Roland Hayes

Robert Sims, Christopher A. Brooks

Description

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Performing in a country rife with racism and segregation, the tenor Roland Hayes was the first African American man to reach international fame as a concert performer and one of the few artists who could sell out Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, and Covent Garden. His trailblazing career carved the way for a host of African American artists, including Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson. Performing the African American spirituals he was raised on, Hayes's voice was marked with a unique sonority which easily navigated French, German, and Italian art songs. A multiculturalist both on and off the stage, he counted among his friends George Washington Carver, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ezra Pound, Pearl Buck, Dwight Eisenhower, and Langston Hughes. This engaging biography spans the history of Hayes's life and career and the legacy he left behind as a musician and a champion of African American rights. It is an authentic, panoramic portrait of a man who was as complex as the music he performed.

Foreword
Introduction: "I'll Make Me a Man"
Prologue
1. A New Jerusalem (1887-1911)
2. Roland's World in Boston (1911-1920)
3. Roland Rules Britannia (1920-1921)
4. "Le Rage de Paris" (1921-1922)
5. You're Tired, Chile (1923)
6. The Hayes Conquest (1923-1924)
7. Roland and the Countess (1924-1926)
8. The Conquest Slows (1926-1930)
9. Hard Trials, Great Tribulations (1930-1935)
10. Return to Europe (1936-1942)
11. Rome, Georgia—1942
12. "You can tell the World about This!" (1942-1950)
13. Struggles in Remaining Relevant (1950-1959)
14. I Wanna Go Home (1960-1977)
Epilogue: The Hayes Legacy (1977- )
Afterword
Roland Hayes: Repertoire
Bibliography
Notes
Index

Sujets

• 20th Century
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• MUSIC
• Biography
• Multiple signal classification
• History of the Americas
• African American
• United States
• Opera

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 décembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253015396
• Langue: English

Extrait

Roland Hayes

Roland Hayes
The Legacy of an American Tenor
Christopher A. Brooks and Robert Sims
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
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2015 by Christopher A. Brooks
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brooks, Christopher Antonio, [date].
Roland Hayes : the legacy of an American tenor / Christopher A. Brooks and Robert Sims.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01536-5 (cloth : alkaline paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01539-6 (ebook) 1. Hayes, Roland, 1887-1977. 2. Tenors (Singers) - United States - Biography. I. Sims, Robert (Baritone), author. II. Title.
ML420.H25B76 2015
782.42168092 - dc23
[B]
2014021653
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
This work is dedicated to all of those who were influenced by the musical legacy of Roland Hayes, including Benjamin Matthews, William Warfield, and W. Hazaiah Williams .
Contents
Foreword by George Shirley
Foreword by Simon Estes
Introduction: I ll Make Me a Man
Prologue
1 A New Jerusalem (1887-1911)
2 Roland s World in Boston (1911-1920)
3 Roland Rules Britannia (1920-1921)
4 Le Rage de Paris (1921-1922)
5 You re Tired, Chile (1923)
6 The Hayes Conquest (1923-1924)
7 Roland and the Countess (1924-1926)
8 The Conquest Slows (1926-1930)
9 Hard Trials, Great Tribulations (1930-1935)
10 Return to Europe (1936-1942)
11 Rome, Georgia (1942)
12 I Can Tell the World! (1942-1950)
13 Struggles in Remaining Relevant (1950-1959)
14 I Wanna Go Home (1960-1977)
Epilogue: The Hayes Legacy
Acknowledgments
Roland Hayes: Repertoire
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
As a youth in Indianapolis, my heroes were a quartet of African Americans, only three of whom were musical: the great concert tenor Roland Hayes; the stunning contralto Marian Anderson; the robust basso Paul Robeson; and the unbeatable Brown Bomber, Joe Louis.
I placed Roland Hayes as the point man in this corps of luminaries. Although slight of physical stature when compared to Robeson and Louis - and, possibly, to Anderson - he was in every other aspect of his life and career a giant. His voice was delicate, but his artistic use of it placed him at the pinnacle of accomplishment, ensuring his place in the international annals of musical attainment.
When I was eight years old, my family moved to Detroit and held membership in the Ebenezer AME Church. In 1942, the church presented the legendary tenor in recital.
After being spellbound by Hayes s singing, along with his charismatic and dignified presence, I tasted a future that would one day enlist me in the service of Orpheus. Following the recital, my parents introduced their wide-eyed little boy to this full-maned Aframerican paragon. This encounter was the first of precious few to follow over the course of time. My prepubescent singing efforts in the congregation after hearing him earned me the sobriquet The Young Roland Hayes.
Twenty years later, in 1962, I was among the near-capacity audience at Carnegie Hall that attended Roland Hayes s seventy-fifth birthday celebration, which marked his extraordinary career. Time again stood still as his performance rekindled memories of two decades past when I had sat in my church pew, mesmerized by the power of his incomparable artistry.
In 1964, I performed Rodolfo in Puccini s La boh me in Boston with the Metropolitan Opera Spring Tour. Following the first act, an usher handed me a business card with a handwritten message, Bravo!, on the back. Imprinted on the front was the name Roland W. Hayes. When I caught my breath, I uttered a prayer of thanks that my high C in the first act aria Che gelida manina had spun forth without incident.
A decade later, I was approached by WQXR-FM in New York about hosting a new series of broadcasts devoted to the careers of African Americans in classical music. I was to create the format and select performing artists and composers for live interviews. I was also to choose musical excerpts I felt best represented their work. My first guests were to be Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson. (Joe Louis unfortunately did not fit the format.)
To my great disappointment, ill health made an interview with Mr. Robeson impossible. Miss Anderson agreed and was interviewed at the WQXR-FM studios in Manhattan. Mr. Hayes, who was eighty-seven at that time, agreed to meet with me at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. In anticipation of this opportunity, I packed my tape recorder and set forth on a journey I knew would provide a recorded moment unequaled in the history of sound capture.
I arrived at the elegant Hayes home and was greeted by Mrs. Hayes, who showed me to their beautiful living room. While I waited, I summoned visions of Mr. Hayes rehearsing at his grand piano with some of the accompanists with whom he had collaborated - Lawrence Brown, Percival Parham, William Lawrence, and Reginald Boardman, among others. My reveries halted when the tenor himself stepped into the room.
Mr. Hayes was immaculately dressed. He admitted to having experienced a difficult winter, but when he smiled - a smile I shall never forget - his drawn visage radiated an astonishing glow of youth.
As I explained my mission to the elder musical statesman, I swallowed hard at his request that our time together not be electronically recorded, for I so wanted to share this incredible experience with my listening audience. I could well imagine him leery of interviews at this point in his long life and that the final product of such give and take may not always have accurately represented his views. He may also have wished just to speak more freely and candidly with me without having to monitor his comments. Whatever his reasons were, I respected his wishes. To do otherwise was not an option.
In any case, the hour that followed some forty years ago remains emblazoned on my psyche. We spoke of his life and career, much with which I was already familiar. However, reading it from a book could never match hearing it from the source. When our time together drew to its close, I parted company - as it turned out, for the last time - with one of the most spiritual human beings I have ever known. I left his presence feeling blessed beyond description and beyond measure.
This frail man, who possessed such a powerful soul, had lifted me, once again, beyond the mundane into the metaphysical realm where God s angels soar and sing. And on this occasion, he accomplished this miracle without singing a note! Although I did not record my hour with Roland Hayes for posterity, the words and presence of this spiritual giant remain inscribed in my heart forever. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Drs. Christopher Brooks and Robert Sims for bringing Roland Hayes to the world in this exhaustive appraisal of, and tribute to, his momentous life and ineradicable legacy.
George Shirley
Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University
Emeritus Professor of Voice
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
Foreword
Although I did not have the honor of seeing Roland Hayes onstage, I, like most African American artists of my generation, was influenced by his presence and stature. In some of his concert reviews that I read when I was a young man, he was always described as a consummate and musical artist. This feat was all the more remarkable because Roland Hayes was just one generation removed from legal enslavement in this country. During the course of his long career and life, he understood the challenges facing African American musicians, especially the plight of African American male performers.
In February 2007 I was in Chicago performing with Robert Sims, and at a reception afterward I casually mentioned to him and Christopher Brooks that it was a shame that no one had written a comprehensive biography of the late great tenor. Totally unbeknownst to me, not only did these two scholars embark on the work, but the result, Roland Hayes: The Legacy of an American Tenor , will no doubt be the definitive work on his life and career and will capture its readers. Brooks and Sims s research has taken them throughout this country and Europe to uncover this complex artist who many of us knew by reputation but will really come to understand better as a result of this work.
Their interviews with relatives and other great African American artists who were directly and indirectly influenced by this hero of the stage have been very revealing. I heartily congratulate Christopher Brooks and Robert Sims on the publication of The Legacy of an American Tenor . Their achievement of reviving this important musical icon for a new generation will go far and earn for Roland Hayes the attention