Marian anderson biographies books
Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey: The First Comprehensive Biography
August 29, 2019
The summer is winding down. The kids go back to school tomorrow and after a three day Labor Day weekend the academic year will be in full swing. During the month of August, I participated in my own form of back to school reading, studying the 1960s and civil rights. Marian Anderson is a prominent American whose name pops up in my feed from time to time. Her name and career also made an appearance in the last book I read, a memoir by Coretta Scott King, who aspired to be a concert singer like Anderson, a prominent contralto opera singer of color. With Anderson being a performer who tested segregation lines, I felt inspired to read a biography of her, yet the offerings were few and far between. I settled for a book written by musicology professor Allan Keiler, hoping to be inspired by an opera singer whose career spanned decades.
Marian Anderson was born in April 1897 in South Philadelphia, the first of three daughters born to Joseph and Anna Anderson. Like many African Americans of the era, the Anderson struggled to find employment and cobbled together multiple jobs to make ends meet, eventually moving in with Joseph’s parents Benjamin and Isabella Anderson along with their daughter Mary. Joseph Anderson died young, and the widowed Anna became even more dependent on her in-laws as the three generations continued to live under one roof for many years. Educational opportunities were few for Marian and her sisters Alyse and Ethel. The sisters learned more in their church, especially in the choir, than they did in school. While integrated in a northern state, African American students were given fewer academic challenges than their Caucasian counterparts. Anderson would not complete high school until she was twenty four and already a concert singer. While determined to complete her education, the lack of economic or academic opportunities would plague Anderson for years.
It was apparent to members of Anderson’s church that she was gifted vocally from a young age. Through intervention from her minister, Anderson learned with a vocal coach and advanced to the top choir in her church. She began to make a name for herself on the black music circuit, specializing in spirituals other songs familiar to the black community. Anderson would give concerts in the south at traditional black colleges and churches, seeing first hand segregation that was the reality of life in the south. The author makes a point throughout that Anderson never wanted to ruffle the feathers of segregation and civil rights like her contemporaries Paul Robeson and Roland Hayes; she just wanted the same musical opportunities as white singers. When Anderson realized that she would never achieve great heights as a concert singer without knowledge of European music, she chose to study in Europe for a good part of the late 1920s and 1930s. There she studied under top teachers and learned German lieder and well as French, Italian, and Scandinavian operatic pieces, paving the way for her career in the United States.
Marian Anderson’s crowning moment occurred on April 9, 1939 when she gave an outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Although she gave between sixty and eighty concerts a season upon her return to the States, Washington, D.C. was never on her schedule as the city remained segregated. Paul Robeson petitioned to sing in the city, using his career to promote civil rights. Anderson would have desired to sing at the acoustically pleasing Constitution Hall, but the Daughters of the American Revolution closed the venue to people of color, with no exception. Through the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the NAACP, Anderson was permitted to sing at the Lincoln Memorial to an integrated audience. While it would be three years before she sang in the nation’s capital again, civil rights pundits believed that Anderson’s presence promoted the cause. Many children’s books have been presented about this concert, and I had hoped for a larger description of it, but this author was not as good interested in civil rights as he was in Anderson’s musical career.
Allan Keiler holds a PhD in musicology, and his description of Anderson’s career is from a technical standpoint. Although biography has always been my favorite genre as I learn about people through a historical lens, Marian Anderson’s life was presented in a manner that would be most interesting to someone with a musical background. Keiler spends paragraphs describing Anderson’s musical training and her metamorphosis from church singer to contralto adept in performing the European masters. He did note a little about the business side of performing as well as her struggle to marry her high school sweetheart Orpheus Fisher, who easily passed for white. These passages as well as the events leading to the Lincoln Memorial concert were of interest yet were few and far between as the author inundated readers with the technical side of music. As much as I enjoy music, I had been more interested in Marian Anderson from a historic lens.
Marian Anderson did inspire a singer named Coretta Scott, who entered the Boston Music Conservatory in the late 1940s. Sadly, I learned this from Coretta Scott King’s memoir, not from Anderson’s biography. While Anderson’s life sounds fascinating, Keiler did not present it in manner appealing to non academic people. At times the reading became so tedious that I had to finish this book at two-thirds done and skim the rest. Marian Anderson lead a remarkable life; she was a pioneer for civil rights in her chosen profession yet a reluctant voice for equality. I would have liked to know more about her from a historic standpoint, and will have to read a separate biography of her in order to give her due.
low 3 stars
Marian Anderson was born in April 1897 in South Philadelphia, the first of three daughters born to Joseph and Anna Anderson. Like many African Americans of the era, the Anderson struggled to find employment and cobbled together multiple jobs to make ends meet, eventually moving in with Joseph’s parents Benjamin and Isabella Anderson along with their daughter Mary. Joseph Anderson died young, and the widowed Anna became even more dependent on her in-laws as the three generations continued to live under one roof for many years. Educational opportunities were few for Marian and her sisters Alyse and Ethel. The sisters learned more in their church, especially in the choir, than they did in school. While integrated in a northern state, African American students were given fewer academic challenges than their Caucasian counterparts. Anderson would not complete high school until she was twenty four and already a concert singer. While determined to complete her education, the lack of economic or academic opportunities would plague Anderson for years.
It was apparent to members of Anderson’s church that she was gifted vocally from a young age. Through intervention from her minister, Anderson learned with a vocal coach and advanced to the top choir in her church. She began to make a name for herself on the black music circuit, specializing in spirituals other songs familiar to the black community. Anderson would give concerts in the south at traditional black colleges and churches, seeing first hand segregation that was the reality of life in the south. The author makes a point throughout that Anderson never wanted to ruffle the feathers of segregation and civil rights like her contemporaries Paul Robeson and Roland Hayes; she just wanted the same musical opportunities as white singers. When Anderson realized that she would never achieve great heights as a concert singer without knowledge of European music, she chose to study in Europe for a good part of the late 1920s and 1930s. There she studied under top teachers and learned German lieder and well as French, Italian, and Scandinavian operatic pieces, paving the way for her career in the United States.
Marian Anderson’s crowning moment occurred on April 9, 1939 when she gave an outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Although she gave between sixty and eighty concerts a season upon her return to the States, Washington, D.C. was never on her schedule as the city remained segregated. Paul Robeson petitioned to sing in the city, using his career to promote civil rights. Anderson would have desired to sing at the acoustically pleasing Constitution Hall, but the Daughters of the American Revolution closed the venue to people of color, with no exception. Through the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the NAACP, Anderson was permitted to sing at the Lincoln Memorial to an integrated audience. While it would be three years before she sang in the nation’s capital again, civil rights pundits believed that Anderson’s presence promoted the cause. Many children’s books have been presented about this concert, and I had hoped for a larger description of it, but this author was not as good interested in civil rights as he was in Anderson’s musical career.
Allan Keiler holds a PhD in musicology, and his description of Anderson’s career is from a technical standpoint. Although biography has always been my favorite genre as I learn about people through a historical lens, Marian Anderson’s life was presented in a manner that would be most interesting to someone with a musical background. Keiler spends paragraphs describing Anderson’s musical training and her metamorphosis from church singer to contralto adept in performing the European masters. He did note a little about the business side of performing as well as her struggle to marry her high school sweetheart Orpheus Fisher, who easily passed for white. These passages as well as the events leading to the Lincoln Memorial concert were of interest yet were few and far between as the author inundated readers with the technical side of music. As much as I enjoy music, I had been more interested in Marian Anderson from a historic lens.
Marian Anderson did inspire a singer named Coretta Scott, who entered the Boston Music Conservatory in the late 1940s. Sadly, I learned this from Coretta Scott King’s memoir, not from Anderson’s biography. While Anderson’s life sounds fascinating, Keiler did not present it in manner appealing to non academic people. At times the reading became so tedious that I had to finish this book at two-thirds done and skim the rest. Marian Anderson lead a remarkable life; she was a pioneer for civil rights in her chosen profession yet a reluctant voice for equality. I would have liked to know more about her from a historic standpoint, and will have to read a separate biography of her in order to give her due.
low 3 stars