Harry T. Burleigh was an American singer and composer who lived from 1866 to 1949. He learned spirituals from his grandfather, who had been enslaved. As a student in New York, he sang them for the composer Antonín Dvořák. Later he arranged them for solo voice and piano, and singers carried them into concert halls around the world. The best first piece for a child is his arrangement of “Deep River.”
Quick facts
- Born: 1866, in Erie, Pennsylvania
- Died: 1949, in Stamford, Connecticut
- Era: Romantic and early Modern
- Sang: baritone, a middle-range man’s voice
- Known for: concert arrangements of spirituals, and more than 200 songs
The life in short
Burleigh’s grandfather, Hamilton Waters, had bought his own freedom from slavery. He was nearly blind. He worked as the town crier and lamplighter in Erie, and young Harry walked the streets with him. As they walked, his grandfather sang the old plantation songs.
Harry had a fine voice and little money. His mother worked as a maid in a house where famous musicians performed. One story tells of Harry standing outside in the snow to hear a concert through the window.
At 25, he won a scholarship to the National Conservatory of Music in New York. He worked as a janitor and a copyist to pay his way.
That same year, Antonín Dvořák arrived from Bohemia to lead the school. He heard Burleigh singing spirituals in the hallway and asked for more. Burleigh spent many evenings at Dvořák’s home, singing to him.
Dvořák told American composers that these melodies were the foundation for a music of their own. His “New World” Symphony, written in New York, has tunes shaped by what he heard.
In 1894, Burleigh applied to be the baritone soloist at St. George’s Church, a wealthy white church in New York. He was chosen over 59 other singers. He kept the post for 52 years.
He also worked as a music editor for a publisher, and he composed. In 1916, he published “Deep River” for solo voice and piano. Famous singers put it on their programs, and more arrangements followed.
Why his arrangements mattered
Spirituals were sung by groups, without written music. Choirs such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers had toured with them since the 1870s.
Burleigh did something new. He set them as art songs, for one trained singer with a pianist, in the same form as songs by Schubert. That put them on the recital stage beside the classics. Great singers such as Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson sang his versions.
What the music sounds like
Burleigh kept each spiritual’s tune plain and clear. Under it, he wrote piano parts with rich, shifting harmony, in the style of the late 1800s. The piano supports the voice and does not crowd it.
His own songs are tuneful and warm. He wrote them for the parlors and concert halls of his day.
Pieces to play first
“Deep River.” A slow, wide tune. Listen for how low the first notes sit and how the voice climbs at “I want to cross over.”
“Go Down, Moses.” A stern, strong tune. The words tell the Bible story of Moses and the escape from Egypt, which enslaved people heard as their own story.
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” A gentle spiritual with a tune that uses only five different notes.
“My Lord, What a Morning.” A slow, calm tune.
Things to do together
Sing one. Learn “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” It is short, and children pick it up fast.
Choir or solo? Play “Deep River” sung by a choir and then by one singer with piano. Ask how the feeling changes.
Find the tune in a symphony. Play the slow movement of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Ask whether its tune sounds like a spiritual. Dvořák wrote that tune himself, after hearing Burleigh sing.
Walk and sing. Burleigh learned his songs on walks with his grandfather. Sing on your next walk.
Print and play
Fill in a composer study notebook page for Harry T. Burleigh. Read about more composers in Black composers for kids and American composers for kids. For the composer he sang to, read Dvořák for kids.
For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.