Dvorak's Prophecy: And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music by Horowitz, Joseph

In 1893 the composer Antonín Dvorák prophesied a "great and noble school" of American classical music based on the "negro melodies" he had excitedly discovered since arriving in the United States a year before. But while Black music would foster popular genres known the world over, it never gained a foothold in the concert hall. Black composers found few opportunities to have their works performed, and white composers mainly rejected Dvorák's lead.Joseph Horowitz ranges throughout American cultural history, from Frederick Douglass and Huckleberry Finn to George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and the work of Ralph Ellison, searching for explanations. Challenging the standard narrative for American classical music fashioned by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, he looks back to literary figures--Emerson, Melville, and Twain--to ponder how American music can connect with a "usable past." The result is a new paradigm that makes room for Black composers, including Harry Burleigh, Nathaniel Det