The Denver star., 1917-05-26
BuRLEICA WINS
SP|NCARN MEDAL
Noted Composer Given Famous
Prize at Washington.
AWARDED BY SENATORJONEs


ieish's Rise From obseurity to Ma
tionaI Prominence In the Musical
WorId-Rieh Trophy 10 Donated An
! nualiy by Or. ]. e. Spinsarn.
By N. BARNETT DODsoN.
Washington, May 16. The third
Spingarn medal was awarded here last
night to Henry Thacker Burleigh of
New York, the distinguished composer
Of songs, at a meeting in the First
Congregational church, held under the
! auspices of the National Association
For the Advancement of Colored PeO-
pie Moorfeld Storey of Boston, the
national president of the association,
presided. The presentation was made
by Hon. Wesley L. Jones, United
States senator from Washington.
| The Spingarn medal is awarded an
nually to the man or woman of Afri-
! can descent and OF American citizen
ship who shall have made the highest
| achievement during the preceding year
| In any field of elevated or honorable
| human endeavor. the candidate being
chosen by committee Of award,
Baltimore. Hon. William Howard
Taft. John Hope. president of More
| house college. Atlanta: DR.. James II.
| billiard, director Of the Slater and
Jeanes funds. and Oswald Garrison
Willard of the New York Evening Post
4 ,.,,, ,.~I. t., tod
| to any one field. whether that be in
J tellcctual. spiritual, physical. scientific.
commercial. educational or any other.
So the winning of the Spingarn medal
| has come TO be the greatest distinction
| which can be conferred upon an Amer
| lean Negro The medal lis of gold OF
| the value of S1oO, and is donated by
DR.. Joel T.. Spingarn. chairman cf the
board of directors of the National As
sociation For the Advancement of Col
| ored People and formerly professor Of
| comparative literature In Columbia
university. who is at present in train
! ing for his majors commission at Mad
ison barracks, New York.
Henry Thacker Burleigh, the winner
OF the medal for 1917. is a composer
whose songs have for two or three sea-
sons past been sung by a list Of prom
inent singers which would make any
composers mouth water, from John
Mccormack to Kitty Cheatham. One
| song. Deep River has probably ap-
peared on concert programs during the
past season more times than the work
OF any other contemporaneous com
poser. And across the ocean Bur
leighs The Young Warrior with
words by the Negro poet James We'll
don johnson. translated into Italian
| and orchestrnted by the great Zando-
| mai. has become a sort Of patriotic an
them OF the present war.
Mr.. Burleigh's compositions include
about 100 songs. few festival an
thems for church chorus and a volume
of plantation melodies, which he COM
piled In an effort to save them from
falling into oblivion. The small group
OF songs by which he is best known
include Deep River" The Gray
Wolf" to words by Arthur Symons:
superb setting Of Walt Whitman's
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors," 'The
Soldier" and Jean"
"The Five Songs of Laurence
Hope" writes critic in the Boston
Transcript OF March 10. probably rep
resent Mr. Burleigh's best work. Here
are haunting melodies. accompani-
ments rich in detail. yet not overwrit
ten. striking bits OF delineation and
much skill in the wedding of music to
words"
Regarding 1.-The Soldier" A. Walter
Kramer In Musical America wrote:
Wars produce a mass of inconsequen-
tfal literary and musical stun. The
present. European conflict is no excep
ton. But / think that this
Burleigh setting of Rupert Brooke's
inspired lines will be among the impor
tant art products of the great war
when the record is made
These creative achievements have
necessarily been snatched from life
OF routine musical toll. by which Mr..
Burleigh has earned his daily bread
Since 1894 he has been baritone soloist
In St Georges church. one of New
York's old and .aristocratic congrega.
tiOns. and for seventeen years he has
sung at the Temple Emanuel as we'll
These achievements become doubly
significant when one realizes how Mr.
Burleigh has worked his way forward
almost without aid, Handicapped by
color as well as poverty. 1t Is related
how Mr.. Burleigh as a boy In Erie, Pa.
contracted pneumonia from standing
in the snow outside the drawing room
window Of Mrs. Elizabeth Russell.
where his family was In service, in or
der to hear Rafael Joeeffy play. and
was given chance to open the door
for the guests when later Teresa Car