Evening star., 1939-10-22
$4,000 Drive Opened
For Development
Of Negro Music
Bulk Of Fund to Go
To Establishment
OF Research Library

To Establishment
Of Research Library
Mrs. Harriet Gibbs Marshall. for
mer concert pianist and noted teach
er of music who organized the Wash
ington Conservatory of Music and
School Of Expression, yesterday an
nounced a financial drive to further
the work of the Association for the
Development Of Negro Music. AS
start toward an ultimate goal Of
100000. the first funds to be So
licited will amount to $1,000. This
is to carry on the work planned for
a Negro Music Center for Research,
Preservation and Development of
Negro Music. Already, committee
composed of 81 trustees of the con-
servatory is in the field interviewing
various organizations, churches and
schools and members of the various
professions.
In 1908 Mrs. Marshall, gifted
concert musician, opened the first
colored conservatory of music in the
True Reformer Building at Twelfth
and U streets NV, now located at
eO2 T street NV. The conservatory
has grown until today hundreds of
pupils are receiving musical educa-
ton under the guidance of such
skillful teachers as Miss v. jose
phine Muse, vocalist, graduate of
Yale Conservatory; Felix F. Weir.
violinist, of the Conservatory of
Leipsic, Germany; William Sherman
Smith, pianist, of Howard School
of Music, and Mrs. Gregoria Fraser
Coins, pianist, student of the
Bordes Conservatory, Paris. Com
petent instructors teach wind and
stringed instruments. The school
of expression is under direction of
Miss Gertrude McBrown, a graduate
of the Emerson College of Oratory
In Boston.
Real Work Just Started.
While the Washington Conserva-
tory of Music is now a we'll recog-
nized institution in the world of mu-
sic. and as such has turned out
many graduates, the real work-for
, the preservation and development of
Negro music-is really just getting
started, according to Mrs. Marshall,
who is also president of the con-
Servatory.
1t was only the other day, for in
stance, that noted song, Garry
Me Back to Ole Virginny," was
rightly credited to its author, the
late James Bland, a colored mu-
sician who fourished in Washing
ton in the so-called Gay Nineties.
An article in the Sunday Star of
october Is, by Kelly Miller, a proc
fessor at Howard University, traced
the origin of the famous song that
sometimes has been attributed to
Stephen Foster.
Many Negro melodies have been
lost through the years, it is said,
and one of the purposes of the As
sociation for the Development of
Negro Music is to establish a great
library here where research work.
ers may list and file manuscripts.
Some of the work has been done,
but much more remains. And it is
for this purpose, primarily, that
the drive for $4,000 has been
= launched. Later, according to Mrs.
Marshall, the campaign will be-
come Nation wide-and the full
100000 will be sought.
Board to Be Augmented
One of the first moves in the
campaign will be to augment the
board of trustees of the association.
At present there are 81 trustees.
Eventually there will be 30.
Noted persons, both white and
committee interested in this work.
Among them are Mrs. Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Walter Damrosch, Theo-
dore Roosevelt, jr., 1t. Charles Ben
ter, Hans Kinder, William C.
Handy, William J. Schieffelin, pres
ident of Tuskegee, and L. Hollings-
worth Wood, president of the Ma
tional Urban League.
The local committee is made up
of Garnet C. Wilkinson, Campbell
G. johnson, Ambrose Caliver, EN-
NETT j. Scott, Mrs. Ida Gibbs
Hunt and Carter G. Woodson.
A. K. Savoy, treasurer of the Mu-
sic Center Fund, has been author
lied to receive contributions to the
work of the association, at the
Washington Conservatory, 902 7
street NV.
Mrs. Marshall announces that the
fund will be called the S. Coleridge-
Taylor Memorial Fund for Negro
Music in memory of the famed COL
ored composer and arranger.