ANDERSON, Marian: Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit (1930-1947)
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MARIAN ANDERSON Vol.2
"Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit" Original 1930-1947 Recordings
For the greater part of her long life Marian
Anderson was an all-American Legend. Internationally
acclaimed as a recitalist (opera was
never to be her niche) she was the first female
black American artist to win full recognition in
her native country. She furthered the tradition
set by other American Negro concert artists
(including the tenor John Payne and soprano
Edna Thomas, and the baritone-songwriter
Henry Thacker Burleigh (1866-1949) and his
tenor protege Roland Hayes, 1887-1977) and
her name, quite apart from any obvious
symbolism of black emancipation,was for
decades a synonym for the finest performances
not only of spirituals but also of German lieder
and European and Scandinavian art song.
Whatever she sang with that 'biblical voice',
that 'incomparable stream of resonance' which
Lauri-Volpi aptly defined an 'unexpected fusion
of contralto, mezzo and soprano', her dynamic
presence and communicating power made
Anderson in many senses a pioneering spirit.
The daughter of an iceman and coal
merchant and a laundress, Marian was born in
Southern Philadelphia on 19 February 1897, in
humble but God-fearing circumstances, which
gave no indication of the glorious career that
was to follow. Musically gifted, as a child she
played both violin and piano and from the age
of six sang in the South Philadelphia Union
Baptist Church Choir. Her father died when
she was twelve and from that point her mother
took the reins, encouraging Marian musically.
In her teens, still billed 'The 10-year-old
contralto', she appeared regularly in spiritual
concerts and at one of these events she was
'discovered' by no less a figure than Hayes
himself, who promptly recommended her
precocious talent to concert promoters.
By 1923, when she entered and won a
Philadelphia singing competition,Anderson was
already a seasoned performer but aspired to
further study at the Philadelphia Academy.
When denied admission to that establishment
on racial grounds, she moved instead to New
York for private tuition first with Giuseppe
Boghetti and subsequently with Frank La Forge
(1879-1953), the Illinois-born pianist, songwriter
and vocal coach through whose introduction, in
1924, she made her first recordings, for Victor.
These included 'Deep River' and 'My Way's
Cloudy', two of the many now standard
spiritual arrangements by the Pennsylvania-born
Burleigh.
In mid-1925,Anderson outstripped 300
other applicants in a competition, which
carried the prize of a New York Philharmonic
concert at the Lewisohn Stadium on 27 August.
Although this success won her national
recognition, she had already set her sights on
greater, transatlantic, opportunities for further
training and, under the auspices of the National
Association, she travelled to England. There, she
was encouraged by, among others, the
conductor Sir Henry J.Wood (she made her first
Wigmore Hall appearance with him in 1928)
and soon found herself launched on a European
concert career.
Whilst the novelty of a black woman
performing with such authority - in the original
languages and at prestigious venues - formed
part of the attraction, the charm of her stage
presence and the musicality and sheer range of
her singing swung the pendulum unequivocally
in Marian's favour. From 1927 the concert
platforms of Europe's cultural centres were her
preferred habitat, although her 1929 New York
Carnegie Hall drew a less than unequivocal
response. After retiring for further study (in
Stockholm with the renowned teacher Mme
Charles Cahier (1870-1951), the Nashville-born
daughter of General Walker and former Metropolitan
Opera contralto) she next embarked, in
1930, on the first of her many European and
Scandinavian concert tours. Rapturously
welcomed wherever she appeared (and most
notably in Paris,Vienna, Brussels, Barcelona,
Geneva, Berlin and in the Soviet Union) she
filled houses and caused a sensation.
Between 1930 and 1932 Marian Anderson
gave more than fifty recitals in Scandinavia
alone and, just as McCormack would dish up,
without condescension,Thomas Moore and
Ernest R. Ball in the same programme as
Handel, Brahms and Wolf, a typical Anderson
recital featured Negro spirituals (Heav'n,
Heav'n (I Got A Robe), Sometimes I Feel
Like A Motherless Child,Were You There
and Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit were among
the most frequently aired) alternating arias by
Bach, Handel and Scarlatti with 'standards' by
Schubert and Schumann, uttered in the same
idiomatic breath as Massenet and Rachmaninov.
Extended scenas, chosen to display her capacity
for more vocally demanding music,were also
regularly featured: the mezzo-soprano showpieces
O mio Fernando (from Donizetti's La
favorita, 1840) and Eboli's aria from Verdi's
Don Carlos, plus items appropriated from the
soprano repertoire, such as Lia's air from
Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans (1879) and
Debussy's cantata L'enfant prodigue (1884).
The recordings Anderson made in London
in 1928 set a trend that would endear her to a
wider audience than that of the recital hall.
These discs, which were to become best-sellers
throughout English-speaking countries, included
spirituals, Handel's Messiah and impressive -
and best-selling - accounts (in translation) of
Delilah's ever-popular solos:'Softly Awakes My
Heart' (this became her virtual signature-tune;
see Naxos Nostalgia 8.120566) and O Love,
From Thy Power (this last sung here in a
1930 recording made in Berlin, for Artiphon).
From the mid-1930s she recorded a most
eclectic lieder repertoire, in sessions in Paris
and New York.
Between 1933 and 1934 Anderson toured
extensively in Europe, Scandinavia and Australia
and her triumphant appearance at the 1935
Salzburg Festival prompted Toscanini's famous
pronouncement that hers was a voice that 'is
heard but once in 100 years'. During 1937 she
gave seventeen recitals in Buenos Aires alone
and final acceptance in her own country
seemed imminent, after warm receptions
accorded to her recitals at New York's Town
Hall (November 1935) and Carnegie Hall
(January 1936). Around this time she made
various recordings of lieder and songs by
Scandinavian composers including the Finns
Sibelius and Palmgren, whose works she
actively promoted in her recitals.
In 1938 Marian Anderson received an
honorary Doctorate of Letters from Harvard
University and even sang at the White House
for President Franklin D and Mrs Eleanor
Roosevelt, before national controversy
overshadowed her attempt to appear at
Constitution Hall in Washington DC in
February 1939. On that occasion the
Daughters of the American Revolution cited
their segregation clause to debar her but when
Eleanor Roosevelt, a member of their select
company, threatened to resign in protest, the
resulting publicity swung the decision in
Marian's favour and, on 9 April, Easter Sunday,
she gave her now legendary Lincoln Memorial
Concert before a 75,000-strong audience
which, via NBC's coast-to-coast network
reached an estimated further 200,000 and
earned her the 1939 Spingarn Award for the
'highest and noblest achievement by an
American Negro'. Later in 1939, when King
George V visited Washington, Marian was again
summoned to sing at the White House.
In 1945 Anderson sang at a reception for
General Eisenhower marking the end of the
War in Europe and in 1953 became the first
black singer to perform at the Japanese
imperial court. On 7 January 1955 she realised
another ambition when, aged 58 years, she
made a triumphant operatic debut at the New
York Met (as the sorceress Ulrica in Verdi's Un
ballo in maschera) and, by the time her early
vicissitudes were modestly recounted in her
memoir My Lord, What A Morning (New York,
1956), she had added ambassadorial status to
her credentials when she was delegated by
President Eisenhower to the United Nations
General Assembly for the 1957 and 1958
sessions.
Subsequently,Anderson received many
further honours, including honorary degrees
from the Universities of Princeton and New
York and medallions from Finland, Japan,
Sweden and elsewhere. A guest artist at
President John F Kennedy's inaugural ball at
the White House in 1961, two years later she
was awarded the American Freedom Medal by
his successor Lyndon B Johnson. Her career
continued until her farewell concert, at
Carnegie Hall, on Easter Sunday, 18 April 1965.
In 1975, in honour of her (nominal) 75th
birthday, the US Congress struck a special gold
medal.
Marian Anderson died in Portland, Oregon,
on 8 April 1993.
Peter Dempsey, 2004
Heav'n Heav'n (arr. H.T. Burleigh) (more info)
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Heav'n Heav'n (arr. H.T. Burleigh) - 02:53
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (arr. L. Brown) (more info)
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Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (arr. L. Brown) - 03:36
L'Enfant prodigue: Pourquoi m'as-tu quittee? (Air de Lia) (more info)
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L'Enfant prodigue: Pourquoi m'as-tu quittee? (Air de Lia) - 03:49
The Maid Of Orleans (Jeanne d'Arc): Adieu, forets (more info)
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The Maid Of Orleans (Jeanne d'Arc): Adieu, forets - 03:40
Samson et Dalila: Amour viens aider (O Love From Thy Power) (more info)
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Samson et Dalila: Amour viens aider (O Love From Thy Power) - 03:35
La favorita: O mio Fernando (more info)
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La favorita: O mio Fernando - 06:13
Ellen's Gesang III (Ave Maria!), Op. 56, No. 6, D. 830, "Hymne an die Jungfrau" (more info)
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Ellen's Gesang III (Ave Maria!), Op. 56, No. 6, D. 830, "Hymne an die Jungfrau" - 04:48
Die Forelle, D. 550 (more info)
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Die Forelle, D. 550 - 01:52
Myrthen, Op. 25: III. Der Nussbaum (more info)
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Myrthen, Op. 25: III. Der Nussbaum - 03:13
I Can't Stay Away (arr. R. Hayes) (more info)
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I Can't Stay Away (arr. R. Hayes) - 02:21
Were You There (arr. H.T. Burleigh) (more info)
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Were You There (arr. H.T. Burleigh) - 03:24
Dere's No Hidin' Place (arr. L. Brown) (more info)
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Dere's No Hidin' Place (arr. L. Brown) - 00:49
Ev'ry Time I Feel De Spirit (arr. L. Brown) (more info)
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Ev'ry Time I Feel De Spirit (arr. L. Brown) - 01:36
Oh! What A Beautiful City (arr. E. Boatner) (more info)
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Oh! What A Beautiful City (arr. E. Boatner) - 02:10
Elegie (more info)
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Elegie - 03:15
In The Silence Of The Secret Night, Op. 4, No. 3 (more info)
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In The Silence Of The Secret Night, Op. 4, No. 3 - 02:33
Hold On! (arr. H. Johnson) (more info)
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Hold On! (arr. H. Johnson) - 02:21
Poor Me (arr. R.N. Dett) (more info)
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Poor Me (arr. R.N. Dett) - 03:56
On Ma Journey (arr. E. Boatner) (more info)
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On Ma Journey (arr. E. Boatner) - 01:48
De Gospel Train (arr. H.T. Burleigh) (more info)
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De Gospel Train (arr. H.T. Burleigh) - 01:36