ago. For a number of years she edited the column of music notes for the Crisis. As a writer of distinction outside of the field of music she has attracted wide attention with published works of real literary value. In this list may be included a biography of her father and an anthology of poems called The Message of the Trees. During recent years Mrs. Hare found time to establish in Boston the Musical Art Studio. Together with the musical activities of an art centre, she fostered and promoted a "Little Theatre" movement among the Negroes of Boston. Included in the plays produced her original play "Antar," written around the life of the Arabian poet, was staged in Boston under her personal direction. Concurrently with these activities Mrs. Hare has appeared with great success as recitalist, with William Howard Richardson, the baritone, at such educational centers as Wellesley College, Syracuse University, Albany (New York) Historical and Art Association, and elsewhere in costume recitals of music of the Orient and the Tropics. To do any one of these things well would be a distinct achievement, but to do all of these acceptedly as Mrs. Hare has done is truly amazing. As a crowning achievement she has now given us an authoritative record of Negro Musicians and Their Music – a book that is more than an anthology, in fact a source book of great value to musicians, music lovers and all others who wish to be well informed on matters of artistic racial development and progress. Negro music traced to its source, carries us to the continent of Africa and into the early history of that far off land. We may even journey to one of the chief sections said to hold the music of the past – that of Egypt, for it music appeared here was the ceremonial music of that land as well as that of Palestine and Greece, which was the foundation of at least one phase of modern musical art.
