Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-26
WINS THE THIRD
SPINGARN MEDAL
H. t. Burleigh, Composer.
Awarded Advancement of
Colored People Prize

third Spingarn medal was awarded |
here last night to Harry T.. Burleigh, !
the distinguished composer of songs, {
at a meeting in the First Congre- |
gational Church held under the au-
spices of the National Association |
for the Advancement OF Coiored |
People. Moorfield Storey. Of Bos-
ton, the national president Of the |
association, presided; the presenta- !
ton being made by Hon. Wesley l. |
Jones, United States Senator from |
Washington
The Spingarn medal Is awarded |
annually TO the man or woman of |
African descent and of American |
citizenship who shall have made the |
highest achievement during the pre-
ceding year in any field OF elevated |
or honorable human eEdeaVor; the |
Candidate being chosen by 4 COM |
mittee of award which includes |
Bishop John Hurst of Baltimore; |
William Howard Taft; John Hope, |
president Of MorehouSe College, At |
lanta: DIR. comes H. billiard. the di- |
rector OF the Slater and Jeannes |
funds. and Oswald Garrison Willard |
OF the New York Evening Post. Their |
choice is not limited to any one |
field, whether that be intellectual |
spiritual, physical, scientific, COM |
mercial, educational or any other; |
so the winning of the Spingarn |
medal has come to be the greatest |
distinction which can be conferred |
upon an American negro. The medal |
is of gold of the value of one hun f!
dred dollars, and is donated by DR.. |
Joel E. Spingarn, the chairman of
the board OF directors of the Ma !
tional Association for the Advance !
ment of Colored People, formerly
professor of comparative literature
in Columbia University, at present
in training for his majors commits
sion at Madison Barracks. \. Y.
Harry T. Burleigh, the winner Of
the medal for 1916. is q composer
whose songs have for two or three
seasons past been sung by q list of
prominent singers which would
make any composers mouth water.
from John Mccormack to Kitty
Cheatham. One song. 'Deep River"
has probably appeared on more con-
cert programs during the past sea-
son more times than the work of
any other contemporaneous compos-
er; and across the ocean Burleigh's
The Young Warrior" with words
by the negro poet, James Weldon
johnson, translated into Italian and
orchestrated by the great Zandonai,
has become sort of patriotic an
them of the present war. Mr.. Bur-
leigh's compositions include about
a hundred songs, few festival an
thems for church chorus, and vol
ume of plantation melodies which
he compiled in the 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 Ar
thur Symons; a superb setting OF
Walt Whitman's Ethiopia saluting
the Colors," '"The Soldier" and
Jean"
"The Five Songs of Lawrence
Hope" writes q critic In the Bos-
ton Transcript Of March 10, ''prob-
ably represent Mr.. Burleigh's best
work. Here are haunting melodies. |
accompanlments rich m detail. yet
not overwritten, striking bits of de-
lineation, and much skill in the |
wedding of music to words.
Regarding THE Soldier" A. Wal |
ter Kramer in Musical America |
wrote: Wars produce a mass of
inconsequential literary and music
stuff. The present European con-
flict is no exception. But |
think that this Burleigh, setting of
Rupert Brooke's Inspired lines will
be among the important art-prod-
ucts of the great war, when the rec
ord is made"
And 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
soloist st. Georges church. one of
New Yorlt's most aristocratic con-
gregations, and for seventeen years
he has sung at the Temple Emanuel
as we'll.
Lived In Pennsylvania
These achievements become doubly
significant when one realizes how
Mr.. Burleigh has, worked his way
forward almost without aid. handi-
capped by color as we'll as poverty.
It Is related how Mr.. Burleigh as
boy in Erie, Pa, contracted pneu-
monia from standing In the snow
outside the drawing room window of
Mrs. Elizabeth Russell, where his
family was in service, In order TO
hear Rafael Joseffy play and was
given a chance to open the door for
the guests when later Teresa Car
reno played at the Russell home in
consequence, Working there as
stenographer until he was twenty
six. in 1892 he came TO New York
and out of 500 applicants was given
scholarship In the National Con-
servatory of Music. where he studied
for four years, BY. teaching singing
during his last year there together
wits assisting the secretary, the
mother of the well-known American
composer L. A, MacDowell. he was
able to liquldate his Indebtedness
TO the founder of the institution
During one summer he worked at
hotel in Saratoga in order to make
enough to carry him through until
the following Christmas. But when
in 1894 the young musician, stand
ing upon the threshold of his career.
secured the position of soloist at
st. Georges in competition with
sixty other applicants, his path be-
came much easier. His talent for
Interpretation of his own folk songs
soon became widely known and he
was In demand to sing In concerts
and In the musical programs of the
leading mansions of fashionable New
York and elsewhere. The achieve
ments last year which won Mr.. Bur-
leigh the Spingarn medal are but
the mature fruitage of a long life
of consecrated labor.
This is the third year the medal
has been awarded. The first was pre-
sented TO DR.. T, f. Just, of Howard
University, for original researches
in biology, Governor whitman max
ing the presentation in New York.
Last year the Governor of Massa-
chusetts presented the second medal
in Boston to Lieutenant Colonel
Charles Young, of the Tenth Cav
airy, L. s. army. for his services
in reorganizing the constabulary of
Liberia.