If there be Colored youths who, after reading these inspirational pages, still lack ambition and courage to develop musical talents they possess, because of their race and color, such youths should remember that:—
The most popular and sweetest singing bird in the world (the canary) is Colored. But if hundreds of years ago that bird had ruined his God-gifted voice with discouraged croakings about its yellow feathers, the canary bird of today would be not able to sing so sweetly as to cause its listeners to completely forget it is a bird with a colored complexion. Its singing is so sweet and beautiful that people learn to see beauty and loveliness in its yellow coat that Nature has given it.
IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Music’s Power.
From cradle down unto the grave
Does mankind ever sweet sounds crave;
And like the beasts that roar and rave
His passions bow as music’s slave.
—Harrison.
“THE Negro race has produced two violinists who have attracted national attention as artists, Clarence Cameron White and Joseph H. Douglass. They occupy first rank among American musicians and the race is justly proud of them.” The above quotation that originally appeared in the American artists Review, is an extract from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, p. 329.
Mr. White, whose home is in Boston, has spent many years of hard studying in both America and Europe, and aside from being a violinist of the first rank, he is also a noted composer. One of his greatest compositions “The Cradle Song” is written for either the violin or piano and has brought praises from all critics who have heard it. “A New System of One Octave Scale Studies for the Violin”, of which Mr. White is the author, is a book that is being used extensively in music schools.
Joseph Henry Douglass, grandson of the great Frederick Douglass, is a native of Washington, D.C. The foundation of his superb playing of today was laid in the New England Conservatory of Music, the New York Conservatory of Music and some of the best music schools in London. During the score or more years he has made annual recitals throughout the country, he, the same as Mr. White, has played before presidents of the United States. Mr. Douglass fills the responsible position of Instructor in Instrumental Music at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
A few of some other violinists of the first order are; Wm. Butler, Walter Craig, Brooklyn, N.Y., Harrison Farrell, Harrison Emanuel, Chicago, Ill., Kemper Herreld, Atlanta, Ga., Edwin F. Hill, Philadelphia., Pa., Louisa V. Jones, New York, Leonard Jeter, New York Hall, Johnson, H. Kerr, Baltimore, Md., David L. Martin, New York, Eugene Mars Martin, New York, A. W. Ross, New York, Prof. Tenyck, Brooklyn, N.Y., Harrison Watts, Baltimore, Md.