The R. Nathaniel Dett Song Research Project is ongoing initiative by the Canadian Art Song Project. It’s a multi-stage project that looks to identify, edit, and publish all of the solo vocal works of R. Nathaniel Dett.
His choral works are his best known. While his name might be known to classical music aficionados, particularly in North America, and he also left a significant body of art songs, and the lack of published works in contemporary catalogues has hampered efforts to make his music more accessible. Many works exist only in out-of-print or even manuscript form.
A recent update from CASP indicated that more than 30 out-of-print or unpublished works for solo voice and piano have been identified so far, including his original compositions as well as arrangements of spirituals and folk songs. The goal is to workshop the body of works with CASP’s artistic partners across North America to prepare them for performance editions, and ultimately, to create contemporary published pieces that can be accessed by teachers, singers, and scholars anywhere in the world.
The process includes significant research and scholarship, as well as community engagement.
The initiative is part of CASP’s focus on honouring the history of Canadian art song, and diversifying its canon, as well as addressing historical inequities. It’s about creating a more complete understanding, and access to, our musical heritage.
Robert Nathaniel Dett became the first Black classical composer widely recognized in Canada and the United States. He’s become best known for his choral works. His catalogue includes a large body of art songs and solo vocal arrangements.
He was born in Drummondville, Ontario in 1882, and grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where he lived until the age of 11.
After his family moved to Niagara Falls in the United States, he studied at the Oliver Willis Halstead Conservatory of Music, followed by the Lockport Conservatory, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.
Along the way, he heard the music of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, who had incorporated uniquely American musical elements in his work, and was influenced by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who used American spiritual influences in his music.
Dett graduated and began teaching in Tennessee, largely writing choral and piano music for his students. He moved on to the Hampton Institute in Virginia, where he taught for almost two decades, and founded the Hampton Choral Union, Musical Arts Society, Hampton Institute Choir and its School of Music. The Choir became internationally recognized, and performed African-American spirituals as well as Dett’s own compositions.
He went to France to study with famed piano teacher Nadia Boulanger in 1929, and earned his Master’s degree in Rochester at the Eastman School of Music in 1932.
He worked as a pianist, organist, conductor, and educator as well as a composer. Dett’s music was performed at Boston Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, and other prominent venues.
Dett’s music takes Canadian and American musical traditions into his compositional mix, including African-American folk songs and spirituals, as well as the European classical music styles of the 19th century Romantic era, particularly earlier in his career.
In his day, Dett’s work was sometimes criticized for being too classically oriented to be authentically American. His later works were noted for their more contemporary elements.
We’ll look forward to hearing more of his art songs in the coming years.
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